Fishers oppose Rajinikanth's participation in Sri Lankan event

RAMESWARAM: Making a queer demand, a section of the people in the pilgrim-island of Rameswaram including some fishermen on Friday have opposed South superstar Rajinikanth participating in a function in Vavuniya in northern Sri Lanka, scheduled for April 9 and April 10, to formally hand over houses constructed for the internally displaced Tamils in that country. S. Ganeshamurthy, secretary of the Reghunathapuram Tamil Sangam here, and M Sivaprakasam, a fisherman, said that a firm by name ‘Lykka’ have on behalf of the ‘Gnanam Trust’ constructed 150 houses to be given to families of displaced Tamils in Vavuniya, for which actor Rajinikanth has been invited to do the formal handing over.

However, opposing this move, they said Rajinikanth was not the appropriate person to preside over such a function, as he had not been voicing the sufferings of the Sri Lankan Tamils in recent decades. The actor was hardly in active politics, they underscored. Now for the Sri Lankan government to suddenly invite Rajinikanth for the function “is a clever ploy being adopted by the Island regime to further alienate the suffering Tamils there,” and hence the actor should not go for the function, they urged.  

Rajinikanth should avoid the function, particularly at a time when the Tamils there were, even eight years after the ‘final Eelam war’, still struggling to get their grievances redressed by the Sri Lankan government, they said. It would be more appropriate for the someone on behalf of the Indian Government, say the Prime Minister or any other Central minister, to participate in that function to hand over the newly built houses to the Tamils in northern Sri Lanka as part of the relief and rehabilitation measures, they added.