Saturday, 02nd July 2014
AIADMK cadre burn posters of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa during a protest in the city on Friday | D SAMPATHKUMAR
CHENNAI: The entire political spectrum of Tamil Nadu on Friday spoke in one voice to rally behind Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, hitting out in sharp terms against the Sri Lankan government for the insensitive portrayal of the CM and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Lankan Defence Ministry website. The virulent response in the State quickly resulted in an ‘unqualified apology’ by the Lankan government.
The row erupted over the prominent display of an article on the website on Jayalalithaa’s letters to Modi on the Tamil Nadu fishermen issue by a Sri Lankan journalist flippantly portraying the raging matter.
It was, however, the pictorial representation accompanying the piece, which Jayalalithaa described as ‘highly objectionable’, that sparked the row.
By the time Jayalalithaa wrote a strongly worded letter to Modi, almost every party in Tamil Nadu, including Jayalalithaa’s arch rival DMK, rallied firmly behind her.
The Ministry of External Affairs said the Centre took up the matter with Sri Lanka with “alacrity” leading to its removal from the Lankan Defence Ministry website.
“The visual rendering on the homepage of the official website just above the link is highly objectionable as it depicted both the Prime Minister of India and the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu in a very trivialised, derogatory and disrespectful manner,” read Jayalalithaa’s letter to Modi.
“While as a public political figure in a vibrant democracy with full freedom of press, I have faced criticism and comment from many sources, this blatant attempt to ridicule and trivialise the untiring efforts made by a democratically elected leader to resolve an important livelihood issue of the fishermen of Tamil Nadu by hosting a highly objectionable article prominently on the official website of an important Ministry of a neighbouring country, is completely unacceptable,” said the Chief Minister.
From : http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/tamil_nadu/Lanka-Apologises-After-Affront-to-Jaya-Modi/2014/08/02/article2360040.ece
