New Delhi: The LTTE is "a terrorist organization" and its chief Vellupillai Prabhakaran "a proclaimed offender", Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said yesterday. 

He was clarifying the Congress position two days after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi's contentious remark about the LTTE Chief being a "friend".

"Tamil Nadu Chief Minister has clarified his position and the Congress party spokesman Kapil Sibal has explained (the) Congress position," the prime minister told a TV channel.

DMK Chief in a television interview described Prabhakaran as a "good friend" but Mr. Karunanidhi did a U-turn on Monday when he said the LTTE was indeed a terrorist outfit and that his remarks were taken out of context.

Mr. Sibal rejected Mr. Karunanidhi's comments as his "personal opinion" and said the Congress views Prabhakaran as a terrorist and the LTTE as an extremist outfit.

The DMK is a key ally of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA).

Meanwhile Priyanka Gandhi Vadra yesterday sought to keep away from the row over Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi’s remarks about LTTE chief V Prabhakaran, maintaining it was “both a personal and political matter” for her. 

In an interview with The Indian Express, Priyanka said she did not share brother Rahul Gandhi’s views that the family was still to get justice for the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. “Rahul and I perhaps react to this particular thing slightly differently. I know Rahul. He has no anger in his heart, no hatred in his heart. He was only referring to the fact that the justice system takes a long time,” she said.

Priyanka, who met Nalini (convicted in her father’s assassination case) in jail last year, said she was not seeking justice from any individual. “I actually think that justice is something that I cannot demand from other human beings. Justice is something that the universe will give me. You see this fact that this lady (Nalini) has suffered as much as, if not more than, I have suffered. In a sense, that is justice. Nobody has made her suffer. Circumstances have created that suffering.”

(Times of India)

Courtesy: dailymirror.lk