The Indian government feels anguish and pain over the war crimes committed by Sri Lanka's military against Tamil civilians, the External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj was quoted by The Hindu as saying on Friday. 

“The anguish with which the members have raised the issue [of crimes committed during the war of 2009], the government associates itself with the same pain,” Ms Swaraj was quoted by the paper as saying. 

“Our aim is to protect the interests of Tamils in Sri Lanka. You can achieve this through two means: by either doing it forcefully or through persuasion with the friendly country."

Her comments came in a response to questions posed by Mr Raja of the Communist Party of India and followed a resolution was adopted this week at the UN Human Rights Council. The resolution called on Sri Lanka to fully implement the measures set out in the 2015 resolution, including the establishment of a hybrid judicial mechanism to investigate war crimes. 

“The war in Sri Lanka was over in 2009, but the government of Sri Lanka has not done anything to punish those accused of war crimes against unarmed Tamils," Mr Raja said, adding, "there have been similar violence in other parts of the world, but reconciliation and accountability have been practised following the war. But in the case of Sri Lanka, the government has shown total disrespect to international concerns."

Ms Swaraj said that India would go for a 'consensus' based approach however. 

"As Sri Lanka’s closest neighbour, India cannot remain untouched by the developments in that country. We hope that with the sagacity and political will of its leadership and the support of its people, Sri Lanka will achieve genuine reconciliation and development,” she reportedly added in response. 

Mr Raja however urged the Indian government not to avoid the issue of accountability. 

“India helped Sri Lanka fight the Tamil Tigers. Is there a guilt conscience that India is trying to hide by not exposing Sri Lanka’s inaction," he added.