India's External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said on Friday that he regretted the Indian Prime Minister was not the first head of state to visit the Northern province since 1948, after the British Premier, David Cameron made a historic visit to Jaffna.
Speaking to reporters, Khurshid said:
“Is it not sad? Who is to blame? I wanted my PM to go there first. I was the second Indian foreign minister to go there [after the war]. But who do I blame for it? I am only disappointed that I could not take the Prime Minister to an area where we are building 50,000 houses. We can’t show him this and the roads and projects that we are building [in Jaffna],”
He added,
“Our stand has been exactly that there has to be truth and reconciliation must go on. If you want to move and build a society, then you need to address their [Tamils’] concerns,”“These are very serious concerns and they will have to address them within Sri Lanka not in New Delhi or Washington.”
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