Chennai:
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to impress upon Sri Lanka in the strongest possible manner to stop attacks on fishermen allegedly by Lankan navy.
She slammed "meek and pusillanimous" response of the Centre has emboldened the Lankan navy to mount more unprovoked attacks.
She referred to two separate incidents in which 37 fishermen from Tamil Nadu were arrested by Lankan navy.
She also observed that this attitude towards Tamil fishermen was in stark contrast to the Centre's response to the recent incident of firing on Gujarat fishermen.
"The government of India, it is learnt, rightly lost no time in conveying its stern response in the form of a summons to the Deputy High Commissioner of Pakistan to communicate its protest. However, the continued insensitive and ham-handed treatment of the Tamil Nadu fishermen issue in the Palk Bay is fast alienating the fishermen community in Tamil Nadu who justifiably feel that they have been let down by their own national government," she said.
Alleging that abduction and detention for long periods in prison have multiplied as the Centre took little or no action to convey its strong protest, Jayalalithaa claimed none of her letters had evoked a substantive response from the Prime Minister.
She also said that during External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid's visit to Colombo recently had "little meaningful" dialogue on this issue.