Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister of State V. Narayanasamy on Sunday condemned the controversial remarks made by Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe that Indian fishermen would be shot at if they intruded into the island nation's waters and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to cancel his proposed visit to the island nation.
Mr. Narayanasamy said that the Sri Lankan Prime Minister’s statement had stoked a controversy.
The External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj should issue a strong statement condemning Mr. Wickramasinghe and cut short her visit and return to India.
"When UPA was in power we facilitated the release of Sri Lankan fishermen straying into India’s territorial waters and also ensured that Indian fishermen and their boats were released from Lankan prisons," he said.
But the present remarks by the Sri Lankan Prime Minister posed a threat and also hurt the feelings of fishermen not only in Tamil Nadu but across the country.
He said that arrest of fishermen from Tamil Nadu and Karaikal by the Sri Lankan navy continued unabated. This occureed even after a new government led by Maithripala Sirisena had been installed in the county.
