Safety and proper living conditions are the most important issues for the Tamil community in Sri Lanka at the moment, even if it means a change of stand for parties in Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi said in the assembly Wednesday.
He also said improving the condition of Sri Lankan Tamils and reaching relief to them could now happen only through the government there.
Karunanidhi said political parties should change their stand for the welfare of the people. He called upon parties to decide what was more important under the circumstances - securing the life and decent living conditions for Sri Lankan Tamils or bringing the Sri Lankan president to the International Court of Justice.
"(Late Tamil Nadu chief minister C.N.) Annadurai who initially demanded Dravida Nadu later dropped it and he was praised for it even by the then Congress leaders in this house," Karunanidhi said.
Annadurai was an ardent supporter of an independent Dravida Nadu - the notion of a sovereign Tamil state and was even arrested for it. But he later dropped the secessionist demand.
Karunanidhi said a day may come when there is a Sri Lankan government headed by a Tamilian and cited the example of Barack Obama becoming president in the US.
He said the 50-year-old Sri Lankan Tamil problem started with the demand for equal rights for Tamils there and also for the protection of the Tamil language.
"In the present situation, the struggle can be for securing equal rights and status for the Tamils and their language in Sri Lanka," he said.
The chief minister said the Indian and Taml Nadu governments were taking necessary action to provide relief material to Sri Lankan Tamils.
The war between the Sri Lankan military and the Tamil Tigers, which espoused the cause of ethnic Tamils in the island nation, ended this year with the decimation of the rebels, but it also left hundreds of thousands of Tamils displaced.