Foreign
Minister Sushma Swaraj
said a top envoy from Colombo will be summoned today as Delhi formally lodges a
protest over an article and uncomplimentary illustration of Tamil Nadu Chief
Minister J Jayalalithaa
and Prime Minister Narendra Modi published on a Sri Lankan government website.
"India strongly condemns this. We will definitely call their high commissioner and discuss this issue," Ms Swaraj told Parliament today, where the controversy impelled heated debate.
In another consequence of the row, a team of under-15 cricketers who had arrived in Chennai last night to play in a tournament that starts today were made to return this morning, with local police citing security concerns.
On Friday, Sri Lanka extended an "unqualified apology" to the PM over the article that was entitled: "How meaningful are Jayalalithaa's love letters to Narendra Modi?".
The article and illustration implied that the PM was being heavily controlled by Ms Jayalalithaa, who has been demanding his intervention to stop Sri Lanka from arresting fishermen from her state on charges that they were caught poaching in Sri Lanka's waters.
Like other politicians from Tamil Nadu, Ms Jayalaltihaa also wants Delhi to demand an international probe into allegations that Sri Lankan troops, largely Sinhalese, killed at least 40,000 ethnic Tamil civilians in the final stages of the civil war in 2009.
"India strongly condemns this. We will definitely call their high commissioner and discuss this issue," Ms Swaraj told Parliament today, where the controversy impelled heated debate.
In another consequence of the row, a team of under-15 cricketers who had arrived in Chennai last night to play in a tournament that starts today were made to return this morning, with local police citing security concerns.
On Friday, Sri Lanka extended an "unqualified apology" to the PM over the article that was entitled: "How meaningful are Jayalalithaa's love letters to Narendra Modi?".
The article and illustration implied that the PM was being heavily controlled by Ms Jayalalithaa, who has been demanding his intervention to stop Sri Lanka from arresting fishermen from her state on charges that they were caught poaching in Sri Lanka's waters.
Like other politicians from Tamil Nadu, Ms Jayalaltihaa also wants Delhi to demand an international probe into allegations that Sri Lankan troops, largely Sinhalese, killed at least 40,000 ethnic Tamil civilians in the final stages of the civil war in 2009.
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