Jayalalithaa cancels Asian Athletics Championships over Lanka team’s participation

      Tamil Nadu will not host the Asian Athletics Games scheduled for July, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa said, because the Centre has not asked Sri Lanka to skip the event.

Jayalalithaa said her government had written to the Asian Athletics Association in Singapore seeking that Lankan team be desisted from participation considering the “sentiments” of the people in Tamil Nadu, as the Lankan government was “repeatedly acting against the ethnic minorities”.

The sporting body had been requested to intimate to the Lankan government in the appropriate way the state government decision, Jayalalithaa said.

“It had been requested that they update us on the follow-up action with copies of the letter sent to Secretaries of Union External Affairs and Sports Ministries. But there has been no information from the Association so far”.

“Since there has been no favourable response from the Asian Athletics Association, my government will at no cost accept holding the event, in which Sri Lanka is also participating, in Tamil Nadu. Tamils also will never accept it,” she said in a statement.

The upcoming sporting event will not be conducted by Tamil Nadu government in any part of the state and the Association will be asked to hold it elsewhere, she said.

“Sri Lanka’s participation would hurt people’s sentiments in Tamil Nadu,” she said, adding that the Union government has ignored a request by her to  ban Sri Lanka from the Games.

The decision comes a day after Jayalalithaa slammed the Lankan government over the “inhuman act” of alleged cold blooded killing of 12-year-old Balachandran by the Lankan army, which has also evoked a strong condemnation from various political parties in Tamil Nadu including DMK.

Jayalalitha also asked the federation to organise the game in some other venue. Last year in September, Jayalalithaa ordered the return of two  football teams from the island nation that were to play friendly matches in Chennai.

Jayalalithaa also issued orders not to hold any football matches involving Sri Lankan players in the state. She also ordered the suspension of the stadium officer at the Nehru Stadium here for allowing the neighbouring island football team. The Tamil Nadu government had allocated Rs 40 crore for the event and work was on in full swing to host the event.

She cited the alleged war crimes by Sri Lankan defence forces as they defeated  the  rebel LTTE in 2009, ending the island’s lengthy civil war.

තමිල්නාඩුවේදී පැවැත්වීමට නියමිතව තිබු ආසියානු මලල ක්‍රීඩා උළෙල අවලංගු කෙරේ…..

ලබන අගෝස්තු මාසයේ තමිල්නාඩුවේදී පැවැත්වීමට නියමිතව තිබු ආසියානු මලල ක්‍රීඩා උළෙල අවලංගු කරන බව තමිල්නාඩු මහා ඇමතිනි ජයලලිතා මෙනවිය විසින් පවසා ඇත. එයට හේතුව ලෙස දැක්වෙන්නේ ශ්‍රී ලංකා ක්‍රීඩකයන් සහභාගිවන බැවින් බවද දන්ව ඇත.
රටවල් 44 ක සහාභාගී වීමට නියමිතව තිබු අතර ඒ සදහා රුපියල් කෝටි 44 ක මුදලක් වෙන්කර තිබු නමුත් තමිල්නාඩු ප්‍රාන්තයේ පැවැත්විය නොහැකි බව දන්වා ඇත. එල්ටීටීඊ නායක වේලුපිල්ලේ ප්‍රභාකරන්ගේ බාල පුතා වන බාලචන්ද්‍රන් ඝාතනය සම්බන්ද ඡයරුප පල කිරීමත් සමග ඝාතනය සම්බන්ධයෙන් විරෝධය පළකිරීමක් ලෙස මෙම ක්‍රීඩා උළෙල අවලංගු කල බව නිවේදනයක් නිකුත් කරමින් මහා ඇමතිනි ජයලලිතා මෙනවිය වැඩිදුරටත් දැන්ව ඇත.