Hon. Ramalingam Chandrasekar - Minister of Fisheries, Aquatic and Ocean Resources

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, I thank Hon. Radhakrishnan for moving this Adjournment Motion. We offer our thanks to the hill country people, who laboured for this country. Historically, they suffered hardships for 200 years—seven generations shed blood and sweat.

¶ 02 History records they were brought by boat from India, landed at Talaimannar, and many perished on the way; the sea would speak of the ‘Bhagyalakshmi’ ship tragedy if it had a voice.

¶ 03 Though we claim independence, these people did not fully enjoy it. In 1948, their citizenship was stripped, rendering their children stateless. The Nanu Oya Railway Station would have heard the cries of our parents and grandparents. That is the painful history of the hill country.

¶ 04 Under the Sirima–Shastri Agreement, some were designated ‘stateless’; I am from that lineage—my parents too. We had neither India nor Sri Lanka; we were stateless. In 2007–2009, Hon. Bimal Rathnayake (now Leader of the House) and I visited Indian refugee camps; people pleaded only for Sri Lankan citizenship to live here. We formed a Select Committee in Parliament, which I chaired, and ended the term ‘stateless’ in this country for those people.

¶ 05 Our party has never harmed a hill country person, Tamil or otherwise, on ethnic grounds in 1971 or 1989 or ever.

¶ 06 To Hon. Thondaman: whatever you say today, our colleague, Hon. Kittinan Selvarajah of Badulla still lives in a line room; Hon. Kalaichelvi too; my parental home remains a line room. We know cold, pain, and hunger. We are duty-bound to bring a renaissance, usher modern industry to the hills, and uplift education, health, housing, water, and roads, with special care. Thank you.