“Your letter regretfully does not give any comfort for us”

(April 07, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) In your letter, you appear to pretend that you have not read my ‘Open Letter’ dated 29 March 2008 sent to you and many members of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils. I have dealt with the dispute with you substantially in that letter. In the event you did not read the letter, you may visit the Sri Lanka Guardian, Tamil Affairs and the Sri Lanka Watch websites for its ease of reference, R. Jayadevan, Leader of Tamil Democratic Congress, the London based Tamil Democratic Front said in an Open reply to MP Keith Vaz. Here we published full text of the reply.

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An Open Reply to Keith Vaz MP

Dear Mr Vaz

Thank you for your letter dated 1 April 2008 which I received only on 5 April.

I am compelled to go public with my reply in view of the insinuating and irresponsible comments in your letter.

First of all, would you confirm, what made you to claim that I am ‘Dr R Jayadevan’? I never claimed in any of my correspondence with your office that I am a ‘Dr’. I attribute this claim to your close working relationship with the LTTE front men. There is systematic and cynical campaign by the LTTE sewer media which uses the ‘Dr’ title liberally with some ulterior motives and I have rebutted this claim on several occasions. I am perturbed that with the busy work schedule mentioned in your letter (reproduced below) you had the time to join the LTTE gutter media to justify their bogus claim.

In your letter, you appear to pretend that you have not read my ‘Open Letter’ dated 29 March 2008 sent to you and many members of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils. I have dealt with the dispute with you substantially in that letter. In the event you did not read the letter, you may visit the Sri Lanka Guardian, Tamil Affairs and the Sri Lanka Watch websites for its ease of reference. Also you may obtain a copy from the fellow members of the APPG for Tamils.

Your letter regretfully does not give any comfort for us to engage further with your APPG for Tamils, because of its exclusive involvement with the UK proscribed LTTE and the APPGT’s determined stand to undermine the alternative and wider views of the Tamil community in this country.

Contrary to the comment in your letter, please note that I in fact arranged the meeting with your secretary to meet you personally by giving adequate notice to fit your diary. There was no reference to meet the Head of your Parliamentary Unit until we were ambushed at the Portcullis House. Further, please note that those who accompanied me for the meeting are not members of the Tamil Democratic Congress. They represent other groups and were part of the delegation that went to Sri Lanka in February 2008.

In your final paragraph, you state that the overwhelming Home Affairs Committee, NEC and constituency engagements are making you to pass some of your responsibilities to the Head of your parliamentary unit. What I cannot understand is, when you are overstretched with your routines mentioned, why should you undertake another pressing task of forming the APPG for Tamils and chair it in a haphazard manner. I have engaged with many parliamentarians-some of them even holding Ministerial positions. Despite their pressurising work schedules they always respect their engagements. Unfortunately, you are creating a bad precedent by giving flimsy excuses after thwarting our meeting in a determined manner. Your cynical excuses do not help you to take forward a just mission to address the issues affecting the Tamils in a responsible manner.

As a concerned Tamil, playing an important role within our community, I humbly appeal to your to resign from the APPG for Tamils as I am concerned that you are unable to fulfil the role that is expected from this group. Instead, your group has become the front of the LTTE and is playing a subservient role to deceive the collective wishes of the Tamil people. If you intend to continue with the APPGT, may I suggest that the group change its name to All Party Parliamentary Group for the ‘Tigers’ without misleadingly using the wider term ‘Tamils’.

Yours sincerely
R Jayadevan
Leader
Tamil Democratic Congress
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1 April 2008

MY REF:TAMILS/SH

Dr R Jeya Devan
Tamil Democratic Congress
45 Hale Drive
London

NW7 3EL

Dear Dr Devan

I am writing to you in regards to the meeting that you had with the Head of my Parliamentary Unit on 27 March 2008.

I am very disappointed to hear that you felt unable to attend this preparatory meeting ahead of a further meeting with myself to discuss the work of your group.

I can assure you that no attempt was made to avoid meeting with the Tamil Democratic Congress, as I’m sure you can understand as a Chairman of the Home Affairs Committee and as a busy constituency MP and NEC member I have a limited diary and it is sometimes necessary for my staff to meet with groups in advance.

With best wishes,

Yours sincerely
The Rt Hon Keith Vaz MP
- Sri Lanka Guardian