Meanwhile, the Congress party, which had been surprisingly quiet on the issue, came up with the expectedcriticism of the Indian government for not taking any effective initiative with Sri Lanka for extraditingPrabhakaran to India, "responsible for late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's assassination".
"This lack of effort on the part of the Government of India is particularly lamentable anddisappointing because there is an extradition treaty between India and Sri Lanka and both Governments arecommitted to fight terrorism in all forms," party spokesperson S Jaipal Reddy said.
Terming the objective of Prabhakaran's much-hyped press conference as an attempt to "legitimisehis political status in world public opinion and to get out of his organisation being labelled as a terroristorganisation," the Congress spokesperson said, "that this attempt cannot obfuscate the fact that theLTTE is a violent terrorist organisation and Prabhakaran is the architect of its violent policies",adding the LTTE is designated a terrorist organisation by various Governments and banned in India.
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Asked why the Congress government headed by P V Narasimha Rao had not taken any steps to extraditePrabhakaran, Reddy claimed, "India and Sri Lanka had different opinions on the issue when the Extraditiontreaty between the two countries was signed in 1987. Today, Prabhakaran is within the reach of Sri Lankangovernment. Therefore, government of India should request Sri Lanka to extradite Prabhakaran".
