Colombo on Tuesday expressed “regret” after New Delhi lodged a protest over certain “derogatory” remarks by its Army Chief Sarath Fonseka against some Tamil Nadu politicians.

“India’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Alok Prasad took up the matterstrongly with Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa,” External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash told reporters here. “The Defence Secretary of Sri Lanka promised to look into the matter and conveyed regrets should any such comment have been made,” Prakash said.

In an interview to the state-run Sunday Leader, Fonseka had said that the Indian Government would never influence Sri Lanka to restore the ceasefire with the LTTE and it would not listen to the “political jokers” of Tamil Nadu whose “survival depends on the LTTE”. “If the LTTE is wiped out, those political jokers like (Tamil Nationalist Movement leader) P Nedumaran, Vaiko and whoever who is sympathising with the LTTE will most probably lose their income from the LTTE,” Fonseka was quoted as saying.

The comments had caused an uproar in Tamil Nadu, with political parties demanding that India press for an apology from the Army Chief. “Tamil leaders here criticise each other on various grounds,” Chief Minister M Karunanidhi said at a press conference here on Monday, adding, “However, someone from a foreign country criticising our leaders cannot be accepted. Such a statement, if made, is highly condemnable.” Both Vaiko and Nedumaran are opposed to Karunanidhi and the DMK, and Nedumaran had been involved in a war of words with the Chief Minister over the past few days.

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