NEW DELHI, May 8: India’s ruling Congress Party Genersal Secretary Rahul Gandhi said today that Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka need to be protected. Any solution to the island nation’s ethnic problem will have to come through the democratic way, he told an election rally in Tamil Nadu.

Speaking in Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram’s Lok Sabha constituency Sivaganga, Gandhi said: "The Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka have not harmed anybody, and they need to be protected. If there has to be a solution to the Sri Lankan problem then it has to come through democratic means."

He said the Congress Party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government did whatever that had to be done for the Sri Lankan Tamils, like sending union ministers, senior officials, and material assistance for those displaced from their homes in the northern province. "The Indian government will do whatever is needed to protect the Tamil civilians," Gandhi declared.