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Wednesday, 10 July 2013 01:20 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
India’s National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon concluded a two-day visit to Colombo last evening, having signed a trilateral maritime security deal with Sri Lanka and the Maldives and lobbied the Government and key political parties here in defence of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution and the Indo-Lanka Accord.
Menon’s visit is believed to be the first of at least two high power visits to Colombo by Indian dignitaries, who will continue to reiterate the importance of retaining the 13th Amendment in its original form.
Menon, who arrived in Colombo on Monday, met President Mahinda Rajapaksa for talks at President’s House last morning. During the meeting President Rajapaksa told the Indian official that devolving land and Police powers to the provinces was problematic, but most provisions of the amendment would be implemented, a Presidential spokesman said.
The President told Menon that it was the Government’s top priority to reach consensus on the 13th Amendment and urged India to encourage the Tamil National Alliance to participate in the PSC set up for the purpose.
The TNA and the UNP have refused to join the PSC, saying it lacked credibility and was refusing to take into account the many recommendations made by select committees and all party conferences that have consulted on the issue of devolution before.
Director of the Indian Prime Minister’s Office Manu Mahavar, High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka Y.K. Sinha and the Deputy High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka P. Kumaran accompanied the visiting Indian official, the Government Information Department said.
Ministers G.L. Peiris, Basil Rajapaksa and Douglas Devananda, Monitoring MP of the Ministry of External Affairs Sajin de Vass Gunawardena, Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga and the High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to India Prasad Kariyawasam also participated in the discussions.
Issuing a special communiqué on Menon’s visit, the Indian High Commission meanwhile said that the Indian National Security Advisor had conveyed New Delhi’s views on recent political developments in Sri Lanka to the Government and called for early political settlement and national reconciliation through the meaningful devolution of power.
Menon reiterated the need to abide by commitments made by the Government of Sri Lanka to India and the international community that a political settlement in Sri Lanka would go beyond the provisions of 13A.
The Government proposed to start tinkering with the powers of the provincial councils despite repeated commitments made to India by the President and other high officials that any political settlement with the Tamil people post war would go beyond the provisions of 13A and include its full implementation.
The visiting official also expressed hope that the northern provincial election would be held in a credible and free and fair manner.
Meeting with Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe at the Taj Samudra hotel at 10 a.m. yesterday, the Indian National Security Advisor had emphasised the need to safeguard the 13th Amendment and the Indo-Lanka Accord.
Wickremesinghe told the senior Indian official that the UNP as architects of the Indo-Lanka Accord would stand by the agreement and believed the 13th Amendment should be implemented in full. A party spokesman told Daily FT that anything more or less than the 13th Amendment was a matter that required broader consensus and that it was up to the Government to take those initiatives.
The UNP Leader had informed Menon that the Government’s intention by tinkering with the 13A was not aimed at advancing reconciliation but was part of a more chauvinistic agenda. The UNP’s draft constitution proposals were also handed over to the visiting Indian official, the spokesman said.
At a meeting at the same venue with a four-member delegation of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress led by Minister Rauff Hakeem thereafter, Menon emphasised that New Delhi would not permit Colombo to tamper with the Indo-Lanka Accord unilaterally by altering the provisions of 13A. The Indian official told the SLMC delegation that the 13th Amendment must not be viewed as a mechanism to benefit one community but all Sri Lankans. A SLMC Spokesman said Minister Hakeem had outlined the party’s concerns with regard to attempts to alter the 13th Amendment.
“Menon said that as far as India was concerned it was the Government’s view that the 13th Amendment must not be changed and should be implemented in full,” the spokesman said. He said the SLMC delegation told Menon that the party would announce whether it would contest the northern provincial elections with the Government or independently once the poll date is announced.
The Indo-Lanka Accord signed in July 1987 between President J.R. Jayewardene and Indian Premier Rajiv Gandhi outlined design for provincial devolution and was the basis for the 13th Amendment to the Constitution that devolved political power to the provinces.
