Hope Indian PM will attend CHOGM – GL Peiris
Sri Lanka Sunday said it would “very much like” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in November in Colombo even as Tamil Nadu parties have urged India not to participate in the event.
Sri Lankan Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris, who arrived here Sunday, said he would meet Manmohan Singh Monday to invite him to the Nov 15-17 event.
“We would very much like him to be present,” he said, adding that a CHOGM was being held in Asia after 24 years.
Peiris, who is to also hold discussions with External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid Monday, said Sri Lanka would “like to have Indian presence at the highest level” for the event.
Addressing a press conference at the Sri Lankan High Commission here, Peiris also said that India’s Chief Election Commissioner V.S. Sampath had been invited as observer for the Sep 21 Northern Province elections, which is mainly inhabited by Tamils.
Besides Sampath, Colombo has also invited observers from SAARC countries and from the Commonwealth to oversee the polls, which he said would ensure “total openness” and transparency.
On the issue of the 13th Amendment, a key constitutional provision that promises autonomy to the Tamil minority, Peiris said Sri Lanka has appointed a parliament select committee to go into proposed changes in the country’s constitution.
He said the select committee was “not confined to the 13th Amendment but a whole range of constitutional issues engaging the public”.
He said it was “a pity” that Tamil opposition groups are not participating in the parliament panel.
In June, India had conveyed dismay at reports suggesting that Colombo planned to dilute certain key provisions of the 13th Amendment on devolution of powers to provinces ahead of the Northern Provincial Council polls.
The Indian prime minister had told a delegation on Sri Lankan Tamil MPs that the proposed changes “raised doubts about the commitments made by the Sri Lankan government to India and the international community, including the United Nations, on a political settlement in Sri Lanka that would go beyond the 13th Amendment”.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa had last month urged the Indian government to put pressure on Colombo not to axe or dilute the 13th amendment.
On Saturday, DMK chief M. Karunanidhi warned of rail blockades and black flags on houses and commercial establishments across Tamil Nadu if Manmohan Singh did not declare that India would not participate in the CHOGM in Colombo. The DMK had walked out of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition over the Sri Lankan Tamils issue in March.
The 13th Amendment of the Sri Lankan constitution, carried out with Indian backing in 1987, aims to ensure autonomy to provinces and by extension to the Tamils in the island’s north and east. (IANS)
Latest Headlines in Sri Lanka
- Sri Lanka Railway Station Masters begin union action over unresolved issues October 30, 2024
- Johnston Fernando released on bail October 30, 2024
- Six foreign nationals arrested in Seeduwa for visa violations October 30, 2024
- Postal voting begins for Sri Lanka’s 2024 Parliamentary Election October 30, 2024
- Sri Lanka President outlines plans for economic independence and digital transformation October 29, 2024
The Commonwealth is what was the British colonial empire and was designed to serve and protect the British Colonial economic interests. There were certain privileges associated by virtue of being a member of the commonwealth. The colonies were endowed with a constitution a democratic parliamentary system modeled after the Westminster House of Commons and an Upper House where the senators deliberated bills that were debated in the House of Commons before they were enacted into Laws. With time most of the democratic processes were replaced by totalitarian dictatorships of one form the other in the wake of revolutions and terrorism. Now the Commonwealth exists only by name and there is not much to speak of its wealth and the meeting of the Heads of the Commonwealth is nothing more than a photo opportunity something that they could do away with. So why not the Sri Lankan government pass the summit to be held some place else.
Dear Mr Pieris,
It is not Mr Singh who decides on things in India. It is his boss, the Italiam Madam who calls the shots.
There’s elections in India in March 2014 and the South Indian vote will definitely help launch ht madam’s son into leadership.
If Mr P and the GOSL EAM wants to be naive, they are free to be so.
Mr.Manmohan, be careful, those Tamil-Nadu monkeys will hang you in the open if you try to attend CHOGM.
Unfortunately you are now reduced only to a puppet of Tamilnadu monkeys.