India is once again expected to reinforce the need for Sri Lanka to implement the 13th Amendment when the island nation’s foreign minister G.L. Peiris meets the Indian leadership here during his two day visit beginning Sunday.
The visit comes just weeks ahead of the provincial council elections which are to be held in the Tamil-dominated northern province of Sri Lanka. New Delhi has been concerned about the proposed move by the Lankan government to dilute the 13th Amendment and has repeatedly asked it not to do so.
Importantly, the main purpose of the Lankan leader’s second visit to India in just eight months is to deliver an invite to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking India’s participation in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) to be held in his country later this year.
As far as this meet is concerned, India will once again find itself caught between striving to maintain warm ties with its neighbour and the cacophony of Tamil parties who have already voiced their demand that India boycott the meet citing its alleged war crimes in the Tamil-dominated provinces.
The DMK, in fact, had from the UPA coalition in March this year in protest against what it saw as the government’s dithering on a UNHCR resolution on war crimes against Sri Lanka.
Now, these parties want the government to boycott the CHOGM meet in November in order to mount pressure on Lanka over what they say was genocide and war crimes indulged in by the Lankan government in the cloing months of its civil strife.
Apart from calling on the Prime Minister, Mr Peiris will also be meeting his Indian counterpart, Salman Khurshid where the latter is expected to emphasise to the Lankan leader not to dilute the 13th Amendment.