By Veeragathy Thanabalasingham

Colombo, December 28 – As usual, Sri Lankan Tamil political parties met the Indian External Affairs Minister Subramaniam Jaishankar last week at India House in Colombo and requested him to exert pressure on  the Sri Lankan government to hold elections to the provincial councils and fully implement the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.

Jaishankar arrived in Colombo on Monday (22) evening on a day-long visit as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s special envoy to announce India’s assistance for Sri Lanka’s recovery from the devastation caused by Cyclone Ditwah last month.

The leaders of the Ilankai Thamizharasu Katchi (ITAK), the Democratic Tamil National Alliance (DTNA) and the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF)  had a joint meeting with Jaishankar on Tuesday (23).

It was a different approach this time. Despite their differences, Tamil politicians now seem to think that they need to have at least some understanding among themselves when talking to foreign leaders and diplomats  about the problems of the Tamils. They consulted each other before meeting Jaishankar.

The leaders discussed relief and reconstruction work to be carried out for the people affected by the natural disaster in the North and East. They also pointed out that it would have been much easier to provide relief and carry out reconstruction activities  for the cyclone-affected people if the provincial councils  were in place now.

The TNPF leader Gajendra Kumar Ponnambalam, who has traditionally shown no interest in the provincial council system told Jaishankar that provincial council elections need to be held. He cut short his meetings with leaders of Tamil Nadu political parties in Chennai and hurried back to Colombo for the meeting with Jaishankar.

While stressing the need to have the provincial council elections,   Gajendra Kumar sought to differentiate himself from other politicians  by pointing out that devolution within a unitary state was not possible in Sri Lanka and that only a federal system could solve the  ethnic problem.

Not to be outdone, ITAK president C.V.K. Sivagnanam promptly stated that they too were of the firm view that federalism was the only viable political solution and that they were concerned not with the label of federalism but with the content of the powers to be shared.

Gajendra Kumar told journalists that he did not know about the contents of the letter to Prime minister Modi, handed over to Jaishankar  by ITAK and DTNA  leaders. It is reliably learnt that the letter included a request to prevail upon the  Sri Lankan government to hold provincial council elections at the earliest but made no mention of a federal solution.

It is important to note that Sri Lankan Tamil parties’ insistence on provincial council elections or their stance on federalism is not new to Jaishankar. He has had several talks with them not only as the Minister of External Affairs, but also during his earlier stint as Foreign Secretary.

When the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) leader Suresh K. Premachandran brought up the issue of the merger of the Northern and Eastern Provinces at a meeting with Tamil parties in Colombo when he was the Foreign Secretary several years back, Jaishankar retorted  that much water had flown under bridge  since the 1986 July  Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord and that India was not in a position to talk to Colombo about the merger of the two provinces again.

In a meeting with leaders of Tamil parties including Late Rajavarothayan Sampanthan in Colombo after becoming the Minister of External Affairs, Jaishankar questioned how one could make a federal claim to Sri Lankan governments that have not implemented even the 13th amendment for more than three decades.

Jaishankar did not say anything about federalism at last week’s meeting. It is understood that the Indian minister did not give a direct answer to the Tamil leaders’ request that India urge Colombo to hold the provincial council elections at the earliest. Instead, he is understood to have asked questions aimed at eliciting the views of Tamil leaders on how the provincial council elections could be conducted in the current situation. Only then they brought to his notice the importance of provincial councils for the relief and reconstruction works.

A leader who attended the meeting said Jaishankar was not responding to requests from them to impress upon Tilvin Silva, the powerful general secretary of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), the  flagship party of the National People’s Power (NPP), on the imperative to protect the provincial councils system and hold early provincial council elections. Silva is set to visit New Delhi.

In the 38 years since the signing of the Peace Accord, India has not been able to bring Sri Lanka on track to fully implement the 13th Amendment. The Modi government cannot be expected to exert any pressure on President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s government on the ethnic issue in the  context of a vastly changed geopolitical situation.

However, it can only be expected that India will continue to insist on the full implementation of the Constitution of Sri Lanka (purposely avoiding mentioning 13 amendment)  along with the conduct of provincial council elections. It cannot be expected that the New Delhi  will ask a government that is seriously focused on rebuilding the country from the ravages of natural disaster to hold  elections anytime soon.

Meanwhile, the ITAK general  Secretary M.A. Sumanthiran, said before the cyclone that a political movement will be launched from January to demand provincial council elections.  Interestingly, the NPP government, which is not keen on holding provincial council elections, has found a convenient excuse in the devastation caused by the cyclone.

The Tamil parties have no option but to appeal to India. The Tamil National Council (TNC)  led by Gajendra Kumar, has sought the help of political parties in Tamil Nadu to press the Indian central government to get President Dissanayake’s  government  to introduce a federal solution through a new federal constitution.

Some observers see this as an attempt to bring the Sri Lankan Tamils issue back into focus in the campaign for the State Assembly  elections in Tamil Nadu, which are still four months away.

There is no gainsaying that the Tamil side is no less responsible for today’s deterioration of the provincial council system. The Sri Lankan Tamil community is paying a heavy price for having justified the horrendous  mistakes of the past without forethought about the consequences.

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