TNA Stands Ground

By Easwaran Rutnam-Sunday, February 16, 2014

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) says it will not take part in the Parliament Select Committee (PSC) on the National issue as the Government had failed to fulfill promises given in the past.

Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh told a group of visiting Sri Lankan journalists in New Delhi last week that the Government of Sri Lanka must resume a substantive dialogue with the TNA for a political settlement and reconciliation. “India has consistently urged the Sri Lankan Government to take forward the process of broader dialogue so that we can see some concrete movement towards a meaningful devolution of powers including the implementation of the 13th Amendment and beyond,” she said.

In response to her comments, Sumanthiran told The Sunday Leader that the Sri Lankan Government has consistently agreed with India that they would ‘implement the 13th amendment in full and go beyond that to achieve meaningful devolution’ and this is even contained in joint communiqué between the two governments.

However, he noted that the promise has not been kept and far short of even implementing the 13th amendment in full, the Government has not allowed the Northern Provincial Council to function in the way other provincial councils function. “The law requires the Chief Secretary to be appointed with the concurrence of the Chief Minister. But after repeated assurances even that simple action has not been taken,” he said.

Sumanthiran also noted that India has consistently urged the government to engage with the TNA to arrive at an acceptable political solution. “The Government, after commencing dialogue with the TNA in January 2011, did not respond to the TNA’s proposals for a full year and then, contrary to agreement walked away from the bilateral talks. Thereafter the Government keeps insisting the TNA join the Parliamentary Select Committee. This too is contrary to the agreement reached with the TNA, which are all recorded and confirmed in the minutes of the bilateral talks. This is the reason the TNA is unable to join the PSC,” he added.

The TNA MP also said that the Indo-Lanka Accord is a bilateral treaty between two sovereign nations, which provides for genuine power sharing arrangement with the Tamil speaking people in the North-East of the country, and therefore it is legitimate and obligatory for India to raise these matters with the Sri Lankan Government and urge them to comply with their obligations under the treaty.