By P.K. Balachandran, IANS
Colombo : Convinced that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will come visiting next month, Sri Lanka is all set to bring out by the end of January a devolution package aimed at resolving the ethnic conflict.
“We are planning to submit our proposal to the Sri Lankan president (Mahinda Rajapakse) before the end of January,” Science Minister Tissa Vitarana, chairman of the All Party Representative Committee (APRC), told IANS.
The APRC, which groups almost all major political parties, has been tasked by the government to prepare a nationally acceptable power-sharing package to satisfy the aspirations of minorities who feel they are discriminated against. Asked if the package was being timed to come out before the expected visit of Manmohan Singh to attend Sri Lanka’s 60th independence day celebrations Feb 4, Vitarana said: “Presumably.”
Media reports quoting sources in New Delhi have been saying that Manmohan Singh is unlikely to come to Colombo in the absence of a meaningful political package, which at least the moderate Tamils in Sri Lanka may consider worth accepting. But the Rajapaksa government is keen on having Manmohan Singh as chief guest as it will show that India is fully with it in the way it is tackling the ethnic crisis.
India’s support will be necessary for Rajapaksa especially now after the government decided to scrap the Norway-brokered ceasefire agreement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The government move is likely to be criticised by Western donor countries that oversee the barely alive peace process. The West is also very critical of Colombo over its human rights record.
Vitarana refused to give the contours of the proposal the APRC was planning to submit.
But an informed political source told IANS that the proposal envisaged an improvement on the existing framework of devolution under the 13th amendment of the Sri Lankan constitution.
“Devolution to the provinces notwithstanding, a lot of power will be transferred to the local bodies, the Sri Lankan equivalent of the Indian panchayats,” the source said.
“Many small communities will benefit from such grassroots level devolution,” the source added.