The General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) G L Peiris slammed the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) for meeting with the Indian High Commission and discussing the 13th Amendment to Sri Lanka’s constitution, claiming it would “spread racism in the country”.
Members of the TNA, including party leader R Sampanthan, met with Indian High Commissioner Gopal Baglay last month. Amongst the matters reportedly discussed was the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. The amendment, enacted after the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987, was reportedly described as “dysfunctional” by the Tamil parliamentarians. The Indian High Commissioner emphasised India’s stance on peace, reconciliation, and the full implementation of the 13th Amendment.
“More than 50 per cent of the Tamil people voted against the TNA,” claimed Peiris, who formerly led Sri Lankan government delegations with the LTTE during the 2002 peace talks as Sri Lanka's constitutional affairs minister. “In my view, one of the principal reasons for it was the stand they took with regard to depriving their people of the most cherished of all human rights and freedoms, the franchise,” he added.
“The contribution of the TNA to the Tamil people was to take away the most sacred of their rights, to elect the provincial councillors. It is now ironic that now they should go to the High Commission of India, to undo what they themselves deliberately and calculatedly did.”
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