Tamil Minority should receive equal rights, urges India

India has frequently addressed the topic of devolution of powers to the island nation’s Tamil minority.

India has once again urged Sri Lanka to grant the island’s Tamil minority more power, citing it as a crucial step toward guaranteeing equity and justice for the community.

S Jaishankar, India’s external affairs minister, brought up the issue with his Sri Lankan counterpart, GL Peiris, who was in India for a three-day visit to discuss bilateral relations. Peiris’ first trip to India during his current term came after New Delhi took significant initiatives to assist Colombo in dealing with a serious economic crisis.

“Recalling the excellent impact of India’s developmental and rehabilitation assistance, [Jaishankar] emphasised that guaranteeing equality, justice, peace, and respect for the Tamil people inside a united Sri Lanka is best for Sri Lanka’s interests.” The external affairs ministry said in a statement that “power devolution is a crucial part of this process.”

As part of efforts to resolve the situation in the aftermath of Sri Lanka’s civil war, India has often highlighted the issue of devolution of powers to the island nation’s Tamil minority. This covers the full implementation of Sri Lanka’s Constitution’s 13th amendment.

Sri Lanka is looking to address this issue through a new Constitution being developed by a panel of specialists, Peiris told HT in an interview on Monday. Any solution to this problem, he argued, must be “implementable on the ground” and backed up by national agreement.

Jaishankar praised India’s Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR) and “Neighbourhood First” policies for giving Sri Lanka first priority, and urged “quickly moving forward mutually beneficial initiatives.” He also emphasised the importance of protecting the “common maritime realm” from “a variety of contemporary dangers.”

Proposals to improve air and marine connectivity to strengthen people-to-people links, as well as economic and investment initiatives, were among the projects mentioned by Jaishankar.

On Monday, Jaishankar and Peiris had delegation-level meetings to examine the whole range of bilateral relations and methods to improve the close and cordial relationships. India will “always stand with Sri Lanka in its moments of need,” according to Jaishankar, while Peiris “expressed thanks for India’s recent help.”

Peiris also gave an update on the Sri Lankan government’s human rights and reconciliation efforts.

“Both sides reaffirmed their long-standing agreement to manage fishermen’s issues in a humane manner and to avoid using violence in dealing with occurrences along the IMBL” (international maritime boundary line). They agreed that bilateral institutions, beginning with the joint working group on fisheries, should meet as soon as possible,” according to the statement.

Peiris met with Ajit Doval, the National Security Adviser, and Harsh Shringla, the Foreign Secretary, in addition to Jaishankar.

India has offered a $500 million line of credit to Sri Lanka in recent weeks to assist the island nation in purchasing fuel at a time when it is experiencing a foreign exchange and energy crisis. India has also offered a $400 million currency swap and postponed Sri Lanka’s payment to the Asian Clearing Union of $515 million.