When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meets Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on the sidelines of the Rio summit, it will be their first meeting after India voted against Sri Lanka at the United Nations Human Rights Council session in Geneva earlier this year.
Dr. Singh's hectic schedule, and the fact that he is slated to meet almost all leaders at the Rio summit, will not permit issues of significance to be taken up at length at this meeting, but it will provide an opportunity for both sides to flag the niggling problems that have come to dominate the India-Sri Lanka discourse in the past two years
Dr. Singh met Mr. Rajapaksa on the sidelines of the 2011 SAARC summit at Addu City, and on the sidelines of the last session of the United Nations General Assembly. The last bilateral meeting between the two leaders was in New Delhi in June 2010. The Prime Minister has met all other south Asian leaders — barring Pakistan — in bilateral fora in the past year.
Ever since the Tamil Tigers were vanquished in Eelam War IV in May 2009, India has been pushing for a political solution that accommodates the legitimate aspirations of the Tamils in the Northern Province. Sri Lanka has consistently promised that it will offer a political solution.
Three years after the war, the solution is caught up in semantics and hyperbole, and there has been little concrete action, barring local body polls conducted in the province. The comprehensive victory of the Tamil National Alliance, the only credible political formation that represents the Northern Tamils, in the local body polls has made further progress impossible: the Northern Province remains the only one in the country without an elected council.
With the perception in Colombo solidifying against India after the Geneva vote, Sri Lanka has embarked on a conscious effort to win friends across the world. Mr. Rajapaksa has been to Thailand, Qatar, South Korea, Singapore, Pakistan, apart from attending the Queen's Diamond jubilee in England. He is now in Cuba, will visit Brazil and attend the G-20 plus summit. He is scheduled to attend the coming NAM summit in Tehran, and also the next session of the United Nations General Assembly.
The President's International spokesperson Bandula Jayasekara insists that the visits are about economics. “Sri Lanka has a story to tell the world,” he said. “The President is the biggest salesman of Sri Lanka. He is the President. He is also the CEO of our country,” he adds.
The article was corrected for a factual error on the venue of the meeting.
Keywords: India-Sri Lanka relations, Manmohan Singh, Mahinda Rajapaksa, G20, Sri Lankan Tamils, ethnic conflict, Eelam war, LTTE
Should this meeting be a cynosure of the so called 'sideline meetings' it should be maintained that Sri Lanka remains steadfast on the so called human rights issues where India played against Sri Lanka in favour of the Tamil terrorists; where India had been instrumental in training and arming the Tamil terrorists during warring period. M. R. should never bow to Indians.
At lest to naked eye, Sri Lanka (SL) is keep mocking India! One thing is not clear to my naked eye is SL doing it with the blessing of India? My other difficulty is to understand India position! Does India have to put up with all this local issue and trouble from local political parties such MDMK, DMK, and the long list is continue and those unwanted protest which shall causes embarrassment and economical damages to the country. The history show SL is never been a trusted partner of India as SL keep switch between India, China and West. Is it time now India ensure that it take stand to ensure what SL concrete action to deliver what it has promised to India? After almost 25 yrs gone past, the 13th amendment which was signed by both country yet to be implemented. This is dose not help Tamil Nadu (TN) and in fact to the world to believe that India is truthful! Not sure what is the fruitfulness of this sideline meeting, another excuse from Colombo buying more time!
Are you sure Rajapaksa and Singh will meet at G-20 summit in Los Cabos, Mexico,not at the Rio+20 in Brazil. I have not seen any reports that Rajapaksa is scheduled to be in Mexico.
India being pro-west and anti Sri Lanka, why would our president meet Mr.Manmohan?
If you are a Tamil from Sri lanka,have no hope of anything positive coming out of India, no matter how many times Indians meet Rajapaksa.The spirit of Tamils for their home land has been destroyed ( temporarily ) by Sri lanka with the help of India and other collaborators. Tamils are mainly Hindus in northern Sri lanka, now this land of Tamils is colonised with muslims and sinhalese from other parts of the Island. Budist Temples and mosques have sprung up everywhere,none of it were there in this numbers before civil war. If the Tamils have any aspirations left for a home land, they have to get it for themselves. Which is not impossible as it might appear. Never depend on others for help.
PM Manmohan singh should talk firmly for early settlement of all issues relating to Tamils in Sri lanka. He should not exchange pleasantries.He should be tough with him.He should not forget that he is the PM of a big country talking with President of a tiny Island Nation which is about a small district in India. IF the congress failed to bring salvation and find solution to Tamils issue in Sri lanka, there will be no congressman ever elected from Tamilnadu,either to the State assembly,or Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha.This is the last chance for the Congressmen to set right their wrongs done to the Sri lankan Tamils in colloboration with the Singala leaders.Depending on DMK is like crossing the Ganges on a clay horse.Both will loose their faces in the next lok sabha election.
It is a failure to the UPA regime in Delhi that voted against at the UNHRC in Geneva for an independent international human rights investigation in 2010. Not only the UPA leaders have collaborated with the SL regime, they continued to support the SL regime despite it has been committing serious human rights abuses and war crimes as well it continues to defy the International Law, refuse to respect Tamils demands and their rights.
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