A six member delegation representing the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) — an umbrella organisation of various Tamil political parties in Sri Lanka — will leave for India on Sunday, to meet the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Minister for External Affairs Salman Khurshid on the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution.
The delegation will be led by R. Sampanthan, senior Tamil politician and TNA leader. Mavai Senathiraja, M.A. Sumanthiran, Suresh Premachandran, Selvam Adaikalanathan and Pon Selvarasa are the other members who will be part of it.
Ceylon Today , an English daily in Colombo, has reported that the delegation would also hold talks with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, but TNA’s spokesperson Suresh Premachandran told The Hindu on Saturday that the meeting with Ms. Gandhi had not been finalised.
Though certain sections of Sri Lankan polity, including those which are constituents of the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA), have for long been opposing the 13th Amendment, the last week saw a renewed debate on the constitutional amendment that followed the Indo-Sri Lanka accord of July 1987.
The 13th amendment speaks of making Tamil an official language and English a link language, of the establishment of provincial councils, with devolution of financial and police powers and land rights.
This comes in the wake of the Northern Provincial Council elections that the Sri Lankan government has promised to hold in September this year.
