Veteran Tamil leader R. Sampanthan on Friday told visiting Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the island’s northern and eastern provinces should be one unit, while expressing concern over the government’s delay in drafting Sri Lanka’s new Constitution.
The Leader of the official Opposition was referring to the Tamil leadership’s demand to re-merge the largely Tamil-speaking north and east. The provinces, which were merged following the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987, were separated by a Supreme Court order in 2006. Muslims, Sinhalese and some Tamils of the Eastern Province have resisted the controversial demand.
Mr. Sampanthan, who leads the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), said the Tamils wanted genuine power-sharing, as in India and that the State should not be unitary in structure, according TNA parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran, who was present at the meeting. “The Indian Prime Minister told us that he shared our concern about the Constitution and had conveyed that to the government,” Mr. Sumanthiran told The Hindu.
The TNA delegation, with heads of all its constituent parties, met PM Modi at the Bandaranaike International airport, ahead of his departure. The meeting lasted 45 minutes, sources said. Pointing to ongoing agitations by relatives of forcefully disappeared persons and people demanding return of their land occupied by the military, Mr. Sampanthan observed that while the government had taken some action much remains to be done. Mr. Modi observed that India appreciates and welcomes the “responsible leadership” that Mr. Sampanthan provided to Tamils of the north and east, Mr. Sumanthiran said.
