India Should Change Its Approach Towards Lanka Says JHU
- India Trying To Exploit Sri Lanka’s Vulnerabilities
By Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema
The JHU says that India needs to change its approach towards Sri Lanka in relation to the political solution to the ethnic issue.The coalition partner of the government stated that India was trying to exploit Sri Lanka’s vulnerable position with the international community to force the country to implement a solution that goes beyond the 13th Amendment.
Deputy General Secretary of the JHU and Western Provincial Council Minister Udaya Gammanpila said that no country regardless of their strength could force Sri Lanka to implement laws.
Gammanpila told The Sunday Leader that India should have learnt a bitter lesson with its experience in trying to force Sri Lanka to implement the 13th Amendment through the Indo-Lanka Accord.
“Before asking the Sri Lankan government to implement a solution that is beyond the 13th Amendment, India should see what happened to the 13th Amendment, which is a result of the Indo-Lanka agreement signed by the Indian Prime Minister and Executive President,” he said, adding that the 13th Amendment could not be fully implemented even after 1,118 Indian soldiers sacrificed their lives and thousands more suffered injuries.
“India has not been able to get the 13th Amendment implemented even after 25 years,” he observed.
According to Gammanpila, India needed to change its approach towards Sri Lanka and stop forcing the government to implement the 13th Amendment or go beyond it. “The solution to the ethnic issue should be home grown and the proposed Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) would provide the best opportunity for it,” he noted.
Gammanpila pointed out that India should ask the TNA to nominate its members to the PSC if it was genuinely interested in finding a political solution.
“Any political solution has to be with the consensus of all communities in the country,” he said.
The JHU, Gammanpila observed was prepared to even discuss any issue including a Tamil Eelam if the other party could justify such a request with facts and figures.
“The JHU is prepared to discuss any issue without any pre-conditions,” he said.
When asked if the JHU was certain that the President was forced to express his consent to a solution that goes beyond the 13th Amendment by the Indian government, Gammanpila said the President would not have got an Indian Minister to make a statement about his stance. “The President does not need an Indian Minister to express his stance. He can make his stance known,” he said.
Gammanpila explained that Sri Lanka sought India’s support to control the LTTE elements in South India during the war and is now in need of India’s support at the UN Human Rights Council sessions in March this year.
“India is trying to exploit Sri Lanka’s vulnerable position,” Gammanpila said.
