Indian external Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna concluded his “unsuccessful” visit to Sri Lanka on Thursday by handing over the completed section of the Galle-Hikkaduwa railway link to the Mahinda regime.

Winding up his four-day visit, during which a host of programmes to increase cooperation were put in place, Mr. Krishna said it was a “testimony to the strength of enduring friendship between the two countries” not with Tamils.

One of Mr. Krishna’s successful achievements was to get Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa reiterate that he would take the “13 Amendment plus approach” to solving the ethnic problem in the country, he said. But the reality is that the 13 Amendment was died five years ago, which was introduced by Indian government in 1987, Rajapaksa regime violated all amendments and de-merged North and East in 2006, but Krishna did not know anything about it.

It was expected from him because last year he read out the speech of the Portuguese minister at a UN Security Council meeting.

Reports suggest this is not the first time Mr Krishna had made a mess of delivering diplomatic addresses. 2010 in Islamabad, during a meeting with his Pakistan counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi, he read out material from a background note that had been prepared to help him with the meeting. At a meeting with EU delegates in Delhi, he similarly read from personal instructions prepared for him and not intended to be shared publicly.

The merger of the North Eastern province took place on 8 September 1988, under an international agreement (Under the 13 Amendment), signed between India and Sri Lanka on 29 July 1987. Under this agreement, the North and East were merged by a special decree of the Executive President of Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan constitution does not require any parliamentary endorsement to any decision made by the Executive President.

Eighteen years after this merger, the Sri Lankan Supreme Court – in 2006 the demand for the de-merging of these two provinces was filed. The Supreme Court delivered its “political decision” on this case on 16 October 2006, stating that the merger of these two provinces by the then President was invalid.

The International community including India were deafeningly silent about the judgement of the Supreme Court did. This is to defend it’s own agreement of the India.

The Indo-Sri Lankan accord was died five years ago, but Krishna is speaking about the dead body. This is a strategy that the Indian government is cheating Tamils and save the Sinhala regime in the past and present. Now Krishna is proved it again.

It is apparent to the International Community that the Tamils will never get either any political rights or justice regarding the systematic human rights violations that they have been under going for decades. The Sri Lankan security forces and Sinhala politicians enjoy maximum impunity.

With the Tamil National Alliance, saying that they would approach the talks with Mr. Rajapaksa’s assurance in mind, the stage is set for a fresh approach to the Tamil quest for a political say in the Northern Province.

Meanwhile, Tamils said that the Sri Lankan government is purposely using the Talks as a time passing events and the talk with Sri Lanka over the year was completely failed.

Last year, India launched a Phase I of the Southern Railway project, comprising the 42-km Galle-Matara Section, was completed in February 2011. Phase II of the project, which involves the section from Galle to Kaluthara, will be completed by April this year.

Tracks have been laid to a stretch of about 45 km on the Galle-Kaluthara section. It will be completed in all aspects once the signalling equipment is in place. The total cost for revamping the Southern Railway line is $167.4 million. India has also extended a line of credit for the project.

But China has launched the construction work for the Northern Railway project. All the Northern Railway line projects to be completed by the end of 2014, the Chinese firm confirmed.

Krishna announced a substantial increase in India’s assistance in the education sector, amounting to a grant of Sri Lankan Rs.2.5 billion, to aid meritorious students.

In other hand, Sri Lankan Universities have been started to teach Chinese language degrees with Chinese assistance.

The Sri Lankan political party UNP MP Ravi Karunanayake last week in SL Parliament claimed that Chinese companies are controlling a majority of shares in the South Port of Sri Lanka.

He said that 55% of the South Ports are owned by Chinese companies and only 15% is owned by Sri Lanka Ports.

So, what is the Krishna’s achievement?

He handed over a small amount of aid to the displaced Tamil people, the 50,000 housing projects is not completed yet, however, he offered large amount of assistance to the Sri Lankan war crime regime, this is a rescue package for the economically struggling regime.

Besides these, Mr. Krishna celebrated Mahinda’s pongal festivel and watched the military sponsored dance in Killinochchi.

(Eelam-e-News)

Krishna – Peiris – Mahinda; confusion confounded

Eighty year old Somanahili Mallaiah Krishna, the External Affairs Minister of India, was arriving that evening. After reaching the Bandaranaike International Airport on an Indian Air Force jet, he flew to Colombo on a Sri Lanka Air Force VIP helicopter. After a brief ‘freshen up’ at his suite at Taj Samudra, he was off to ‘Temple Trees’ accompanied by India’s High Commissioner Ashok Kantha. He became the virtual ‘guest of honour’ at the Singala converted Thai Pongal celebrations there.

It was Krishna’s counterpart, G.L. Peiris, who had invited him after arrival at the airport. Conspicuous by their absence at the event were parliamentarians of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). They were not invited. Tamils of Indian origin outnumbered their local counterparts in what seemed a scene setter for Krishna, Colombo weekly reports.

As Rajapaksa mingled with his invitees, an Indian journalist asked him whether he was going to give any assurances to Krishna. “He will neither ask for such assurances nor will I give any,” he said jokingly with his inimitable guffaw. Barely six hours later, the joke turned out to be just the opposite of what he said.

Krishna did ask and Rajapaksa did give him an assurance. To put it in Krishna’s own words, “The Government of Sri Lanka has on many occasions conveyed to us its commitment to move towards a political settlement based on the full implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution, and building on it, so as to achieve a meaningful devolution of powers. We look forward to an expeditious and constructive approach to the dialogue process. We believe that continuation of the dialogue between the Government and the TNA would pave the way for a political settlement, including under the rubric of the (proposed) Parliamentary Select Committee.”

He made the remarks at a noon news briefing at the External Affairs Ministry (EAM). After a breakfast meeting with Rajapaksa the same morning, Krishna drove to the EAM for talks with his Sri Lankan counterpart, Peiris. A call on Lankan Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne and a restricted meeting with Peiris and some of his aides preceded the formal talks attended by the two Ministers and ten aides from either side. The news briefing followed.

Krishna said, “I discussed this matter with His Excellency the President this morning. The President assured me that he stands by his commitment to pursuing the 13th Amendment plus approach.”

A journalist asked, “Mr Krishna you said that at the discussion he expressed his commitment to pursue 13th Amendment plus. There has been speculation in the Sri Lankan media that there would be Indian input during your talks. What I would like to ask is whether any timeframe was discussed.

Krishna replied, “Well we did not discuss a timeframe. By the sheer nature of the complexity of the problem it would not be desirable for me to either suggest to the Rajapaksa or ask him about a timeframe. It was heartening to hear from the Rajapaksa himself that he is committed to the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan constitution and the process will automatically follow.”

The next question was to Peiris. He was asked “Will the Sri Lankan External Affairs Minister elaborate?” He declared, “Well, as the Indian External Affairs Minister said, it is a process. It has been commenced. Issues have been identified, substantive discussions about those issues have commenced. I agree entirely with his comments. We have had many proposals that have been prepared and submitted to parliament. In some cases, what is required this time around is something different. The emphasis needs to be on implementation and that is what we all need to work towards.”

Even if he is known as a linguistic acrobat, this time, Peiris appears to have outdone his Indian counterpart. In saying “I agree entirely with his (Krishna’s) comments,” Peiris has unequivocally endorsed what Krishna said. He has not only acknowledged the need to implement the 13th Amendment to the Constitution “in full” but also to go beyond it with what is commonly called “plus,” a reference to a proposed Senate or a second chamber.

What Krishna spoke at breakfast with Rajapaksa at ‘Temple Trees,’ and at the teak panelled office of Peiris at Republic Square later remained a secret until the former’s assertions at the news conference. There is little doubt Krishna pulled off a major diplomatic feather in the cap for India in making an official pronouncement on Sri Lankan soil that Rajapaksa had once again agreed to “the full implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution, and building on it, so as to achieve a meaningful devolution of powers….” That was within hours after talking to Rajapaksa.

If he were to say it after his return to India, that could have been construed, as being misquoted. It came after a pendulum like swing back and forth in government positions, first opposing provisions like limited police and land powers and later agreeing to consider them. If indeed the government explained to Krishna that some provisions in the 13th Amendment including police and land powers could not be given, there was no one in the government to explain it.

Krishna was still on Sri Lankan soil on Thursday when a response of sorts to his remarks came from President Rajapaksa. For security reasons, only the close relatives of the bride and the groom were allowed into a room there. Rajapaksa who was locked in an informal conversation with Karu Jayasuriya referred to his meeting with Krishna. He said he had agreed to enforce the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. The ‘plus’ was the creation of the Senate, a matter which Rajapaksa said was being looked at.

He said that the question of Police powers (under the 13th Amendment) was an issue that would have to be determined by the proposed Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC). In other words, Rajapaksa has made clear that a “full implementation” of the 13th Amendment would not be made without recourse to the proposed PSC. Quite clearly this is different to what Krishna said at his news conference.

In terms of the 13th Amendment, the Sri Lanka Police shall be divided into – (a) the National Division (including Special Units); and (b) a Provincial Division for each province. The National Division shall consist of the IGP, DIGs, SSPs, ASPs and other ranks recruited at the national level. A Provincial Division shall consist of the DIG, SSP, SP and ASP, all seconded from the National Division and Provincial Assistant Superintendents of Police, Chief Inspectors, Inspectors, Sub-Inspectors, Sergeants and Constables recruited in the Province. Members of the Provincial Division shall be eligible for promotion to the National Division.