- Wednesday, April 23, 2025
The Tamil National Alliance is an alliance of parties that represents Tamils from the north and east regions.
By: Shubham Ghosh
SRI LANKAN president Ranil Wickremesinghe said ahead of his first official tour of India this week that he will hold talks with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in the parliament on Tuesday (18) to settle the long-standing minority demand of the Tamils for political autonomy, PTI reported citing sources.
The TNA is an alliance of parties that represents Tamils from the north and east regions.
The TNA-Wickremesinghe parley is set to take place on Tuesday afternoon in the parliament, the sources added.
The president of the island-nation, who took over the reins in July last year in the wake of domestic economic and political turmoil, will leave for New Delhi on Thursday (20) for a two-day visit.
During his visit to India, Wickremesinghe will meet prime minister Narendra Modi, the officials in the Sri Lankan foreign office in Colombo said.
Since December, Wickremesinghe had opened dialogue with the TNA in a bid to settle the long-standing Tamil minority demand for political autonomy.
The leader mooted the idea for full implementation of the India-backed 13th Amendment which came to be opposed by the powerful Buddhist clergy in a case of history repeating itself.
The 13A provides for the devolution of power to the Tamil community in Sri Lanka. India has been pressing Sri Lanka to implement the 13A which was brought in after the Indo-Sri Lankan agreement of 1987.
The Tamil side insisted on resolving the immediate issues of concern such as the release of private lands held for military purposes, the release of Tamil political prisoners and conflict reparations.
Although some of the lands came to be released and a few prisoners were also released but the Tamil side remain largely dissatisfied.
A few former militant Tamil parties, who are not part of the TNA, have also written to Modi urging him to pressure Wickremesinghe into full implementation of the 13th Amendment.
The group includes the Democratic Fighters Party of rehabilitated ex-member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who ran a three-decades-old separatist war to carve out a separate Tamil state. They demand that land and police powers retained by the central government be granted to the northern provincial council including holding of the election postponed since 2018.
Meanwhile, the state minister of fisheries Piyal Nishantha said the thorny issue of illegal fishing in the Sri Lankan waters by Indian fishermen would be discussed during the visit to New Delhi.
(With PTI inputs)
