Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

This is significant in the context of Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s statement that a new Sri Lankan constitution will be drafted

Colombo, August 21 (newsin.asia): A delegation of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) called on the Indian High Commissioner Gopal Baglay here on Friday.

The High Commissioner congratulated the TNA for their performance at the recent general elections. The envoy reiterated India’s longstanding position on peace and reconciliation and the full implementation of the Thirteenth Amendment of the Sri Lankan constitution which had created elected Provincial Councils in the nine provinces of the island nation with a modicum of devolved powers. The 13A came as a result of the India-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987.

Though elected councils came into being, the powers that they should have got as per the 13A have not been devolved. Powers over land and police are still not dissolved.

There has been speculation that the government of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa will abolish the 13A as part of their plan to centralize the administration and cut needless expenditure. A section of the majority Sinhala community feels that the Provincial Councils are White Elephants and impositions by India. But political sources say that elected Provincial Councils will not be abolished because the Sri Lankan political class has developed a vested interest in their existence. They provide an institution vested with some powers between the grassroots level Preadeshiya Sabhas and the parliament.

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa is undoubtedly in favour of retaining the elected Provincial Councils. And in his speech inaugurating the newly elected 9th.parliament on Thursday, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa spoke only about the abolition of the 19th.Amendment, not the 13A.

Ironically, the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) opposed the 13A in 1987-88. Even today only the Eelam Peoples’ Democratic Party (EPDP) led by Douglas Devananda and a rump of the Eelam Peoples’ Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) faction led by the followers of the Late Pathmanabha support the 13A. Other Tamil parties want more than 13A. A section of them are even seeking self-determination for the Tamils and an internationally monitored referendum on the Tamil question.

When Mahinda Rajapaksa was Lankan President between 2005 and 2014, he had promised 13A Plus in response to pressure from India. But this was not delivered. During the United National Party-led Good Governance” regime between 2015 and November 2014, an effort was made to draft a new constitution but it was thwarted at the last moment by a lack of political will and a constitutional crisis in 2018.

On August 20, President Gotabaya Rahapaksa promised to draft a new constitution but it remains to be seen as to how far his regime would go to devolve power to the provinces or whether it will downgrade or upgrade the powers of the Provincial Councils.