President again pledges 13 Plus to India

Swaraj makes claim at news conference but presidential spokesman refuses comment
LSSP, CP call for maximum implementation of LLRC recommendations

By Anthony David and Nadia Fazlulhaq

President Mahinda Rajapaksa will enforce provisions of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution and “go beyond it,” India’s Opposition Leader Sushma Swaraj said yesterday.

She told a packed news conference the re-assurance was given when the Indian parliamentary delegation met the President at “Temple Trees” earlier yesterday. However, presidential spokesperson Bandula Jayasekera, who was present at the news conference, declined to comment on Ms. Swaraj’s statement.

A reported previous assurance on the same issue, made by the President to Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna in January, however, ran into controversy and contradictions.

Mr. Krishna had told a news conference in Colombo on January 17 after a breakfast meeting with the President that Mr. Rajapaksa had assured him he would implement the “13th Amendment plus,” meaning further concessions. However, during a meeting with national newspaper editors on January 30, President Rajapaksa disputed the claim and declared “no assurance” was given. He said he had only “discussed the 13th Amendment plus.”