The North: To Poll Or Not To Poll?
Dharisha
Bastians
Calls by a
section of the Tamil National Alliance for the setting up of an interim
administration run by New Delhi or Washington in the North, may further cloud
the prospect of northern provincial polls before the September 2013
deadline
The
prospect of elections for the Northern Provincial Council by September 2013, now
a Sri Lankan Government promise cemented in a UN Human Rights Council Resolution
on the country became just a little more remote last week after members of the
main Tamil party and civil society activists in the North called for the setting
up of an interim administration in the province overseen by India or the US
until the Government comes up with a permanent political solution to address
Tamil concerns.
The
appeal made to a visiting Indian Parliamentary delegation in Jaffna, comes in
the wake of calls for the abolishment of the 13th Amendment, that devolves some
power from the central Government to provincial authorities, from the ruling
regime’s top officials no less.
Quasi-federal
in nature, the 13th Amendment to the constitution designed by New Delhi in 1987
in an attempt to resolve the separatist conflict in the island, devolved some
powers to councils manned by provincial representatives, including education,
health, housing and rural development. In the post-war reconciliation discourse
and as per promises made to the international community including India by
President Mahinda
Rajapaksa, the provincial council system set up by the 13th
Amendment was to be the basis of a permanent power-sharing
arrangement with the Tamil community. The provincial system set up by the 13th
Amendment to the Constitution has been implemented in every province today, with
the exception of the North.
Premachandran
and the delegation
The
Indian Parliamentary delegation visiting Sri Lanka met with Economic Development
Minister Basil
Rajapaksa at his Ministry on 11 April and went on to inspect Indian
funded housing and other projects in the North during their visit. The
Parliamentary delegation, comprising Saugata Roy, Prakash Javedkar, Anurug
Thakur, Sandeep Dixshit, Dhanajay Singh and Madhu Goud Yaskhi representing the
Bharathiya Janatha Party, Indian People’s Congress, Bahujana Samaj Party and
Indian National Congress reportedly expressed its satisfaction with Sri Lanka’s
post-war economic progress so far.
During
their visit to the North, the six member Indian parliamentary delegation which
concluded its visit to the island last Friday (12), was informed by TNA
President Suresh Premachandran that there was “ongoing genocide” of Tamils in
Sri Lanka, according to a report in The Hindu newspaper. Premachandran told the
multi-party delegation from India that the Tamils needed an “interim
administration, overseen by India or the United Nations, until there is a final
political settlement for the Tamils.” The sentiments were echoed by Tamil civil
society activists, who said that a transitional administration model, for which
there is no constitutional provision at the moment, would provide Tamil
representatives actual power in areas such as education, health and livelihood
issues. The civil society members proposed that the central Government should
also have a role in this system. The activists were responding to questions from
the visiting Indian parliamentarians
