Misri tells Tamil parties India ready to fast-track development projects
Blames delays on Sri Lankan side
COLOMBO – Visiting Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told representatives of Tamil political parties on Wednesday (5) that India is ready to move ahead without delay on economic development projects in Sri Lanka, but that implementation has been slowed by coordination issues on the Sri Lankan side.
Misri, on an official visit to Sri Lanka, met representatives of Tamil national political parties in Colombo on Wednesday. The delegation included M.A. Sumanthiran, Shanakiyan Rasamanickam, P. Sathiyalingam and K. Kodeeswaran representing the Tamil National Alliance (TNA); Selvam Adaikalanathan and Dharshlingam Siddharthan of the Democratic Tamil National Alliance (DTNA); and Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam of the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF).
The Tamil representatives told Misri the government’s pledge to hold Provincial Council elections within a year of taking office remains unfulfilled, and urged India not only to press for the polls but to take concrete steps ensuring they are held.
Ponnambalam said the Provincial Council system carries structural shortcomings, arguing that because financial powers over the provinces rest with the central government, provincial administrations fall short on basic needs such as health and education. He said Provincial Councils risk becoming nominal structures unless ambiguities in their powers and responsibilities are resolved.
Siddharthan said the perception that the National People’s Power (NPP) has gained ground in the North stemmed from missteps by the Tamil political side, adding that a more unified approach would have prevented it. Adaikalanathan agreed, warning that unless Tamil parties contest the upcoming Provincial Council elections together, they risk repeating past setbacks.
The Tamil representatives briefed Misri on the status of the new constitution-drafting process. Misri said India could not act on an ethnically exclusive basis and that its position rests on ensuring equality for all citizens, a point the Tamil side accepted in principle, while maintaining that such equality has not been adequately prioritized in practice.
Misri also asked whether military-occupied land in the Northern and Eastern Provinces should be considered abandoned. The representatives said the land was privately owned by people forced from their homes by the war and related repression, and could not be classified as abandoned, and raised concerns over what they described as government efforts to acquire private land and build temples on it.
On economic cooperation, Misri reiterated that India is keen to move quickly on planned projects and faces no delay of its own, pointing instead to coordination gaps on the Sri Lankan side, including administrative steps like appointing a liaison officer, as the recurring obstacle raised whenever the issue surfaces in Parliament and beyond.
Misri reaffirmed India’s commitment to deepening bilateral development cooperation and said he hoped implementation bottlenecks could be resolved soon.
-ENCL
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