The sagging Indian interest in 13 A

President Dissanayake in a discussion with India's External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishanker during the former's visit to India

It is hardly surprising to note that India is weaning off the 13th Amendment in the light of the vast transition the world has undergone since the days India aggressively supported even the secessionist outfits in Sri Lanka

Is the 13th Amendment to the Constitution - the most controversial and lengthy modification introduced to the country’s basic law - losing its significance? 
The answer seems to be in the affirmative with India, the real architect of that Amendment gradually lessening its weight in its own statements, the possibility of it dying a natural death or becoming a dead letter is apparently high. Also, with the provincial councils, the practical outcome of the 13th Amendment having been almost forgotten even by the Tamil leaders, its significance is no doubt diminishing.
At none of the several meetings President Anura Kumara Dissanayake held with Indian leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Minister Dr S. Jaishankar during his two-day visit to New Delhi early this week, the matter was specifically transpired, according to media reports. However, only Prime Minister Modi during his joint press briefing with Sri Lanka President on December 16 made a passing reference to the 13th Amendment, but indirectly.  
He stated “We hope that the Sri Lankan government shall fulfil the aspirations of the Tamil people. And that they shall fulfil their commitment towards fully implementing the Constitution of Sri Lanka and conducting the Provincial Council Elections.” It is purely a matter for the Sri Lankan government to implement the country’s Constitution fully or partially, but it is obvious here that Indian Premier by implication was referring to the implementation of 13th Amendment which was the direct outcome of the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987. Never in the past 37 years since the signing of this Accord did the Indian leaders refrain from directly referring to this Amendment.

Sri Lankan Tamil newspapers were concerned about the 13th Amendment not being referred to in the joint statement issued at the end of Sri Lankan President’s India tour. However, it has to be reminded that a similar statement issued during the former President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s visit to New Delhi in July last year was also silent on the matter. It was the Indian Prime Minister who mentioned it in his speech during the joint press briefing with Wickremesinghe, as he did this time. Yet, then he specifically referred to it, not indirectly. 
This development has to be taken note of with an incident occurred seven years ago. In February, 2017, leader of the Eelam Peoples’ Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) Suresh Premachandran told the then Indian Foreign Secretary Dr. S. Jaishankar during a visit to Sri Lanka by the latter that India has a moral responsibility to prevail upon the Sri Lankan government to re-merge the North and East as it is a part of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord. The Indian diplomat had then replied that “much water has flowed under the bridge since 1987 and it will be better for all concerned to make use of the various windows of opportunity which have opened up recently with the change of regime in Colombo and secure the rights of the Tamils.” 
The Indo-Lanka Accord provided for the merger of the Northern and Eastern Provinces, though temporarily until a referendum is held in the multi-ethnic Eastern Province and for the institutions of provincial councils through the 13th Amendment. Now, India seems to have dropped the merger issue for good and prefers not refer to the 13th Amendment specifically. 
It is hardly surprising to note that India is weaning off the 13th Amendment in the light of the vast transition the world has undergone since the days India aggressively supported even the secessionist outfits in Sri Lanka. During the Cold War India sided with the Soviet Bloc whereas the Sri Lanka’s government headed by President J.R. Jayewardene stood with the Western countries led by the US. India then felt it was being encircled by the West, as another two countries, Pakistan and Bangladesh too took a pro-Western stance. 
Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi took advantage of the first opportunity she got to penalize Sri Lanka for its pro- West stance, when a large number of Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka started to arrive on the shores of Tamil Nadu subsequent to the 1983 anti-Tamil pogrom and with the escalation of fighting between the Sri Lankan armed forces and the Tamil separatist groups. She supplied those armed groups with arms and training while pressing the Sri Lankan leaders to devolve powers to Tamil dominated provinces. Thus, the India-Lanka Accord came into being in 1987. 
However, with the end of the Cold War in early nineties, India’s economic interests have superseded its strategic interests in respect of Sri Lanka and its concerns on the Sri Lankan Tamils gradually began to take a back seat. Simply, it is the India’s own interests and not the rights or plights of Sri Lankan Tamils that have dictated it to take both stances on Sri Lanka during and after the Cold War. 
Sri Lankan Tamil leaders have been heavily relying on India’s support to win their demands since early eighties when India intervened in the Sri Lanka’s ethnic affairs. With India’s indifference towards their demands or its obsession with its own economic and strategic interests in the region, they have been compelled to find solutions to their problems, as Dr. Jaishankar advised seven years ago to make use of “the various windows of opportunity which have opened up recently.”
The NPP government has assured that the 13th Amendment would not be scrapped until a solution agreeable to all concerned is found. Responding to this assurance, leaders of the Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA), leader Mano Ganesan had observed that the bird in the hand is worth the one flying in the sky (the original proverb says the bird in the hand worth the two in the bush). In other words, he prefers provincial councils be activated first. And the government has also assured that the provincial council elections would be held next year. 
A new solution to the ethnic problem could only be found through a Constitutional amendment or a totally new Constitution which the NPP government says would be introduced in three years. Hence, the only option left with the Tamil leaders is to be satisfied with the existing “window of opportunity” and make maximum use of the “bird in the hand,” without playing politics with it, as the leaders of the last Northern Provincial Council did.