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Lankan FM arrives with CHOGM invite for PM
Tamil parties asks India to boycott Commonwealth summit
Ashok Tuteja
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 18
Sri Lankan Foreign Minister G L Peiris arrived here this evening to invite Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet (CHOGM) in Colombo in November even as political parties in Tamil Nadu reiterated their demand that India boycott the summit to protest alleged war crimes against the Tamil during the 2009 conflict.

Peiris will call on Manmohan Singh tomorrow to personally hand over an invitation from President Mahinda Rajapaksa for the summit. He will also meet External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid and Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh.

The visit comes at a time when India has vehemently opposed the attempt by the Rajapaksa Government to dilute the 13th Amendment of the Constitution to devolve powers to the provinces and grant some measure of self-governance to the country’s minorities.

Both the ruling AIADMK and the DMK have asked the UPA Government to pull out of the summit to register India’s protest against the treatment being out to the Tamil minorities in the island nation. Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had written to the Prime Minister, appealing to him to withdraw from the summit, since Colombo continued to deny Tamils their legitimate human rights, equality and democratic freedom. The DMK, which had withdrawn support to the UPA regime over the Lankan issue, has also asked the PM to boycott the summit.

Several other nations are in a dilemma on whether to attend the summit in view of Lanka’s human rights record. Canada has threatened to boycott the meet unless Lanka’s human rights record improves. The Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons of the UK has also asked British Prime Minister David Cameroon to pull out of the summit.

This will be the first CHOGM not attended by Queen Elizabeth II in 40 years. Buckingham Palace has announced that Prince Charles will be attending in her place as she has curtailed her overseas visits due to age.