TNA to ask for Modi’s intervention to prevent ‘abolition of 13A’

By Dinasena Rathugamage

Leaders of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) have decided to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the latest developments in the contest of the proposed 20th Amendment to the Constitution.

TNA Kilinochchi District MP S. Sritharan said that the constitutional reforms including the proposed 20th Amendment would jeopardise their future and therefore the TNA would meet the Indian Prime Minister to discuss possible Indian intervention on behalf of the Tamil people in the North and the East and request the Lankan government not to deprive the minorities of their rights.

MP Sritharan said that the TNA had already asked for an appointment with the Indian Prime Minister.

“If the government’s constitutional reforms do away with the 13th Amendment, then that would be a great injustice to the people in the Northern and the Eastern Provinces. We hope to ask the Indian Prime Minister to request the Sri Lankan government to offer an alternative before doing away with 13th Amendment to the Constitution.”

He said that they would point out to Indian Prime Minister Modi that the 13th Amendment had been introduced as a response to the needs that had been pointed out and under the auspices of India. Therefore, the Sri Lankan government was not in a position to remove the provisions of that amendment on its own without consulting India,” Sritharan added.