13TH
AMENDMENT - INTERNATIONAL
News: Tamil National Alliance
‘categorically rejects’ Sri Lankan President’s offer of 13th Amendment minus
police powers
What's
in the news?
● The
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) “categorically rejected” Sri Lankan President
Ranil Wickremesinghe’s offer to implement the 13th Amendment sans police
powers, terming his proposal for development and power devolution “another
hollow promise”.
Key
takeaways:
● The
13th Amendment is an over-30-year-old Sri Lankan legislation on the devolution of power from Colombo to the nine
provinces, but has never been fully implemented.
Backdrop:
● Outcome
of the Indo-Lanka Accord of July 1987,
which was signed by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and President J.R.
Jayawardene.
Objective:
● To
resolve Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict
that had aggravated into a full-fledged civil war, between the armed forces and
the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which led the struggle for a Tamil
sovereign state.
Provisions:
● Setting
up of provincial governments across
the country.
● Made
Tamil, an official language (along
with Sinhalese) and English, a link language.
● Power-sharing arrangement
to enable provinces the right to self-govern in the country, including Sinhala
majority areas.
Impacts:
● Assuring
a measure of devolution.
● Address
growing Sinhala-Buddhist majoritarianism from the time Sri Lanka became
independent in 1948.
● Issues
such as education, health, agriculture, housing, land, and police are
effectively tackled
Oppositions:
● Opposed by both Sinhala
nationalist parties and the LTTE.
● The
former thought it was too much power to share, while the Tigers deemed it too
little.
● It
was widely perceived as an imposition by a neighbor wielding hegemonic
influence.
Status:
● The
successive governments in Sri Lanka have refused to grant land and police
powers to the provinces, leading to unresolved issues since the civil war ended
14 years ago.
● Lack
of political will to genuinely devolve power.
● Limitations
of the 13th Amendment under a unitary constitution and seeks a federal
structure.
India’s
stand:
● Peace
and tranquility between the two with political stability and economic
development
● Carrying
forward the process of reconciliation and the implementation of the 13th
Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka, to ensure the fundamental freedoms
and human rights of all its citizens.
Thus, the 13th Amendment in Sri Lanka is
"critical" for achieving
reconciliation with the minority Tamil community.