The Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) said yesterday (13) that it has changed its earlier decision of writing to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Government on the eve of President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s prospective visit to New Delhi next week.

Earlier, the TPA, along with several other Tamil political groups who support them, was to write to Modi about the issues faced by the Tamil community in Sri Lanka, with the intention of pressurising the incumbent Sri Lankan Government to provide them with fruitful solutions for those issues.

This decision was taken in the wake of President Wickremesinghe readying to go on a two-day visit to India on 21 July during which he is expected to meet Prime Minister Modi.

In a communication to The Daily Morning yesterday, TPA Leader and Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Opposition Parliamentarian Mano Ganesan said that Indians have been repeatedly told of their woes and aspirations. However, Ganesan refused to elaborate on the reasons behind the change of their earlier decision to write to the Indian Government. “In fact, India has its’ own shared obligations and moral responsibilities towards the Indian origin Malaiyaga Tamils in Sri Lanka which derive from the infamous 1964 Sirima (former Sri Lankan Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike) - Shastri (former Indian Premier Lal Bahadur Shastri) Repatriation Pact. We feel that we must take up such with the Government of India as opposed to the Government of Sri Lanka as the former has a higher degree of responsibility in this regard,” he added.

This will be Wickremesinghe’s first visit to India since being appointed the President of Sri Lanka last year (2022) following the ouster of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in a people’s uprising in July 2022. Wickremesinghe was appointed the President for the balance term of Rajapaksa till September 2024.