PM Narendra Modi does a balancing act in Sri Lanka

NEW DELHI: A day after offering a slew of sops to Colombo and nudging the government to protect the rights of Tamils, prime minister Narendra Modi did a balancing act on Saturday by visiting the Tamil-dominated Jaffna — the first Indian PM to do so — with an eye on providing solace to war victims and making a trip to the Buddhist heartland of Anuradhapura to pay religious homage.

In Jaffna, Modi handed over homes built with the help of Indian assistance to Tamils, saying that the houses are not just made of brick and stones, but is an opportunity to share the sorrows of the needy. “This project will provide shelter to 27,000 families, which means it is an effort to build the future of children of 27,000 families,” noted Modi. India is building 50,000 houses for Tamils in the insurgency-affected zone.

Chief minister of Sri Lanka’s Northern Province, CV Vigneswaran, expressed his gratitude to the PM for meeting the people of Jaffna and said there was nothing more that he would want from an ‘elder brother government’. Modi became the second foreign leader to visit the battle- scarred Jaffna, once dominated by the Tamil militant outfit, LTTE. British prime minister David Cameron had visited Jaffna during a Commonwealth summit in Colombo in November 2013.

The prime minister’s brief visit to Jaffna is seen as hugely symbolic, particularly after he called on the majority Sinhalese government on Friday to fully implement the 13th Amendment, a 1987 constitutional provision on greater autonomy and go beyond it in the reconciliation process.

Since coming to power last January, the government led by President Maithripala Sirisena has launched a series of reconciliatory measures including lifting of travel restrictions to Northern Sri Lanka, replacement of retired military officers as governors of North and Eastern Provinces by respected civil servants, agreement to review cases of illegal land grab by army troops and release of political prisoners.

One of the priorities of the new government is to rehabilitate the internally displaced people and those who were in the camps. Judge Kanagasabapathy Sripavan, a Tamil, has been sworn in as Chief Justice of Sri Lanka and Tamil leaders were present at Colombo at National Day Celebrations on February 4. Sirisena, in his capacity as the Minister of Defence, has decided to release land to resettle some 1,022 Tamil families displaced by the war in Northern Sri Lanka.