Indian Premier Dr.Manmohan Singh meets Sri lankan president Rajapakse on November 29. It is certain that the Lankan ethnic crisis will be the core issue on their agenda.

It is crystal clear that India will insist on the re-merger of the North-East, the traditional homeland of Tamils. This was conveyed to Rajapakse at a meeting between President Rajapakse and Shivshanker Menon , the Indian Foreign Secretary in Colombo.

New Delhi awaits the response of Lankan President at the meeting between the two heads.

Tamils consider North –East as their traditional homeland and they will not be agreeable to any de-merger of North-East. The international community including India is fully aware of the fact that the Tamils will oppose any de-merger with all the might that they can marshal.

India recognizes that the recent de-merger of the North-East by the Lankan government was an injustice to the Tamil people. It also realizes that the de-merger by the Sri Lankan government was a blow to the political stand taken by India for the reason that India brought about the merger of the North-East through a written agreement between India and Sri Lanka. That is why India insists that the North –East merger must prevail.

This problem has arisen following a Lankan Supreme Court ruling that the North-East merger is a violation of the constitution of Sri Lanka. The SC has also pointed out that there is a provision in the constitution of Sri Lanka to merge one or more provinces through an act of Parliament.

Therefore it is possible to merge the North-East through Parliament if the government is interested.

But the big question is whether the Mahinda government dominated by Sinhala Buddhist forces will be willing to do so. Ranil Wicremasinghe, the Opposition Leader and the Leader of the major opposition UNP has assured TNA Leader R.Sampanthan that his party would support any move to re-merge North-East.

Likewise Tamil National Alliance, Ceylon Worker’s Congress, Upcountry Tamil’s Front, Western Province Tamils’ Front, Sri Lanka Muslims Congress and EPDP will also support any move for re-merger. Only the JVP and JHU will oppose the re-merger.

Therefore, in the present political context, there is ample proof that such a motion for re-merger before Parliament will be passed not with simple majority , not with two third majority but with more than two third majority.

An English translation of the Editorial in Uthayan, a Tamil daily, based in Jaffna

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