Succumbing to the sustained pressure from pro-Tamil parties and his own Cabinet colleagues from Tamil Nadu, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday decided not to attend the CHOGM Summit in Colombo next week. External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid will represent India in his place.
Though there was no official announcement over Singh’s decision to skip the Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit on November 15-16, Government sources said: “The Prime Minister is likely to write to Sri lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa by Sunday regarding his decision.”
An announcement regarding the PM skipping the CHOGM meet is likely after the CCPA meet in a day or two, sources said.
The PM’s decision against attending the Summit ends days of speculation in this regard even as it fuels apprehensions about the impact of the move on Indo-lanka ties.
The MEA had been pressing for the PM’s participation on the ground that his absence could further lead Sri lanka to inch closer to China and Pakistan.
While Khurshid will be assisted by Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh and senior officials Pawan Kapoor and Navtej Sarna, sources said the Indian Government will try to convince Colombo citing previous precedents when of the 10 CHOGM summits since 1993, the PM represented India only on five occasions with Ministers heading the Indian delegation four times.
There was one instance of the Vice President representing India and thus even Hamid Ansari’s name was doing the rounds.
“So what you can summarise from this is that what we have followed in terms of participation in the CHOGM is an approach of something akin to horses for courses. We focused on what is required for our national interest, our foreign policy priorities and our international obligations. Taking those into account we have our delegations led by different people,” said a high-level Government official.
However, Khurshid had been favouring the PM’s presence in the Summit, maintaining that it was significant to reflect India’s interests. According to MEA, the PM’s participation this time was of paramount importance keeping in view the nation’s current strategic and security interests.
Political parties and several outfits in Tamil Nadu have opposed India’s participation at any level in the CHOGM meet alleging that the Sri lankan Government had committed gross violation of human rights and had no plans to devolve powers to the ethnic Tamils.
Both the AIADMK and DMK besides other Tamil Nadu-based parties too had been vociferously opposing the PM’s likely participation. In fact, DMK chief Karunanidhi had even warned of dire consequences for the Congress if the PM went ahead and attended the Summit.
Within the Government, Union Ministers GK Vasan, Jayanthi Natarajan and V Narayanasamy have openly voiced their opposition to the PM’s participation. Finance Minister P Chidambaram too was said to be opposed to the plan.
A section of the Congress was also opposed. On Friday, the Congress Core Group that met to discuss the issue was also not in favour of the PM attending the summit against the backdrop of protests. A view emerged that it would be “difficult” for Singh to visit Sri lanka at this juncture.