UNP opposes dilution of 13-A- Govt. split due to its own folly

The UNP said yesterday that it was opposed to the dilution of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution as proposed by the government.UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake, MP, told a news conference in Colombo that the 13th Amendment was a sequel to an accord between two sovereign nations and not a private agreement between Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and President J. R. Jayewardene, as claimed by their critics.



The theory that devolution would lead to separation was nonsensical and unacceptable.

Despite statements, in recent weeks, by several Ministers, that the 13th Amendment would be amended, their proposal was yet to be submitted to Parliament, he noted.

The government was on a mission to cover up its failures on the economic front including the skyrocketing Cost of Living by generating unnecessary controversies such as the issuance of Halal certificates, Attanayake said, adding that it had now floated a proposal to strip the Provincial Councils of most of its powers including land and police.

With India putting pressure on President Mahinda Rajapaksa not to meddle with the 13th Amendment and to implement his pledge of 13-A Plus, he had been forced to back track. To save face and please his hard-line allies such as the Jathika Hela Urumaya and National Freedom Front and also as a time buying exercise, a Parliamentary Select Committee on the National Question had been constituted, the UNP General  Secretary observed.

The Rajapaksa regime’s policy of contradiction and confusion, the MP noted had backfired due to its own folly, with the minority and left parties and even some Sinhalese MPs vehemently opposing the move to dilute 13-A, which had threatened its very existence.