Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) Leader and Opposition MP Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam accused the other Tamil political parties yesterday (15) that they use the federal solution for the national ethnic question only to win votes, following which they would commit themselves to legitimising the 13th Amendment to the Constitution because India wants such. 

“As far as the Tamil parties are concerned, our accusation against these parties is that they use the federal solution only to win votes. After that, they are committed to legitimising the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, because India wants it. This is why we refuse to work with these parties. They have proved it yet again,” he added. 

He said further that they have gone for these talks, and that they have not spoken about federalism, but that all of them have only spoken about the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. 

“They went saying that they will not compromise at all, and that there is no room for any compromise. That is what they told the people just to get some sort of support to legitimise them going and sitting at the table. But when they went and sat there, nobody spoke about federalism. The President called the meeting saying it is to find a solution to the ethnic problem. You don’t go and talk about something before that. When are you then going to talk about a final solution? When the President is asking for a final solution, why did you go and talk about something else? Why have you only spoken about the implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution first? You can initially talk about the final solution and you can tell the Government to implement the 13th Amendment to the Constitution thereafter. You don’t need to first have the 13th Amendment to the Constitution implemented,” he added. 

When queried as to why his party refrained from participating at the all-party conference held this week, he claimed this was because the Government and the President are illegitimate without the people’s mandate. 

“Also, there are no parameters set out for the solution that would be reached. If we are to consider compromising with regard to the Government’s lack of legitimacy, and taking part at the very least, we must know that the talks are going to be meaningful. If the President is saying that he is going to resolve the ethnic problem from the Tamil point of view, it can only be resolved if the South is willing to go beyond a unitary State and consider a fully fledged federal Constitution. If the parameters of the talks were clearly laid out, such as where we are going to negotiate on a federal solution, and on the Tamil side, whatever guarantees we need to give Constitutionally that we will not call for a separate State will be given, those are parameters that we could have seriously considered,” he added. He noted that without any such guarantees or parameters, to go and sit at the table does only one thing which is to try and legitimise a rejected Government.  

However, President Ranil Wickremesinghe stated at the all-party conference held on Tuesday (13) that in January, 2023, he will hold discussions with Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa in regard to the devolution of powers and the 13th Amendment to the Constitution based on the seven commission reports in the past including the report on Constitutional reforms submitted by a committee led by President’s Counsel Romesh De Silva. President Wickremesinghe emphasised that all political parties should come to an agreement to provide a solution to the ethnic problem by the upcoming 75th Independence celebration.