File Photo: National Security Advisor of India Shivshankar Menon with President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Colombo
Menon to meet President in July over 13A
June 21, 2013 09:48 am
India’s National Security Advisor (NSA) Shivshankar Menon is expected to meet President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Colombo in July and convey New Delhi’s grave misgivings over moves to dilute, or even to do away with, the India-inspired 13th Amendment (13A) of the constitution which devolves powers to the Provincial Councils.
Menon had revealed this to the six-member delegation of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) which met him in New Delhi earlier this week, Selvam Adaikalanathan, a member of the delegation, told Express. Adaikalanathan said that Menon would be here in mid-July.
Official Version
Indian official sources said that Menon would be in Colombo to participate in the trilateral talks on maritime security between India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives and that it was customary for visiting Indian NSAs to meet Rajapaksa, Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and other top leaders of the government and the opposition. According to Adaikalanathan, India’s Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid had also said that he would visit Sri Lanka, though at a later date. – Express News Service
