JOIN USPrime Minister Manmohan Singh has finally written to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa informing him that he would not be able to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet (CHOGM) to be held in Colombo from November 15 to 17.
Singh wrote to Rajapaksa that External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid would lead the delegation from India at the summit of the Commonwealth of Nations.
Official sources said the High Commission of India in Colombo handed over the prime minister’s letter to the Sri Lankan President’s office on Sunday.
The letter was in response to the invitation Singh received from Rajapaksa for attending CHOGM. Rajapaksa had sent Sri Lankan Foreign Minister G L Peiris to New Delhi in August to personally deliver the invitation letter to Singh.
The prime minister decided not to attend the summit of the 53-nation bloc in Colombo after top Congress leaders and senior Union ministers argued that the clamours from Tamil Nadu against his participation in the conclave should not be ignored, particularly when the next Lok Sabha elections are just six months away.
Khurshid will not only attend the meeting of the foreign ministers of the Commonwealth of Nations ahead of CHOGM, but also take part in the summit on behalf of the prime minister.
Not only the All India Anna Dravida Munnethra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and Dravida Munnethra Kazhagam, but also a section of Congress leaders from Tamil Nadu have been urging the prime minister not to attend CHOGM in Colombo as a mark of protest against human rights violations by the Sri Lankan armed forces during the final crackdown on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2009.
A resolution moved by the AIADMK supremo and Chief Minister J Jayalalitha was unanimously passed by the state Assembly of Sri Lanka on October 24 last, calling upon the Union government to totally boycott the biennial summit of the 54-nation bloc.