1. Modi raises aspirations of Tamils with Ranil: The Hindu – Page 1,8
Why is it in news? India expects Sri Lanka to implement the 13th Amendment and ensure a “life of dignity and respect” for its Tamil population, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.UPSC SYLLABUS RELEVANCE for prelims and Mains:
Prelims: International Relations.Mains: General Studies II – India and its neighbourhood- relations.
Important concepts: 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution.
Prelims PYQ Exercise-Find answer:
Q. Where is Bundala Biosphere Reserve which has been recently added to the UNESCO’s Man and Biosphere (MAB) network located? (2006)(a) Russia
(b) India
(c) Sri Lanka
(d) Bangladesh
Today’s prelims practice question:
Q. Consider the following statements about the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution:1. The Indo-Lanka Accord of July 1987 was signed by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and President J.R. Jayawardene.
2. The 13th amendment was passed in the year 1998. Which among the statements mentioned above is/are correct?
A. 1 only
B. 2 only
C. Both 1 and 2
D. Neither 1 nor 2
Correct answer: A
Explanation: The 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution is an outcome of the Indo-Lanka Accord of July 1987, signed by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and President J.R. Jayawardene, in an attempt to resolve Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict that had aggravated into a full-fledged civil war, between the armed forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which led the struggle for Tamils’ self-determination and sought a separate state. It was passed in 1987.
Mains PYQ exercise:
India is an age-old friend of Sri Lanka.’ Discuss India’s role in the recent crisis in Sri Lanka in the light of the preceding statement. (2022)
Today’s mains practice question:
What do you know about the 13th amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution? What are the concerns regarding the 13th amendment?
DETAILED EXPLANATION OF IMPORTANT CONCEPTS
13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution:• Sri Lanka’s current Constitution, adopted in 1978, has had 21 amendments to date, but arguably, none as controversial as this.
• Passed in November 1987, months after Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President J.R. Jayewardene signed the Indo-Lanka Accord, the 13th Amendment is the only legislative guarantee of a measure of power devolution to the island’s provinces.
• It provided for setting up provincial governments across the country — there are nine provincial councils — and made Tamil, too, an official language, and English, a link language.
• It was, in some measure, an antidote to the ‘Sinhala Only Act’ of 1956, one of the most discriminatory laws passed targeting the island’s Tamil minorities, after the Ceylon Citizenship Act of 1948 that rendered Sri Lanka’s Malaiyaha Tamils of Indian origin stateless.
• It also sought to address the Tamils’ right to self-determination which, by the 1980s, had become a raging political call.