Sharad Pawar, Indian Minister for Agriculture
and political veteran, has urged President Mahinda Rajapakse to
offer a devolution package which will satisfy the political
‘moderates’ in Sri Lanka.
In his meeting with Rajapakse at Temple Trees
last week, Pawar emphasised the need to find a political rather
than a military solution to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka,
and urged the President to fashion a devolution package that
would satisfy at least the moderates among the Tamils and
Sinhalas, reliable sources told the Hindustan Times on Saturday.
Pawar had met the Tamil moderates V.
Anandasangaree and Douglas Devananda, and the Sinhala moderate
prof. Tissa Vitharana. The Indian Agriculture Minister held
talks with his Sri Lankan counterpart, Maithripala Sirisena, on
the issue of India-Sri Lanka cooperation in agricultural
development, Hindustan Times reported in its online edition on
Sunday
Indian and the Sri Lankan moderates, cutting
across ethnic lines, were dismayed by the devolution proposal
made by Rajapakse's
Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), which rejected
the concept of a federal state, and made the "district" the unit
of devolution instead of the larger "province". The Tamil
moderates had had an additional complaint - that the proposal
did not envisage an autonomous and united Tamil-speaking
North-Eastern Province.
