Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will not be here for Sri Lanka’s 60th Independence Anniversary celebration on February 4, the Colombo foreign office has been told.

The bad news, attributed to ``scheduling difficulties’’ as well as Singh’s indifferent health at present, has been interpreted in well informed diplomatic circles as party due to umbrage that Sri Lanka had announced a visit without confirmation from New Delhi as well as unhappiness about foot-dragging on the presentation of political proposals for the resolution of the National Question.

"India does not like being taken for granted,’’ a seasoned diplomat commented.

Sri Lanka’s concerns about the Indian reaction to government’s decision last week to withdraw from the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) with the LTTE was evident by the fact that the Indian high commissioner here, Mr. Alok Prasad, was appraised of the decision a few minutes before formal notice of withdrawal was presented to the Norwegian ambassador in terms of the CFA.

The Indian High Commissioner and Deputy High Commissioner Manikkam met Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama at 5 p.m. on Thursday while he saw the Norwegian ambassador 30 minutes later and the four co-chairs of the peace process (US, Japan, Norway and the EU) at 6.30 pm.

"Of course they would have known all about it from the media before the formal word was given by the foreign minister,’’ an analyst said.

Well informed diplomatic sources said that although India has not reacted publicly to Colombo’s decision to pull out of the CFA, the Indian view had been communicated to Bogollagama.

While several foreign countries including the US, Canada and the Scandinavian countries have expressed regret and concern, as has UN Secretary General Bai Ki Moon, India for reasons that diplomatic sources said was a desire not to embarrass Colombo has so far not gone public with its views.

"Whether the South Block (as India’s External Affairs Ministry is commonly described) will choose to leak something to a trusted newspaper like The Hindu in the next few days remains to be seen,’’ these sources said.