| BACKGROUND TO INDIA'S INVOLVEMENT India was actively engaged in dialogues with Sri Lanka right from the independence of the two countries in regard to the difficult issue of the citizenship and other rights of the Tamils of recent Indian origin. It also watched with concern the growing alienation of the Sri Lankan Tamil community beginning with the controversial 'Sinhala Only' doctrine in 1956, the erosion of the Tamil position in the Eastern Province through State Sponsored Colonization schemes and the inability or unwillingness of successive governments since 1956 to check this alienation through effective political and administrative measures. However, India's direct involvement in assisting Sri Lanka to work out a political solution to the ethnic crisis began in the wake of the large-scale violence in July/August, 1983. The violence in Sri Lanka aroused great concern in India, especially in Tamil Nadu where emotions ran particularly high because of the close linguistic, cultural and family ties with Tamils in Sri Lanka. The first wave of refugees, whose number grew to 130,000, also started at that time. India, therefore, took a diplomatic initiative to defuse the situation and the then Foreign Minister Shri P.V. Narasimha Rao visited Sri Lanka. Following the Foreign Minister's visit, President Jayewardene sent his brother Dr. Hector W. Jayewardene to India in August as his special emissary for discussions with the Indian Government. During his meetings with the former Prime Minister, Dr. Jayewardene stated that the Sri Lankan Government was willing to consider proposals which would give the Tamil minority their due share in the affairs of the country within the framework of the united Sri Lanka. Our Prime Minister offered India's good offices to facilitate a political solution, which was accepted by the Sri Lankan President. Thereafter, Mrs. Gandhi appointed Shri G. Parthasarthy as her Special Envoy to Sri Lanka for mediatory efforts between the Sri Lankan Government and the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF). |