What is the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka?

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe will convene an all-party meeting on July 26 on the National Reconciliation Programme that seeks to address the thorny issue of ethnic reconciliation of minority Tamils in the island nation.

The development closely follows the President’s two-day official visit to India last week, where he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Tamils issue figured prominently in the wide-ranging talks between the two leaders. 

PM Modi highlighted the need for the implementation of the 13th Amendment (13A) to the Sri Lankan Constitution. 

The 13th Amendment

• India has been pressing Sri Lanka to implement the 13th Amendment which was brought in after the Indo-Sri Lankan agreement of 1987. 

• The 13A provides for the devolution of power to the Tamil community.

• The Sinhala majority hardliners have been advocating a total abolition of the island’s provincial council system established in 1987. There are nine provincial councils in Lanka.

• Sinhalese, mostly Buddhist, make up nearly 75 per cent of Sri Lanka’s 22 million population while Tamils are 15 per cent.

• Sri Lanka has had a long history of failed negotiations to end the Tamil claim of discrimination by allowing some form of political autonomy.

• An Indian effort in 1987 that created the system of a joint provincial council for the Tamil-dominated north and east faltered as the Tamils claimed it fell short of full autonomy.

• Tamils say that not enough power had been devolved to the provincial councils to make them meaningful.

• The Tamils put forward their demand for autonomy since gaining independence from Britain in 1948 which from the mid 70s turned into a bloody armed conflict.

• Over the years, the Sri Lankan government has been aggressive against Tamilian groups following its war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

• The LTTE ran a military campaign for a separate Tamil homeland in the northern and eastern provinces of the island nation for nearly 30 years before its collapse in 2009.

• In December 2022, an all-party meeting was held to discuss the 13th Amendment to Sri Lanka’s Constitution as mooted by India to resolve the long standing demand for political autonomy for the minority Tamils in the island nation.

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