Colombo: Sri Lanka on Saturday praised India for
successfully managing ethnic diversities in a federal
democratic framework.
"The key lessons from India’s development efforts and its
stature as a world’s largest democracy was its success in
managing ethnic diversities in a democratic framework and its
ability to reach out to the poorest sections of the society
through innovative social schemes involving the closest
cooperation between the central and the state governments in a
stable federal structure," Foreign Minister GL Peiris was
quoted as saying by the Indian High Commission in a release
today.
Peiris was addressing a gathering at a lecture yesterday
by former Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran on "India and
Sri Lanka and the Asian Resurgence", marking the launch of the
India-Sri Lanka Foundation, it said.
Peiris has long been a proponent of a federal solution to
Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict involving the Tamil minority
community.
However, with the failure of the Norwegian peace
initiative during which the LTTE was thought to have agreed
for a federal solution, the federal idea has been shelved.
The Sinhalese nationalists perceived federalism as
another means for giving into the LTTE's demand for a separate
state.
Amid the direct talks with the main Tamil party TNA,
President Mahinda Rajapaksa has tasked a parliamentary select
committee to formulate a solution to political aspiration of
the Tamil community.
Rajapaksa has responded to calls by Tamil parties for
following the Indian model, saying he would look for a "home
grown solution".
PTI
First Published: Saturday, November 19, 2011, 20:18