.

CHENNAI: Chief minister M K Stalin has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday urging the Union govt to ensure the proposed constitutional reforms in Sri Lanka do not undermine the rights of Sri Lankan Tamils. Stalin said he was writing the letter in the wake of detailed representations highlighting the ‘grave risks' posed to Sri Lankan Tamil community by the ongoing constitutional reforms in Sri Lanka. "The current govt in Sri Lanka, led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, and holding an absolute majority in Parliament, is accelerating efforts to introduce a new constitution under the guise of resolving ethnic issues.

However, this proposed framework appears to again reinforce a unitary "Ekkiyarajya" (unitary state) model, which threatens to further marginalize the Tamils by ignoring their legitimate aspirations for political autonomy,'' Stalin said in the letter.

"Specifically, India should press for the inclusion of federal arrangements that devolve power to the provinces to protect ethnic minority rights and uphold principles of pluralism and equality," Stalin added.

He said the the post- independence Constitutions of Sri Lanka—those of 1947, 1972, and 1978—have all been rooted in a unitary state structure, which has ‘enabled planned ethnic violence, structural oppression, and denial of basic rights to the Tamil people.' Even after the end of the 2009 war, Stalin said, the constitution of Lanka had enabled Lankan govt to enable "demographic changes, land grabs and erosion of Tamil identity in their traditional homelands". He said the new constitution should incorporate Thimphu principles put forth by Tamil representatives during the talks in Bhutan in 1985, which include recognition of Sri Lankan Tamils as a separate nation and acknowledgement of northern and eastern provinces as the traditional homeland of the Tamil people. "Without incorporating these elements, any new constitution risks perpetuating the cycle of injustice and instability, potentially leading to renewed conflict and humanitarian crises," Stalin said adding, India has a moral and strategic imperative to act.