COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — A meeting between India’s Vice President, C. P. Radhakrishnan, and Sri Lankan Tamil political leaders in Colombo on Sunday highlighted internal tensions within ITAK, with participants describing moments that strained political decorum.
At the outset of the meeting, the seven representatives of Tamil political parties introduced themselves. During the introductions, Sivagnanam Sritharan, who is engaged in an ongoing leadership dispute with M. A. Sumanthiran, said he had been elected president of the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) but had been prevented from assuming office due to a court case.
Participants said the remark appeared to reflect internal infighting within the ITAK at a meeting convened to discuss broader political issues, including devolution and governance.
After the discussions concluded, the interaction moved to a customary group photograph. On one side of the Vice President stood Dharmalingam Siddharthan and Selvam Adaikalanathan, alongside M. A. Sumanthiran, while the other side of the group was more crowded.
As participants arranged themselves, Jaffna Monitor learned that Sivagnanam Sritharan was asked to move to the opposite side — a position that would have placed him next to Mr. Sumanthiran — but, according to sources, he declined.
Participants subsequently posed for individual photographs with the Vice President.
During a brief interaction with Mr. Sivagnanam and Mr. Sritharan, the Vice President held both men by the hand and urged unity, asking, “Is it necessary for you to remain so divided? You should work together,” a source briefed on the exchange said.
During the broader discussion — which covered Sri Lanka’s ethnic question, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka, and long-delayed provincial council elections — the Vice President indicated that he had an additional matter to raise later in the meeting.
However, participants, focused on presenting their respective positions, did not return to the issue, and it was not raised again before the meeting concluded. Its substance remains unclear.
