Indian PM Manmohan Singh pulls out of Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka

Absence of the leader of Commonwealth's largest nation will damage summit's credibility and embarrass David Cameron

theguardian.com, Jason Burke, Delhi, Sunday 10 November 2013

Manmohan Singh: complicated relationship with Sri Lanka. Photograph:
Ajit Solanki/AP

The Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, will not attend the controversial Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka next week, officials in Delhi have said.

Singh would write to the Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, to explain his decision, Indian media reported on Sunday.

Though rooted in domestic political considerations, Singh's absence will be a blow to the credibility of the organisation. India is the Commonwealth's biggest member.

It will also embarrass David Cameron, who has said his presence in Sri Lanka is the "right decision" for the Commonwealth and will allow a "tough message" about its human rights record to be delivered personally.

The Sri Lankan government has been accused of instigating a wave of repression to muzzle critics and of failing to investigate war crimes committed by its armed forces during the bloody closing phases of a brutal 26-year civil war against violent Tamil separatists in the north of the country.

A British parliamentary committee has described "continuing human rights abuses" in Sri Lanka and the UN has also been critical, particularly of a lack of effort towards "reconciliation" between the Sinhala majority and the country's Tamils.

Sri Lankan officials deny the charges, which they say are exaggerated, unfounded and biased, and point to Rajapaksa's successive electoral victories.

So far the Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, is the only head of government to boycott the meeting, a biannual summit known as the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). It will be chaired by Prince Charles.

The meeting posed a particular dilemma for the Indian government. Relations with Sri Lanka are complex and often tense. Chinese influence on the island nation has grown significantly in recent years and there are fears in Delhi that further deterioration would allow Beijing to make more inroads.

The Commonwealth summit is also a useful opportunity for Indian leaders to meet those of other developing world nations, particularly in Africa, former senior diplomats said.

But the election next spring is likely to lead to frantic coalition-building and alienating local voters or potential allies for Singh's beleagured Congress Party now would be costly.

Political power-brokers in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where voters are ethnically and linguistically close to Sri Lanka's Tamil minority, have repeatedly pressed Singh to take a stronger stance against alleged human rights violations on the island nation.

In March, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party (DMK) withdrew from the ruling coalition in protest at Delhi's supposed failure to toughen a UN resolution which encouraged Sri Lanka to investigate the war crimes charges.

Singh has previously told the DMK president, M Karunanidhi, that his decision on whether to travel to Colombo would be taken in "the best interests of the people of India and of Tamil Nadu".

Karunanidhi said this weekend he was relieved at the news but concerned that India was still sending its foreign minister, Salman Khurshid, to Colombo.

The Tamil Nadu chief minister, J Jayalalithaa, another potential electoral or coalition ally in next year's polls, had written to Singh "to reiterate Tamil Nadu's view that India should not participate in the CHOGM hosted by Sri Lanka at any level – titular, ministerial or official".

"Only such an action will convey India's unequivocal stand that it will not tolerate the violation of human rights of the Sri Lankan Tamil minority," she told the prime minister.

Senior Sri Lankan officials have told the Guardian that "public lecturing" on human rights was unhelpful and asked that overseas observers should “remember we are a developing country and need time to get things right, in our own way”.

Officials at the Indian Ministry of External Affairs downplayed the decision, which was reportedly taken by senior Congress Party officials last Friday and is seen as a defeat for foreign policy mandarins in Delhi. They said it was not unusual for a prime minister to be unable to attend the CHOGM.