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Lanka praises India for managing ethnic diversities

19 Nov 2011 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

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". (Source: PTI)

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Lanka praises India for managing ethnic diversities

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