Uproar over proposed anti-terror law in Sri Lanka, President Wickremesinghe said – will review
In November 2019, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar broke with that tradition of visiting Colombo within three days of Rajapaksa being elected President and invited him to New Delhi. Rajapaksa visited on 29 November 2019, the same month he took office.
Opposition parties as well as minority communities in Sri Lanka have witnessed massive uproar and protests over the proposed anti-terror law. Meanwhile, President Ranil Wickremesinghe said it would be reviewed before being implemented. Wickremesinghe gave the assurance at a meeting with Tamil minority parties ahead of his proposed visit to Delhi on July 20-21.
A press release from the President’s Office said Wickremesinghe discussed the proposed anti-terror bill with Tamil parties and informed them that the draft committee would review the bill and it would be re-published in the Gazette.
In March, the government published the current bill in the Gazette, prompting widespread criticism both locally and internationally.
The new Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) will replace the highly controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) of 1979, which was introduced in 1979 as a temporary arrangement to combat violence perpetrated by Tamil minority terrorist groups. Critics are calling the new proposed anti-terror law much stricter than the existing law.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe will visit New Delhi on July 20 on a two-day visit
Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe will arrive in Delhi for a two-day official visit on July 20, the first anniversary of his election to the country’s Parliament in extraordinary circumstances. Sri Lanka’s president is directly elected – but Wickremesinghe’s predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa was dramatically ousted from office by a popular movement that emerged from the Sri Lankan economic crisis. Earlier, in an attempt to quell the protests, Rajapaksa had appointed Wickremesinghe as his prime minister.
In India-Sri Lanka relations, a year is a long time for a new President to make his first official visit to New Delhi. Over the past three decades, it has been the practice for India to have a new Sri Lankan head of state within a few weeks.
In November 2019, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar broke with that tradition of visiting Colombo within three days of Rajapaksa being elected President and invited him to New Delhi. Rajapaksa visited on 29 November 2019, the same month he took office.
