The much-awaited visit to Sri Lanka by India’s Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee may not take place after all, diplomatic sources in Colombo said.
They said Indian officials were of the view that conditions were not presently conducive for such a visit.
But Sri Lanka’s Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona told The Sunday Times there was no official intimation whether Mr. Mukherjee was coming or not, while Indian High Commission spokesman Dinkar Asthana also said there was no confirmation of any dates for the visit.
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Earlier, reports said Mr. Mukherjee was due to arrive in Colombo next week for talks with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, following growing agitation in Tamil Nadu for a ceasefire in Sri Lanka. The government in response said the visit followed an invitation extended by Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama on October 27 in the wake of India’s National Security Advisor M. K. Narayanan summoning Sri Lanka’s deputy high commissioner to deliver a demarche.
The proposed visit assumed another dimension after a Tamil Nadu political party delegation headed by Chief Minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on December 4. The delegation urged him to send Mr. Mukherjee to Colombo to pressurize the government of Sri Lanka to stop the war, go for a ceasefire and resume talks with the LTTE.
Mr. Karunanidhi told journalists thereafter that the Indian premier had assured him that Mr. Mukherjee would be sent to Sri Lanka.
Against this backdrop, Prime Minister Singh declared in New Delhi yesterday that “governments of the region have a moral duty to take firm and expeditious action against the menace of terrorism”.
"In our region, there is growing awareness that terrorism and extremism pose a threat to democracy and development. Governments and authorities in our region and elsewhere have a moral duty to act firmly and quickly," he said inaugurating an international jurists’ conference on terrorism, rule of law and human rights.
Mr. Singh called on "all peace-loving and democratic forces" around the world to join hands in the fight against all manifestations of extremism and intolerance.
"The threat of terrorism is not divisible. The fight against it is also not divisible. The defence of freedom and peace is also not divisible," Mr. Singh said. | 
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