Takeover of estates and failure of Provincial Councils

Devaraj and I were members of several delegations on foreign tours. We became good friends and later when he was elevated by his patron to be a Member of Parliament we spent quite some time together. He was assisted by Muthu Sivalingam who also became an MP and Deputy Minister. Another CWC member of the CPC was Sathasivam who came from a high caste estate family. With his fluency in three languages and tall stature he became a darling of the embassy cocktail circuit and thereby lost his standing within the party.

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ly failure. I recall the discussions that were held during the JRJ regime at the urging of the Indian government to offer some form of devolution to the Northern and Eastern provinces. This was mainly because the complex Indian political situation at that time demanded the appeasement of Tamil Nadu politicians. These leaders all together pressed the Indian Congress government to push the Sri Lankan authorities to devolve powers to representatives elected from the North and East.

It meant that Tamil politicians would enjoy some devolved executive powers. Behind this Tamil demand was the ghost of their recently proclaimed concept of the North and East as the Tamil "homeland". Every attempt was made to find the language to satisfy both sides as the Sri Lankan Government would not, indeed could not, agree to demarcate "Tamil homelands" which would have collapsed the concept of "territorial integrity" and "sovereignity” which form the basis of our national identity.

Till the last moment Provincial Councils were to be established only in the North and East. They were to be the only "unit of devolution" according to the first draft. Indeed according to that draft there would be created a "temporarily" joined North-Eastern province. After a plebiscite in the Eastern province the voters there could decide on a permanent joinder or not.

What powers would devolve on the PCs? JRJ resolved this vexed issue by decreeing that we should "in toto" adopt the powers devolved to the Indian states under their Constitution. This entailed the adoption of three "lists". List One would include the powers of the Centre. List Two would include the powers of the PCs. A third list would have "concurrent powers"where practical necessity required a sharing of power.