PM Manmohan Singh will boycott Commonwealth summit in Colombo but he will be represented by his foreign minister Salman Khursheed instead.
Mr Singh would be the second government head, after Canada's Stephen Harper, to boycott the summit.
The Commonwealth is an organisation of 53 former British territories.
A brutal 26-year war in which Sri Lanka's army defeated the ethnic-Tamil rebels. The war also claimed at least 100,000 people dead.
Mr Harper, PM of Canada said that he had taken the decision to boycott the meeting because of a lack of accountability for human rights abuses during and after the civil war, which is unacceptable.
Canada has the largest expatriate Sri-Lankan Tamil community. Many migrated during civil war period. India has a large Tamil community , which has been pressurising for a boycott. But India has a lot more at stake, especially when China is involved in lot of development of infrastructure in Sri Lanka. Are we not losing out in being a partner in development of post-war Sri Lanka ?
Mr Singh would be the second government head, after Canada's Stephen Harper, to boycott the summit.
The Commonwealth is an organisation of 53 former British territories.
A brutal 26-year war in which Sri Lanka's army defeated the ethnic-Tamil rebels. The war also claimed at least 100,000 people dead.
Mr Harper, PM of Canada said that he had taken the decision to boycott the meeting because of a lack of accountability for human rights abuses during and after the civil war, which is unacceptable.
Canada has the largest expatriate Sri-Lankan Tamil community. Many migrated during civil war period. India has a large Tamil community , which has been pressurising for a boycott. But India has a lot more at stake, especially when China is involved in lot of development of infrastructure in Sri Lanka. Are we not losing out in being a partner in development of post-war Sri Lanka ?
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