{"id":124984,"date":"2014-05-23T19:58:42","date_gmt":"2014-05-23T14:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=124984"},"modified":"2014-06-15T22:49:33","modified_gmt":"2014-06-15T17:19:33","slug":"full-letter-wiggie-declines-rajapaksa-invitation-to-go-modis-swearing-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/full-letter-wiggie-declines-rajapaksa-invitation-to-go-modis-swearing-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Full Letter: Wiggie Declines Rajapaksa Invitation To Go Modi\u2019s Swearing-In"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Northern Province Chief Minister <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=C.V.+Wigneswaran&amp;x=12&amp;y=4\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">C. V. Wigneswaran<\/span><\/a> today declined\u00a0President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Mahinda+Rajapaksa&amp;x=6&amp;y=1\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/span><\/a>&#8216;s invitation to<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">\u00a0join the delegation which would leave for Delhi to attend the swearing-in of Prime Minister-elect of India, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Narendra+Modi&amp;x=8&amp;y=3\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Narendra Modi<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_116719\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/C.V.Wigneswaran-e1386942745472.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-116719\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-116719\" alt=\"C.V.Wigneswaran\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/C.V.Wigneswaran-e1386942745472-150x150.jpg\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-116719\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">C.V.Wigneswaran<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Writing to the Minister of External Affairs,\u00a0Professor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=G.L.+Peiris&amp;x=9&amp;y=6\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">G.L. Peiris<\/span><\/a>, the Chief Minister said; &#8220;I regret to inform you that I\u2019m unable to accept your kind invitation. Primarily, because acceptance would indicate that exists a strong co-operative spirit prevailing between the Centre and the Province, when in fact, the People of North are engulfed in a climate of fear on account of the continued presence of the Military while the activities of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Northern+Provincial+Council+&amp;x=11&amp;y=3\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Northern Provincial Council<\/span><\/a> have been stultified. I would be guilty of facilitating token were I to accept such invitation. Nevertheless I have already sent my best wishes to the Prime Minister Elect of India through the High Commissioner for India in Sri Lanka.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>We publish below the letter in full;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">23. 05. 2014<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">Professor G.L. Peiris, MP,<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Minister of External Affairs<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Hon\u2019ble Minister!<\/p>\n<p>Your Fax of even date to hand.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m grateful for the invitation extend on behalf of H.E. The President to accompany him to grace the occasion of the swearing in of Shri Narandra Modi, the Prime Minister Elect of India, even at this late stage. I reply having considered your kind request in the company of my Board of Ministers.<\/p>\n<p>It is an auspicious sign that the historic election of Shri Narendra Modi has revived in the Government of Sri Lanka a sense of co-operation and partnership towards the Northern Province. Given the untold hardships of the Peoples of Northern Province and the strictures on the functioning of the Northern Provincial Council, this is indeed welcome.<\/p>\n<p>However, I regret to inform you that I\u2019m unable to accept your kind invitation. Primarily, because acceptance would indicate that exists a strong co-operative spirit prevailing between the Centre and the Province, when in fact, the People of North are engulfed in a climate of fear on account of the continued presence of the Military while the activities of the Northern Provincial Council have been stultified. I would be guilty of facilitating token were I to accept such invitation. Nevertheless I have already sent my best wishes to the Prime Minister Elect of India through the High Commissioner for India in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n<p>I earnestly hope that the spirit of partnership and goodwill expressed by your kind invitation would nevertheless continue to ensure that the electoral mandate of the Northern Province would be fulfilled and the fundamental rights of its People are preserved.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Yours sincerely,<\/p>\n<p>Justice C.V. Wigneswaran<\/p>\n<p>Chief Minister<\/p>\n<p>Northern Province<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":116719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,6969,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-popular-stories","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Full Letter: Wiggie Declines Rajapaksa Invitation To Go Modi\u2019s Swearing-In - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/full-letter-wiggie-declines-rajapaksa-invitation-to-go-modis-swearing-in\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Full Letter: Wiggie Declines Rajapaksa Invitation To Go Modi\u2019s Swearing-In - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/full-letter-wiggie-declines-rajapaksa-invitation-to-go-modis-swearing-in\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-05-23T14:28:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-06-15T17:19:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/C.V.Wigneswaran-e1667655060313.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"290\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/full-letter-wiggie-declines-rajapaksa-invitation-to-go-modis-swearing-in\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/full-letter-wiggie-declines-rajapaksa-invitation-to-go-modis-swearing-in\/\",\"name\":\"Full Letter: Wiggie Declines Rajapaksa Invitation To Go Modi\u2019s Swearing-In - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/full-letter-wiggie-declines-rajapaksa-invitation-to-go-modis-swearing-in\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/full-letter-wiggie-declines-rajapaksa-invitation-to-go-modis-swearing-in\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/C.V.Wigneswaran-e1667655060313.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-05-23T14:28:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-06-15T17:19:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/full-letter-wiggie-declines-rajapaksa-invitation-to-go-modis-swearing-in\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/full-letter-wiggie-declines-rajapaksa-invitation-to-go-modis-swearing-in\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/full-letter-wiggie-declines-rajapaksa-invitation-to-go-modis-swearing-in\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/C.V.Wigneswaran-e1667655060313.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/C.V.Wigneswaran-e1667655060313.jpg\",\"width\":200,\"height\":290,\"caption\":\"Justice C.V. 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