India said “CEPA or interference?”

Mystery and talk of intrigue surrounds the CEPA (Comprehensive Economic Partnership) agreement that was to be signed during the forthcoming SAARC summit.
The government has now decided to postpone the signing or to call it off. What’s definite is that there will be no signing of CEPA during SAARC. Reports are that the government’s coalition partners were angered that “India was trying to use CEPA as a bargaining chip to ensure Indian non-interference in the government’s forward march in the Wanni.’’
The army commander announced this week that his troops are poised now to march into Killinocchi, the Tiger heartland.
Other sources said that though the government agreed to CEPA, a free trade agreement with India, it has now reneged on this agreement due to pressure from the coalition partner, particularly the JHU. Earlier nationalists such a Gunadasa Amarasekera of the “Jathi Hithaishee Viyaparaya’’ said CEPA was a secret agreement being foisted on the country, where Sri Lanka stands to lose badly due to unfavourable terms of trade. The government trotted out a lame excuse that CEPA will not be signed as ‘’cabinet approval has not been obtained.’
However, CEPA was negotiated and about to be signed after the government definitely decided to go ahead with it, and this abrupt turnaround, sources say, was due to immense political pressure and the perception that Sri Lanka is caving into India in order to secure certain conditions such as ‘’non interference on the war front.’
Earlier this month a powerful Indian delegation of three VVIP officials was in Colombo sparking speculation that they were here to stop the army’s march towards the Wanni.