COLOMBO, Dec 8: Sri Lanka's Opposition United National Party on Monday reprimanded the Government in Parliament for not yet giving Indian High Commissioner-designate Shiv Shankar Menon a date to present his credentials and cited this as a wasted opportunity to improve relations with New Delhi. Menon arrived in Sri Lanka two weeks ago and Sri Lanka's former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs John Amaratunga said today it was a slight to India to keep him waiting so long to officially take up his assignment."I don't know why this important High Commissioner of our neighbour, our big brother is treated like this," Amaratunga said during the budget debate on Foreign Ministry votes, pointing out how Menon's predecessors were never kept waiting by the Government, even though relations between the two countries were those days "difficult". He said that it was a "deliberate" and "spiteful" act by the Sri Lankan Government as revenge for India's red carpet treatment to UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was in New Delhi in October. During his visit, he met President K R Narayanan, Prime Minister I K Gujral and a host of other dignitaries.In his reply in Parliament, Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar made no mention of the delay in the presentation of credentials by Menon but he claimed, speaking to media persons later, that it "was not an issue at all". "It is not an impediment to his functioning," Kadirgamar said when queried about the delay, but admitted that no envoy could attend State functions before the accreditation ceremony. Kadirgamar said Menon was scheduled to present credentials last Thursday but the ceremony had been postponed. The Indian envoy may now have to await the arrival in Sri Lanka later this month of the new US ambassador so that both could present credentials at a single occasion.While it is routine practice to bunch together two or three envoys for presentation of credentials, previous Indian high commissioners had not had to wait long for the formality. Another member, Dharmalingam Sidhathan of the Tamil party PLOTE, condemned the harassment of a visiting Indian journalist by the police recently and warned that such actions could send out wrong signals to India. He was referring to the incident in which the five-star hotel room of Sudha Ramachandran, a Bangalore-based journalist, was searched by the Sri Lankan CID. She was told by the police and the hotel security staff that she was under suspicion as she had a Tamil surnameEarlier, opening the debate, prominent UNP member Anura Bandaranaike said the Government had failed to deliver its promise of a pro-Asia foreign policy, nor had it done anything "substantial" to strengthen relations with India.Deputy Minister Reggie Ranatunga said foreign policy under the present Government had recovered after 17 years of UNP rule to the point where the entire international community was now behind Sri Lanka. India, a one-time supporter of Tamil militants, was now backing the Government's policies on resolving the ethnic conflict and the US had branded the LTTE a terrorist outfit.
