PM busy, declines to attend Lanka I-day gala

New Delhi: India has formally told Sri Lanka that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would not be able to attend the island nation’s Independence Day celebrations on February 4 because he has prior commitments.

"We were told that the Prime Minister's schedule did not permit him to be in Sri Lanka on February 4," Ravinatha Ariyasinha, director general of communications in the Sri Lankan foreign office, told IANS on Sunday.

The Indian government is reportedly at Colombo breaching protocol and going public with its invitation to the PM. Earlier this week, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama had told the media that Sri Lanka was not looking at February or any particular month or date for Singh's visit.

This peeved South Block, which clarified that the dates in question were not convenient.

There is another reason for India’s refusal: a prime ministerial visit can be read as a very public endorsement of the Sri Lankan government’s decision to end a formal ceasefire with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

The Indian envoy has advised Colombo to find a political solution to the ethnic conflict.