President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said that he is open for a dialogue with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) on the implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution.

In an interview with The Hindu, the Sri Lankan President has said that he is open for discussions with the TNA and that he denied reports that he was upset about the meeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had with six leaders of the Tamil-majority North and Eastern provinces.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has also said that it is TNA’s right ‘to meet anyone they desire.’

Indian media reported that implementation of the 13th Amendment was one of India’s key demands, and that Narendra Modi had told a TNA delegation that “he was dismayed by reports that the Sri Lankan government proposed to dilute the 13th Amendment”.

President Rajapaksa has also said that he was grateful for India’s stand on the United Nations Human Rights Council vote, in which New Delhi refused to endorse the demand for an inquiry by an international agency into allegations of ‘war time atrocities’ by the Sri Lankan Army against the LTTE in 2009.

The Sri Lankan government on August 19 denied access to the United Nations War Crimes probe panel led by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014 Navanethem Pillay to look into the alleged ‘war crimes’ by the Sri Lankan forces during the civil war.