In an interview with FRANCE 24's François Picard, Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid said domestic politics played a role in the boycott by Indian PM Manmohan Singh of this week's Commonwealth meeting in Sri Lanka, amid a row over Colombo's human-rights record.

Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid has acknowledged that domestic politics played a role in Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s decision to boycott this week’s controversial Commonwealth conference in Sri Lanka.
“There’s a lot happening at home right now,” said Khurshid, in an interview with FRANCE 24’s François Picard in New Delhi.
 
While careful to note that Singh had important economic issues on his agenda and a general election coming up next year, Khurshid added that, “There were points of view of our colleagues and other parties from Tamil Nadu. They have very strong opinions about how we should deal with this situation that’s the post-conflict situation in Sri Lanka.”
 
India is home to 62 million Tamils in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. They share close cultural ties with their ethnic brethren in Sri Lanka, where Tamils are a minority in the Sinhalese-dominated nation.
 
India’s ruling Congress party had been facing pressure from Tamil political parties to boycott this week’s Commonwealth meeting in Sri Lanka.
 
The 2013 conference, which begins Friday, has been increasingly overshadowed by Sri Lanka’s human rights record.
 
Human rights abuses
 
The UN Human Rights Council has censured the Indian ... Go on reading on our web site.
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