THIS MUCH IS OBVIOUS

One thing that almost everybody that writes these days about the new proposed changes to the constitution claims, is that notwithstanding what the new amendments seek to change, the 13th Amendment has always been a dead letter.

Colonel Hariharan who was one of the IPKF top brass in Sri Lanka during the time of that particular adventure, has written that 13 A was a deformed child from the very beginning -- his inference being that it was left for dead at birth.

Hariharan and many others either for, or mildly for the 13th Amendment seem to be at the least in their sub-conscious agreed on one thing, which is that there is no point in trying to keep alive what has been on life support!

What will eventually happen to the 13th Amendment at least in the short term, is something that will be seen in the months to come. At the very least, the immediate fate of that constitutional provision will be clear very soon, particularly with the Parliamentary Select Committee process now underway.

Nobody can or perhaps should predict the outcome of that process as that would be a result of conscientious deliberation and extensive consultation, which would be the embodiment of democracy at work.

Outcomes notwithstanding therefore, what is more important is to get the fundamentals correct with regard to number 13. Though on life support, 13 A may have survival chances. But certain things are better euthanized, and this may be one of them.

For one thing, something that has been this contentious and this much despised by the political leadership on all sides is not fundamentally good for the nation, and that is something that is so self evident that it is almost axiomatic. This is what Col. Hariharan says using his colourful turn of phrase to drive home his point. He writes for instance that from the time the Indo-Lanka Accord was inked, the 13th Amendment was something that was observed in the breach.

Successive governments whittled away at its provisions or kept the amendment on the shelf. Who could blame them? There was a war going on, but more importantly the 13th Amendment introduced alien provisions that were poised certainly to exacerbate the situation and polarize communities further -- the North-East merger being one of the key negatives that were introduced.

Something that has been relegated in this way all along, by political forces for all sides of the divide, cannot be imbued with the necessary 'gravitas' that's necessary for a constitutional provision to remain as law, and this is what Col. Hariharan posits, when his thesis is reduced to its bare bones.

Now, the preceding may have sounded rather academic but translated into everyday terms, the 13th Amendment is an aberration, a curious anomaly in other words, that is alien to us, and sticks out as if it was a sore thumb.

Hariharan says emphatically that there should be alternatives to a constitutional provision that has in this way been so diminished, and rendered so thoroughly ineffective.

What is curious is that proponents of the 'pure 13' school of thought who do no want any amendments to the 13th Amendment in this backdrop are those who seem to be living in splendid isolation as they do not seem to be able to see the obvious that most others, even outsiders and Indians are able to so clearly discern.

The sooner such people come down to terra firma with regard to the 13th and the proposed amendments to it, the better it is. These are the people that look fools when they pledge their troth to a marriage certificate that has been voided many years ago.

Of course they may have their own ideas about how the Sri Lankan polity should be governed, and certainly they can and should contribute their wisdom to the discourse in this regard -- but doing this and pledging their fealty to the 13th Amendment are two entirely different things. One is an ennobling cause, the other is the plain pursuit of the most unproductive and futile.