India said that what the UN Human Rights Council was trying to do on the Sri Lankan issue through the resolution adopted recently was beyond its mandate. The Indian Government says it is not for the UN to investigate Sri Lanka and that India’s position has always been it is a national prerogative to investigate human rights issues.

The recent decision taken by India to abstain from voting for the resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council has given India an opening to work with Sri Lanka more closely on certain issues, Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh said in an interview with CNN IBN.

Ms Singh said that the Sri Lankan Government knows very well what India expects particularly on the Tamil issue. “They know very well what we expect in protecting the interests of the Tamils and what we would like to do working with them,” she said.

The Indian Foreign Secretary said that India has a very close relationship with Sri Lanka and that India works closely consistently with the Sri Lankan Government in protecting mutual interests.

At the UNHRC debate on Sri Lanka last month, Indian Permenent Reprsentative in Geneva, Dilip Sinha also expressed opposition to the clause 10 of the resolution calling for an international probe and voted in favour of removal of the operative clause, though US and EU members easily bulldozed the move.

“This year the resolution had a certain provision that can't go along with that policy of ours which was introducing the concept of international investigation which was there in the operative paragraph ten,” the Indian envoy clarified. “This was a matter of concern for us which made us decide to abstain on the resolution”.

In 2013 too, the US attempted to bring in a clause similar to para 10, but India said it could not vote in favour of such a resolution, and the clause was subsequently removed.