* IS IT AS IT WAS IN 1987
* TO APPEASE TAMILNADU

Sources said that the visit of the high level Indian delegation to Sri Lanka was not for reasons of SAARC and security as previously reported, but due to rapid developments in the Sri Lankan warfront, though no official confirmation was available of this fact.
The Indian National Security Adviser M. K. Narayan, the Defence Secretary Vijay Singh and the Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon reached Colombo Friday morning for talks with the government.
The visit comes just days after the Sri Lankan Army chief talked of a military solution, saying also that “the Sri Lankan Army will capture LTTE leader Prabhakaran alive.’’ In other words, the rapid troops thrust into the LTTE heartland Mullaithivu has caused the Indian delegation to rush to Sri Lanka to avert a rout of the LTTE, sources said.
The officials met Sri Lankan Defence Secretary and are also meeting an important pro-LTTE leader. The delegation was scheduled to meet the Sri Lankan president yesterday, but there was no word of the outcome of this meeting. Delegates also met TULF MP Mr R. Sambandan yesterday.
Analysts were abuzz with deja vu comparisons with 1987, when the Indian government engineered parripu drops over Jaffna in the face of imminent success for Sri Lankan troops in the Vadamarachchi campaign.
Meanwhile, the visiting delegation we are reliably informed, is not here at the behest of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs but at the behest of a higher Indian authority, a fact that added to the speculation about the nature of the Indian visit.
There has also been widespread speculation and some reportage of a move by the Indian delegation to moot a new political solution that would address Tamil grievances.
Other analysts said that the Indian delegation may be in Sri Lanka “purely to assuage Tamil feelings which always run high in the state of Tamilnadu when there are favourable developments for the army in the Sri Lankan war front.”