Well, India is a keystone player in that part of the world. It's the hegemonic power, number one; second, it has taken a very constructive interest in the rights of the Tamil minority that is largely concentrated in Jaffna.
Members may be aware of the fact that just before the Commonwealth conference, there were elections for the northern council in Jaffna where the Tamil population, Tamil National Alliance, did very well, winning a large majority of the members on that council. The election took place because of an agreement between the Indian government and the Sri Lankan government relative to some measure around reconciliation and some decentralization and autonomy.
The moment that government was elected, motions were brought forward by parts of the government coalition in Colombo to pretty well reduce the powers of the council. Imagine us having an election where a provincial government that was not favourable to the present administration in Ottawa swept into office and we had a government who tried to remove the authority of that provincial government to discharge its responsibilities. I think the fact that it was done by Sri Lankans had a significant impact on the decision of the Honourable Prime Minister of India not to attend, because it was such a core violation of what had been a reasonable agreement between those two countries.