India on Monday kept up the suspense on whether Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will attend the CHOGM in Sri Lanka next month and at the same time said "we must stand by the elected people in that country's Northern Province".
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said the "Prime Minister has not taken a call but I will attend the meeting and the Foriegn Secretary will also attend the Foreign Secretaries segment."
He told reporters here that Tamilians in the Northern province had great expectations from India and it was India's duty to stand by them.
"We owe something to the elected people in the Northern province of Sri Lanka. We fought and we pushed for an election to take place," he said.
"For the first time in 30 years, elections have taken place and there is a Chief Minister. We cannot let them down...we must stand by them. We must help them achieve what they have been elected to achieve," the Minister said.
As political parties in Tamil Nadu opposed the Prime Minister's participation in the Commonwealth Summit, he said the parties in the southern state must also take into account what Tamilians in the Northen provinces say.
"They just cannot be blind themselves about the ground reality that Tamilians there have an elected government in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka," he said.