XWhen the Indo-Ceylon pact on the future political status of the people of Indian origin in Ceylon was signed in October 1964, it was hoped that an end was in sight to a dispute that had caused much acrimony between the two countries. Two and a half years have gone by, and the Prime Ministers who signed the pact are no longer in office. General elections have altered the political complexion of the parliaments in both countries. In India, the recent elections substantially reduced the Congress party majority at the center. But even more significant for the implementation of the pact was the landslide victory of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), a consistent opponent of the Indo-Ceylon pact, in Madras. With 138 of the 234 seats in the Madras Assembly, the DMK has formed the government. In the Parliamentary elections, it won all the twenty-five seats it contested against its Congress rivals. In Ceylon, the 1965 elections brought into power a party which was in opposition when the pact was signed. What is even more relevant is the fact that the "National" Government formed by the United National Party (UNP) is composed of parties and groups which opposed the pact in 1964. It is in these radically altered political circumstances that the Ceylon government has piloted legislation "to enable and facilitate" the SirimaShastri pact through the second reading to the committee stage. The debate on the bill in the Ceylon House of Representatives in 1965 indicated that some of the controversies relating to the future political status of people of Indian origin in Ceylon have been resolved, but others still persist. Further, certain new problems directly connected with the actual implementation of the pact have emerged. An attempt will be made in this article to examine some of the issues which have generated controversies in the past and some of the difficulties that would need to be sorted out in the actual implementation of the pact in the future.