Modi’s Bonhomie and the New Machiavellian Twist in Indian Diplomacy
Posted on May 20th, 2017
R Chandrasoma
The accomplishment of strategic aims can – at times – be achieved by suavity and charm when a direct and blunt approach would make the opposition bristle in fear and anger. Let us take the overarching or grand strategy of Modi and the Indians in dealing with their historic neighbor Sri Lanka. There is one word that sums it all – Balkanization. Given a neighbourhood that is unfriendly but riven within by political divisions and ethnic antagonisms, the optimal strategy is to foment such divisions by deceitful overtures that pass off as instances of genuine concern. Modi – the artful Indian Prime Minister – used the Celebration of Wesak to advance a nakedly political agenda – to weaken the Sri Lankan State by openly patronizing Non-State Actors. His address to a vast crown of flag-waving ‘Indian Tamils’ in the Sinhala Heartland was ‘a shot fired across the bow’ by our dangerous neighbour – that the supposed million or so ‘Indians’ in the hills constitute a rapid reaction ‘political force’ that could be enlisted to thwart any attempt by a ‘Sinhala Government’ to challenge the regional suzerainty of Big Brother .
That he also met the ‘Koti Tamils’ of the North and ‘pow-wowed’ with their leaders will not occasion much surprise – this group is a foster-child of Imperialist India. That Modi thought it fit to stir the political pot on the occasion of Wesak shows the depth of the political depravity of a country that once (the time of Nehru and Gandhi) pretended to lead a moral force in global politics. A concluding thought on our own brand of ‘moral politics’ – the ‘vintage’ advertised by our own President and Leading Light MS – needs to be stated. Our Leader declared with unshaken firmness and authority that Modi’s visit to our country was entirely and unequivocally religious. Like in most matters he was dead wrong.
May 19th, 2017 at 4:52 pm
China re-invokes Panchsheel to address India’s concerns on CPEC
“http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/china-re-invokes-panchsheel-to-address-indias-concerns-on-cpec/article18486328.ece”
Quoted – “The five principles cited by the Chinese President are: mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit and peaceful co-existence.”
These must be the basis for Sri Lanka-India relations as well as Nehru said in Colombo in 1950s. But the 1987 Indo-Lanka Peace Fraud reset relations away from Panchsheel. Thereafter it is interference in internal affairs, aggression, lack of equality and violation of sovereignty. India has violated all.
We have to cancel the 1987 accord and go back to Panchsheel principles.
May 22nd, 2017 at 2:07 am
Ex-LTTE leader KP reveals how former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MGR supported to buy weapons and ships
Mon, May 22, 2017, 09:37 am SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
May 22, Colombo: Former international wing leader and chief arms procurer of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Kumaran Pathmanathan alias KP says a former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister provided the money to buy the weapons and ships.
Speaking to WION in an exclusive interview, KP, who was wanted in India in connection with Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, said the LTTE had 13 ships in 2003 and most of the money came from the former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MG Ramachandran, known as MGR, provided the money to buy the ships and weapons.
He said it was not difficult to acquire the ships at the time. “Anyone can open a shipping company. Anyone can operate ships, so it is a normal operation,” he said adding that there were many markets all over the world to buy weapons.
When asked about the arm shipment operation, he said the ships came via India. “Sometimes we would send a container to India and former Chief Minister would clear the container and hand over to us,” KP revealed. The containers were then taken by boat to Valvettithurai.
He said the Sri Lankan Navy was not sophisticated at that time and getting pass by the Navy was not a problem.
Speaking about the suicide bombs and cyanide capsules, KP said the LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran got the ideas from the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the Palestine Liberation organization (PLO) and improved them further.
When asked about preparing suicide bombers and the child soldiers for missions, the former gun-runner said the Tamil people respected the LTTE leader and the LTTE exploited this “emotional feeling”. “It was brainwashing,” he added.
He said the some leaders of the terrorist organization including himself and Anton Balasingham objected to using child soldiers and suicide bombers but nobody in the organization listened.
Pathmanathan was an international arms smuggler who procured massive loads of weapons worth billions of dollars for the terrorist organization that ravaged a deadly war for 30 years. He was involved in arms smuggling operations across Asia, Canada, US and Europe.
Sri Lankan authorities arrested KP in Malaysia in August 2009 and brought to Sri Lanka. He was under protective custody of the Rajapaksa government.
He has reformed now and become an orphanage father taking care of three orphanages in Kilinochchi.