Convince India that PCs are a useless burden
Posted on January 20th, 2021

N.A.de S. Amaratunga

Indian Foreign Minister in his recent visit to Sri Lanka has firmly told the government that the 13th Amendment must be implemented in a united Sri Lanka. Unitary state is not acceptable to India probably because it is not acceptable to TNA and Tamil separatists. India has been reminding our governments when ever the opportunity arises that the 13th A is crucial for the dignified existence of the Tamils, their aspirations, peace and reconciliation of communities. When the Indian PM visited Sri Lanka he reminded the then ‘yahapalana’ government about this matter and in his messages to the present government also he does it.

India doesn’t seem to have taken into consideration that Tamils have been living quite comfortably without PCs for several years now because the PC elections have not been held. The elections have not been held because the TNA, the leading Tamil political coalition, colluded with the ‘yahapalana’ government to postpone the elections. The question  has to be asked if the PCs are essential for the well being of the Tamils would Tamil leaders get the elections postponed. Why didn’t India intervene at that time and ask TNA not to postpone elections and kill its child, the 13th A and Provincial Councils.  India seems to be oblivious to this reality. 

Is India aware that the 13th A or the PCs have not served the Tamils irrespective of where they live, in any sphere of their lives, economic, education, cultural or reconciliation with other communities. They had the opportunity when C.Wigneshwaran was the Chief Minister of the Northern PC. They squandered that opportunity by choosing to use their provincial council as a platform for separatist political propaganda and agitation. The Northern PC adopted several seditious resolutions including one that stated successive governments had caused a Tamil genocide. The CM instead of giving responsible leadership to the Tamils chose to mislead them by distorting historical facts aimed at creating emotions in sensitive areas like Tamil origin in the island. The Northern PC did not spend 85% of the funds allocated for the development of the province. This was done probably to keep the area under developed  to show that the government is discriminating against the Tamils. India must be aware of all this. Surely India did not want the 13thA and PCs installed for this kind of subtle separatism to operate in the North.  Or did it ? 

The expenditure for maintaining the 9 PCs is more than Rs. 250 billion per year and it is rising by about Rs.30 billion every year. This amount could rise further if land and police powers are also devolved. This little island doesn’t need PCs in the rest of the country. Yet the country, often battling to avoid being bankrupt, has to spend all this money to maintain nine white elephants. Just to keep Tamil politicians and India happy. One ninth of this money, which is about Rs.30 billion, would be available to be spent in the North to develop its industry, education, infra structure, culture etc. Norochcholai power plant cost Rs. 91 billion.  Mattala airport cost about Rs.40 billion which shows what a waste PCs are from the economic development point of view. We could build nine Mattala airports every year with this money, not that Mattala airports are of any use, but just to give an idea of what we are missing, the magnitude of the problem.

What is the benefit that accrued to the people to justify this huge expenditure. Insignificant to say the least. Has the Northern PC in its short tenure or the other PCs in the last 30 years of their existence done anything original and creative in the  economic, education, cultural or any other area. Nothing significant has been done except to form another obstacle to the people to be overcome to get any service done. And another opportunity for bribery and corruption.   

There is no need for PCs for the economic, social and cultural development of the North or any other part of this country. However, there could be two other reasons why they are being demanded by Tamil politicians and India. Political power sharing is the long standing grievance of the Tamil political leaders. How this demand could be addressed has been often discussed in these columns by experts on the subject. A solution has to be found which is acceptable to everyone including the majority community. Greater devolution of power will not solve the problem of the Tamils and may not be acceptable to the other communities. Making the unit of devolution larger will make matters worse as pointed out by several writers and also in my earlier letter (The Island 14.01.2021). Perhaps it may be possible to solve this problem by two steps. The administrative powers could be devolved to a smaller unit such as the district which would be economically and functionally more feasible. Further a political power sharing arrangement  could be worked out at the centre where Tamil political leaders instead of being parochial in their attitude could serve the whole country. It must be remembered more than 50% of Tamils live outside the North and East. Tamil leaders at the centre could serve all these Tamils

The other reason is the geo-political concerns of India. Sri Lanka due to its strategical situation in the Indian Ocean is a valuable piece of real estate”. China and the US are vying for a foothold on the Island. India due to its border confrontations with China is supporting the US. India’s policy towards Sri Lanka depends to a degree on its foreign relations with the two opposing global power camps, the Western and China/Russia camps. There was a time when India sponsored Tamil terrorists to counter the then government’s tilt towards the US and now it is with the opposite camp and is using the ethnic issue to have a support base in Sri Lanka. A Northern PC in a United Sri Lanka” would serve this purpose.

It must be said that though the US and India interfere in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs China strictly adheres to the UN convention on non-interference in other countries’ affairs. In this sense it is a true friend. Sri Lanka in this hour of need and peril must strengthen its relations with China, Russia and other countries in that camp. Sri Lanka must not be browbeaten by the big neighbour for it is not friendless and helpless at this juncture. China is forging ahead in spite of Covid and has beaten the US economically and also in the trade war that the latter waged against it. China hence is a good friend to have on one’s side.

It should be possible to convince India on the futility of pursuing with the 13th A and PCs as a solution to the ethnic issue. Leaders of this government were once successful in convincing India on the desirability of eliminating the LTTE and the war was fought to its conclusion. A similar strategy may have to be adopted in this instance as well. India has to be shown the unfeasibility of PCs and the available alternatives to solve the problem. India must also be shown that Sri Lanka cannot be used as a piece of real estate” by any foreign power, including China. It must also be shown that arm twisting may not work, for Sri Lanka is not without powerful friends. 

One Response to “Convince India that PCs are a useless burden”

  1. Ancient Sinhalaya Says:

    Why we have to convince India? A colony of them? India wants to please the Tamils in India for their support to get into power. Support the Tamils in Sri Lanka and decimate the Sinhalese that will keep their arch rival China away for good and guarantee Tamil support back home. Two birds with one stone! Sinhala modayas fall for it without batting an eyelid.

    Sinhalese have been destroying Sri Lanka, Sinhalese race and Buddhistm to please Tamils, mussies, catholics, India and the west. Remember crafty, two faced, untrustworthy Indians gave us barrel man hitler mala paharan’s cathlic tigers of Tamil drealam and it took 30 years and 100,000+, mainly Sinhalese, lives. Sinhalaya modayas and still go after these
    rascals. Anti Sinhalese, anti Buddhist, anti Sri Lanka, minority’s worshiping, Mother Lanka dismembering UNPatriotic_rats dragged their Catholic buddy barrel man hitler mala paharan’s war in order to break up the country along religious lines.

    Sinhala modayas never understood why GooandPee didn’t kill real tetras but brutally massacred Buddhist jaathidhrohee vermins’ party aka JVP using their top catholic police brass and top catholic deshapaluwas. To this day Sinhala modayas never understood the role played in that Sinhalese cull by the GooandPee spearheaded by the traitor chief die hard catholic token Buddhist Mega thief mega thakkadiya bay gal Karaya r@ni_leech wickrama Sinhala killer. MR came invisible tetras were running for their lives. Sinhalayas called modayas for a reason of course!

    Take a leaf out of Taiwan. They resist Chinese pressure by getting into bed with US. We have this enormously advantageous situation and ‘go to bed’ with Chinese. They don’t have to please never happy, never enough, never grateful, never Sri Lankan, ever South Indian foreign imports by the Dutch rascals to please. Nobody messes up
    with the Chinese these days including India. Chinese also got a lot of spare cash if we have export bans or send plane loads of tourists to boost the economy. Why wait?

    Better still, start an online petition to send these undesirables along with fastest breeding religion aka religion of violence mussies who are churning out babies (votes) at an industrial scale, who are getting ready to kill us all to have exclusively them only dream and mussisthan.

    Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia used to be Buddhist countries before the fastest breeding religion mussies got there with their baby machine wives. They multiplied and multiplied and outnumbered (murdered) the natives and made them all mussie countries. Sri Lanka going down that path fast with the help from our traitor deshapaluwas. Start the petition to save the Sinhalese race, Sri Lanka and Buddhism now,

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