Future of Indo-Lanka Ties depends on balancing the not-so-friendly past and troublesome players
Posted on August 8th, 2014
Shenali D Waduge
The renewed ties between India and Sri Lanka while being welcomed cannot exclude or overlook some harsh realities. At the background of these realities are some painful facts yet the common factors if given due deliberation should ideally place Indo-Lanka talks on the proper pedestal important enough to not only establish clear ground rules but demarcate clearly where lines are to be drawn.
While at the forefront of the discussion it must be reiterated that the balkanization of India is not a matter that India can ignore. This balkanization is part and parcel of the imperial agenda of both Abrahamic religions. It is an agenda that locals of these faiths cannot take offence with if either Government decides to take actions to fortify their national security.
The other aspect that both countries need to be clear about is that while balkanization of India is one agenda the formation of ‘self-determined’ confederal states is another objective placing puppet leaders at the helm. Foreign envoys, foreign funded NGOs are already tasked to ‘buy-over’ anyone willing to sell their soul. There are foreign lobby groups engaged too.
The next aspect is that the agenda of the Western imperialists is to march forward to their end goal and objective China. The obstacles are certainly India, Russia and Sri Lanka and each provide the Western imperialists a goal post and fulfill their strategic interests.
It is Asia’s turn of reign and in an Asia that is rising with the key superpowers of Russia, China and India it will be a game of putting one against the other so that the ‘outsiders’ can enter as ‘friends’.
If India’s national security is a concern the security of Sri Lanka must remain a concern to India as well. The general response of policy makers of the past would have been the easy option of Indianizing” Sri Lanka’s North which works well with the 13th amendment, calls for devolution and has helped with Sri Lanka blindly allowing a steady flow of Indian professionals” to lay the groundwork in India’s interest. This works well with the historical objective of India and meets the security objectives as well if Sri Lanka were to belong to India. Nevertheless, India not allowing Sri Lanka to fortify its own national security is likely to be detrimental for both countries. Let us not forget that both sides have officials working for the other side and not working to protecting their nation or its heritage.
The not-so-friendly past
Sri Lanka is a sovereign nation independent since 1948. Ties between Sri Lanka boasted highs during the rule of Mrs. Bandaranaike with Indian counterpart Indira Gandhi. Diplomatic niceties apart both ladies made clear what their ground rules were and that was respected. Of course public officials of those times were respectable figures and their names remain respected and untarnished on both sides of the spectrum.
Nevertheless, the same Indian leader that had cordial relations with Sri Lanka was to start a covert training of Sri Lankan unemployed Tamil youth bringing them to India clandestinely and training them to become insurgents. This piece of bitter truth remains officially unacknowledged or apologized for. It was this training with the informal agreement that Tamil Nadu would host as hub for Sri Lankan armed militant groups that kickstarted armed militancy on the slogan of ‘ethnic discrimination’. The advice that Dr. Subramaniam Swamy made to Sri Lanka to remove the ‘ethnic conflict’ tag is thus noteworthy and appreciated. The background to the 1983 riots remains incognito with the unconfirmed assumption that the riots were meant to bring out the Tamil armed groups into the open claiming they were fighting against the Sri Lankan authorities that were oppressing them. The armed militants or ‘boys’ as they were called came under direct tutelage of the Indian intelligence.
This argument needs to seriously be investigated to determine who or what was responsible for 1983 because the Sinhalese did not benefit by the act but there were enough of beneficiaries.
Intelligence agencies (RAW) said….these are boys who were trained by us from 1977” (Dixit, Assignment Colombo)
Shri M. Karunanidhi, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu (affidavit no. 187/94) :”It is a well known fact that the LTTE and other Sri Lankan Militants camps were established in India ever since 1982 in tune with the policy of the Central Government at that time. The Tamil militants were given military training and allowed to have their own training camps in India.”…
“I state that the Congress Governments under the Prime Ministership of late Smt. Indira Gandhi and late Thiru Rajiv Gandhi encouraged, trained and supported the LTTE and other Tamil Militant groups.”
RAW helped to train and arm the LTTE in the 1970s” (Council of Foreign Relations)
April 5, 1988 Wikileaks cable quotes J N Dixit that India had agreed to pay LTTE Rs.50lakhs per month which was paid in July 1987. This was to make up for the tax loss for the LTTE upon IPKF arrival. It was also a payment that sealed Prabakaran’s agreement to the Indo-Lanka Accord.
“It is a fact that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran provided sufficient finances to the LTTE to purchase arms and supplies even after the IPKF was launched against this militant group.” From Assignment Colombo” by J N Dixit,
former Foreign Secretary and Indian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka
The next Indian interference came no sooner Prabakaran was cornered by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces and virtually about to be taken over. The response was for India to defy Sri Lanka’s territorial integrity by giving just half an hours notice by then foreign minister Natwar Singh. Indian planes flew over Sri Lanka with the infamous parippu drop. 35 national and foreign media personnel were on these planes. That violation of airspace came on 4th June 1987 at 4pm. A crime of aggression with India telling the Sri Lankan Ambassador that any opposition would be ‘met with force’. This was before on 2nd June when India sent a flotilla which was turned back by the Sri Lankan Navy.
Then came the 1987 Indo-Lanka Accord and the implementation of the 13th amendment bringing the provincial council system and amalgamating the North & East provinces claiming they were traditional Tamil homeland ignoring that Tamils were in the minority in the East after putting Sinhalese and Muslims together. Indian intelligence boasted that “We will have Prabhakaran in our custody within 72 hours.”
Again what is forgotten is that the Accord itself was drafted in secrecy (in both nations), signed under curfew with the Sri Lankan President obtaining signatures of resignations from his Ministers and no media was allowed.
India did not disarm all terrorists. India promised to protect Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and territorial integrity but gave Rs.50m to LTTE a month while Tamil Nadu was open to
LTTE to fulfill its logistical requirements and Tamil Nadu fishermen were used as smugglers exposing lack of cooperation that the Indian Navy promised. Long overdue is the repatriation of Indian citizens residing in Sri Lanka back to India. India promised to protect all communities but Sinhalese and Muslims were under constant attack. India also created a Tamil National Army recruiting local Tamils armed by IPKF to support Chief Minister Varatharaja Perumal. This itself is sufficient to hold the Accord null & void.
It is in this manner that we can apply the Pacta Sund Servanda (pacts are meant to be honored for agreements to be valid).
It is also good for both India and Sri Lanka to realize that the 13th amendment was a local/internal arrangement. Nowhere does it say that India has to be consulted on the 13th amendment or the Provincial Council Bill. Therefore, it is time India stop the references to 13th amendment and what it wants Sri Lanka to do or not do or should do.
Moreover, the fallacies of the Accord are many. There is no such ‘areas of historical habitation of Sri Lankan Tamil speaking people who have at all times hitherto lived together in this territory’.
The Indo-Lanka Accord accompanied another nightmare for the Tamil Hindus who having embraced the Indian Peace Keepers to a heroes welcome on 30th July 1987 and were left with close to 4000 rape cases committed by Indian soldiers most of which have been tabulated by the LTTE and kept to be used. The Indian heroes soon ended up taking part in a scale of violent shooting of unarmed Tamil examples of which are the Jaffna hospital and the Velliviturrai massacre. Ironically the Sri Lankan President Premadasa got together with LTTE to send back the IPKF in an unceremonious retreat in March 1990 having accomplished little in terms of peace or disarmament of LTTE after 3 ½ years in Sri Lanka.
The next interference can be cited as the unilateral declaration of independence following elections in the merged N-E under Varatharaja Perumal of EPRLF and the airlifting Perumal to India for safety. Dayan Jayatilake was a Minister in the Perumal Government.
The mother began covert operations of Tamils, the son continued and ended up meeting his death by the same monsters that India created and it was these same monsters that the widow appealed for clemency in prison sentence and the same widow accused of using the monster to smuggle Indian artifacts out of India to be sold in Italy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-jQ5KBUKjU
The common factors
If India is facing multiple threats these threats are definitely coordinated and their players are the same that have plugged themselves to the conflict in Sri Lanka and taken over its coordination and is now championing its elevated agenda. These players have no concern for the heritage, identity, Hindu religion, Hindu ethos of India just as they do not share the heritage, identity, Buddhist ethos of Sri Lanka. What India and Sri Lanka is bound by is the Dharmic religious concept and values. The current incursions resemble an enactment of times during colonial rule when initial incursions set out to completely destroy, annihilate and suppress Hinduism and Buddhism and denationalize the natives through a carrot and stick approach. The current secular liberal policies of multiculturalism in Asia and Africa are well on course to fulfil these same objectives though the West are facing a reversal and threat by their counterpart Abrahamic religion. The Dharmic faiths must clearly declare that they wish to have no role to play in the enactment of any Biblical prophecies that are likely to lead to another world war if left unchecked.
In a diplomatic shift that is pushing India to peddle with Buddhism to realign itself to Buddhist Asia, Hindu India cannot do so alone. India may have been the birthplace of Buddha (technically it is Nepal) but India abandoned Buddhism and the credentials for being the custodian of Buddhism goes to Sri Lanka. For India to be accepted in the Buddhist world as a credible source, India needs to accompany Sri Lanka. India cannot do so alone. The same can be said of China. These are key areas that Sri Lanka-India-China can gain common ground with tremendous openings for those that are ready to not simply use Buddhism as a cosmetic tool.
Tamil Nadu factor
To reach out to Asia, India cannot afford to have trouble with regional neighbors. India should not get bogged down to domestic politics that aims to steer Central Government policies to the ransom of domestic demands. Let India not forget that the inter-changing Chief Ministers have all had links to LTTE and their supporters over the years and the Jain Commission makes reference to them too.
States are making it difficult for the Indian Central Government to have a steady relationship with neighbors. Whether India is in control of this and allows it or whether India has no control of it is a matter India needs to resolve to become a regional leader before becoming a superpower.
India will not make any headway into the Buddhist Asia if it is going to allow State petty politics to override India’s larger aspirations.
The future
The future for India and Sri Lanka can move forward so long as both nations realize that their identity lies with the heritage that they are bound to and selects leaders and officials that wholeheartedly canvass, propagate and fosters the historical ethos in both nations. In doing so it is all the while important that India and Sri Lanka does not look upon each other as adversaries, competitors or follow a hidden strategy of gobbling up the other in the perception that might is right through gun-ho diplomacy.
Let us remind that the Hindu and Buddhist numbers diminished historically because they allowed themselves to be used as pawns and were ready to fight against each other. This same strategy time-tested to success is being again used and both sides of the Palk Strait have fallen primarily because of the carrots that determine their betrayal.
India, in particular needs to realign its strategies taking cognizance of some hard facts that make Sri Lankans forgive but not forget and bully-tactics, gun-ho diplomacy and petty theatrics makes India become a laughing stock in the eyes of observers. Maturity, forward thinking and mutually respecting policies need to emerge at diplomatic levels and for future collaborations. India must make those first steps.
Shenali D Waduge
- What Friend India did to Sri Lanka – http://www.nation.lk/edition/critical-point/item/19524-what-%E2%80%9Cfriend%E2%80%9D-india-did-to-sri-lanka.html
- Declare Unilateral Repudiation of 1987 Accord between India and Sri Lanka – http://www.onlanka.com/news/declare-unilateral-repudiation-1987-accord-between-india-and-sri-lanka-but-13th-amendment-is-not.html
- Pacta Sund Servanda – Indo Lanka Accord – http://www.dailynews.lk/?q=pacta-sund-servanda-current-state-peace-accord
August 8th, 2014 at 9:23 am
What stood out in this article is this sentence:”India will not make any headway into the Buddhist Asia if it is going to allow State petty politics to override India’s larger aspirations.”
It is often taken for granted that Sri Lanka is a small island nation which is close to India. It is also assumed that Sri Lanka is predominantly Buddhist. But what is not assumed or not mentioned is that Sri Lanka being the oldest unbroken Buddhist nation in the world and who canonized Pali the language of Buddhism. Sri Lanka plays a significant role in the Buddhist world and by that is far greater than the limitations of her geographical size or demographics.
August 9th, 2014 at 4:54 pm
Don’t be fooled by Modi tactics.
“NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday told visiting US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel that India would like to work with US defence majors on a joint development and co-production model as part of Delhi’s efforts to achieve self-reliance and reduce arms import.
Hagel, in New Delhi exactly a week after Secretary of State John Kerry made his trip to India, was told that the Modi government would like to boost defence partnership beyond a buyer-seller relationship.”
-indiatimes
Modi is another US STOOGE. He is playing a double game.
Modi’s Endia will also rally AGAINST SL if SL tries to introduce Buddhist concepts in governance.
August 10th, 2014 at 10:34 am
The Times’ columnist Roger Boyes is clubbing the BRIC countries- Russia, India and China into what he calls “Putin’s anti-US alliance” because in his view, the three allies are a threat to the existing world order.
The Times’ columnist Roger Boyes is not the only Western opinion maker who is very concerned about the creation of the new alleged anti-American block. Even the Bilderberg club is concerned about the possibility that Iran and other countries will be drawn to the new block built by Russia and China, making life difficult for the US and its European vassals. Even experts who believe that a formal alliance is unlikely in the near future, like The Diplomat’s Dingding Chen, argue that “the US should be careful not to make another strategic mistake that would only facilitate a formal China-Russia alliance.”
There are numerous reasons why a new Asian geopolitical alliance, whether formal or informal, is a good idea for Asian countries, including India and Iran. Banded together with Russia and China, all countries that are threatened by the US’ bullying, also known as “US diplomacy,” will feel safer and will have more chances to keep the US bombers and US influence away from their borders. Judging by articles in the Western media, the new American strategy for preventing the formation of a new anti-US alliance can be summed up as “less bullying, more seduction.”
Washington’s expert community seems to be very concerned about the implications of India’s rapprochement to China and its longstanding good ties with the Kremlin. India’s new and hugely popular Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been under US visa sanctions for years, but at the same time he had always found attentive interlocutors in Beijing. If Modi stays true to his own mantra “India first,” then the obvious route for India is to get closer to Russia and China. Becoming a tool for the US’ strategy of “containing China” and “isolating Russia” will bring no benefit to India, while Modi himself will always be viewed as a pariah, unworthy to sit at the same table with the likes of Barack Obama or Francois Hollande.
It is interesting that even smart and well-informed western journalists like The Times’ Boyes are advising Washington to “court” the new India and play on the “fact” that Russia is “a junior partner” in its relationship with China. The idea that Washington could try and offer some genuine concessions or a mutually beneficial relationship to New Delhi or Moscow doesn’t even cross the mind of the British columnist. Such an attitude is a prime example of what’s wrong with the US and the EU’s foreign policy.
The West should stop treating the East as a set of colonies that can either be bullied or tricked into submission because otherwise all nightmares that Washington’s decision makers have because of a potential “Putin’s anti-US alliance” will become real in the nearest future.
August 10th, 2014 at 2:12 pm
RIOTS in Endia! Now this is a development. Looks like Congress is still trying to woo the Muslim vote. BJP uses riots to win elections. Why blame BBS?
Leaders of the BJP and Samajwadi Party or SP today traded allegations over the frequent incidents of communal violence in Uttar Pradesh, after Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi told a newspaper that he believed the clashes were “artificially engineered”.
The communal clashes in the state were part of a deliberate strategy to “divide the poor and pit brother against brother,” said Mr Gandhi.
Media reports allege that there have been over 600 incidents of communal tension or violence between the end of May and July this year in Uttar Pradesh, which is ruled by the SP. (No ‘Meethi’ Eid for Saharanpur This Year)
– NDTV