Indian invasion and colonization of Sri Lanka – A concern for all Sri Lankans
Posted on September 2nd, 2016

Mahinda Gunasekera

My understanding is that the Hon. Prime Minister has said that he intends to sign the ETCA deal with India before the end of 2016, and has not said anything about negotiations nor has he been open to consultations with professionals and trade categories that will be affected by his intention to open the IT sector and other professionals and trades people in the Ports sector. The PM first announced his intention to sign the deal, the details of which are not known on a visit to India, and has not been open about it. The IT professionals and other professionals in the IT, Engineering, Medical, Architectural fields, etc. have been asking the authorities to first regularize Sri Lanka’s professional and trades sectors by bringing in legislation for accreditation and licensing purposes before opening these sectors to foreign personnel to enter Sri Lanka’s job market, which is a very fair demand. Then they will have a yard stick by which to assess the qualifications of foreigners who seek to work in Sri Lanka.  They have also pointed out, that in the event it is deemed that Sri Lanka is going to have a shortfall of qualified personnel in these sectors, measures should be taken to firstly train more persons in such fields.

As regards the so called Free Trade Deal with India, after nearly 15 years of operation, India has been able to expand her exports to Sri Lanka exponentially while Sri Lankan exports face numerous obstacles from India’s Union States which have other rules operating in their respective states that override terms entered into with the Centre, making it a difficult and costly task to obtain clearance for SL exports which are held in the sea ports of the Union States. The only product which Sri Lanka has been able to sell more is ‘Karunka’ (arecanut) which is imported from other Asian countries and value added by removal of the skins before export to Sri Lanka, while other products are subject to quotas and varying rules and duties imposed by the different Union States.

No steps appear to have been taken to iron these problems all this time, but the SL government wants to expand the scope and also sign an economic and technological cooperation agreement (ETCA) with India when the trade deal is working unfavourably to Sri Lanka. In order to maintain good relations with our neighbours, we do not have to undersell ourselves and open the flood gates for below average personnel, as those with better qualifications will seek employment in the developed west instead of Sri Lanka.

 

3 Responses to “Indian invasion and colonization of Sri Lanka – A concern for all Sri Lankans”

  1. plumblossom Says:

    India has over 400 million poor people and over 40 million people in India are unemployed. If this ETCA is signed and the Hanuman bridge is built all these desperate people in India will come in droves to Sri Lanka since the socio-economic situation of Sri Lanka is a million times better than the socio economic situation of India. I would urge the uncaring and cruel Indian government to provide basic housing, clean water, sanitation, healthcare, education, food and clothing to these desperately poor 400 million Indians rather than spending US 5.2 billion dollars in building a Hanuman bridge to Sri Lanka. If Sri Lanka signs this ETCA with India it will be Sri Lanka’s end. Sri Lanka should not sign any such trade deals where people can come here to work freely, unless the country we are signing the ETCA with has a similar or a better socio-economic situation than Sri Lanka. I would urge the uncaring, corrupt and cruel India Government to immediately stop building space stations and nuclear weapons and use that money to provide basic housing, clean water, sanitation, healthcare, education, food and clothing to the 400 million desperately poor people of India which is a government’s basic responsibility. Sri Lanka should stop immediately the signing of ETCA with India and urge the Indian Government to carry out the above task rather than serving the rich people of India only which the uncaring and cruel Indian Government seems to be doing.

  2. Christie Says:

    Dear Mahinda;

    Indian invasions are a problem for lots of countries like us, creoles of Mauritius and Guyana, Fiji etc.

    Lately the West and Canada has woken up with its new immigration and citizenship laws.

  3. charithsls Says:

    The dirty Indians are taking their pound of flesh from this government for helping to win the elections over MR.
    It is a very unfortunate situation & all Kudos to the GMOA who stands up to this rogue administration. Why do not other bodies join them openly? Like the JVP in the past there has to be a mass protest against these sneaky deals.
    Having said that even during MR’s regime, Hindi songs dances actors & dresses took centre stage without any clamp. If I’m not wrong even Shiranthi though the first lady appeared wearing Indian dresses. Our culture has been eroding due to these political figures who run all the way to worship Hindu gods shaming Buddhism & our Sinhala culture. I’ve not seen Gota run there even at his prime & hope that is right. The whole Sri Lanka should start protesting against this indian invasion.

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