Stanley Gunaratne 

Does India owe Sri Lanka an apology and REPARATIONS for our nation’s suffering? Absolutely yes.

So when our so called leaders (everyone in Parliament) pander to India, when they dress like the Indian leader, when they say India is their brother (from the President who won the war no less as well as his deputies), it is a cause for major concern. With leaders who call India our brother, we need no enemies! It is also deeply INSULTING to friends like China to say that we offered things to India first. Furthermore, anyone who would go to India for infrastructure instead of the Japanese, Germans, Chinese, Singaporeans or indeed our own local engineers, needs their head examined!

India CREATED the Tiger terrorist organisation in the 70s that wreaked havoc on the island of Ceylon/Sri Lanka which resulted in the deaths, maiming and destruction of thousands upon thousands of innocent citizens (Sinhalese, Tamils, Moors, Burghers, Malays etc) and foreign tourists in Sri Lanka. It resulted in the loss of commerce, economic development and the right to life and security for 20 million people for decades.

One of the oft repeated nonsensical claims is that it is Sri Lanka’s fault (or then Ceylon) that India created the terrorists. This is a ridiculous argument. Our country has a right to trade, form relationships with and train with any nation on Earth – be that the Chinese, the Americans, the Africans, the Europeans, whoever we damn well please. We were never part of India (itself a nation created by the British and NOT a historical nation), are not now and never will be. Most Sri Lankans would sooner jump into the sea than be called Indians. And blaming the victim (Sri Lanka) for being terrorised is equivalent to Stockholm syndrome.

When Sri Lanka attempted to eliminate the terrorists in the 1980s, India interfered, despite significant Western and Eastern condemnation (including the Western press), resulting in the survival of the Indian created Tigers (even if India had to run with its tail between its legs from their own monster). India also pressured Sri Lanka not to join ASEAN, to buy Indian equipment (which it had no right to stop Sri Lanka buying other nation’s equipment) with arrogant statements. It also forced Sri Lanka to adopt divisive constitutional clauses WITHOUT the consent of the Sri Lankan people.

It also forced the loathsome Indo Lanka Accord” on Sri Lanka in 1987 which exists to this day. It is no different to the Nazi imposed Anschluss” on Austria prior to World War II. Again this was done without the consent of the Sri Lankan people. No truly independent nation, nor a nation with self respect, nor a a patriotic leader, would abide by this illegal agreement.

India has continuously demanded Sri Lanka follow India’s foreign policy, despite New Delhi having no right to do so, since Sri Lanka is meant to be a sovereign nation and is free to do what it wishes without consulting India in any way. This has included before, during and after the war – trying to prevent Sri Lanka from engaging with the defence forces, governments or private companies of nations in China, the West, ASEAN, Far East etc.

Sri Lanka (also known then as Ceylon) was labelled in many old geography and economics textbooks as an Asian Tiger Economy similar to South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong. Whilst the other nations developed at lightning pace, Sri Lanka had to contend with India’s menace. The loss of development over 30–40 years means that Ceylon/Sri Lanka is now still a third world nation and hasn’t matched the pace of the other nations it was grouped with prior to India’s creation and interventions.

This would suggest that Sri Lanka should be an economy closer to Singapore and South Korea – a first world nation in a third world region. No amount of money can compensate the numerous families islandwide who have lost loved ones to Tiger terrorist suicide attacks, but never forget India is responsible for all of it.

If any other nation created a terrorist group, they would rightly be condemned.

India has interfered with Sri Lanka’s development even after the war ended, saying that Sri Lanka shouldn’t buy trains from Japan, China or Europe. It tries to constantly label other countries’ technology, or money as inferior to India’s products (despite anyone with a brain knowing that is not the case), labelling borrowings from China as ‘debt traps’ – yet somehow Indian credit (i.e. LOANS) is deemed acceptable – and influencing, funding and manipulating the political class here (which is a blatant interference in another country’s internal affairs). India constantly parrots a false argument about ethnic areas of the country onto Sri Lanka, promoting the illegal 13th amendment – an independent nation that is NOT part of India, nor is suitable for the Indian system of government – and blatant interference in our affairs.

So YES. India should be grovelling at the Sri Lankan people’s feet begging for forgiveness. And compensation for loss of life, loss of investment opportunities, loss of development and the constant harassment would well be in Sri Lanka’s rights at international fora. Probably to the tune of $1 TRILLION (USD) if one takes into account the equivalent economic GDP and GDP/capita development of the South East Asian nations and Far East. Ceylon/Sri Lanka was ahead of these nations in 1948 and developing. It lost momentum when India created the Tigers. India has blood on its hands and owes Sri Lanka compensation and should stay out of Sri Lanka’s sovereign right to engage with all nations and foreign companies.

As far as our politicians go, it is DISGUSTING to see Mahinda doing deals with Sirisena. It is deeply disappointing (but perhaps not surprising) to see the President Gota endorsing the fat Indian bootlicking buffoons of the SLPP, a party no different to the others in Parliament. 

Who will stand up to India? In the old days our leaders did not pander to India, whose security and interests are no concern of ours, nor are we obligated to prioritise them over other countries. Notably people like Sir John told Nehru where to stick his diktats and get lost. DS stated that Indians could not demand rights and impose themselves where they have no right to do so. The Naval Rating in 1987 taught the Indian PM a lesson (an American journalist asked him why he thought the Sri Lankan hit him to which there was no reply!). We are a sovereign nation. It is NONSENSICAL to say we are “non aligned” if we don’t have an independent foreign policy from India. Control over our ports like Trincomalee (including the tank farm left by the British) by India is completely contrary to independence.

We were far more independent in the 1948-57 period (with the Anglo Ceylon Defence Treaty intact) dealing with ALL nations than we are now. Look around Ceylon today and you see nothing but Indian death trap trains, Indian smoke belching death trap lorry buses. Indian this, Indian that. Yet curiously the same politicians who force all this junk on the people, choose to be driven around in super luxury Western limousines, paid for by the tax payer. And the nation bleeds money on buying all this Indian trash (all on loans and providing no economic benefit with a 9 hour trip to cross the country in severe discomfort) and parasitic councils full of thugs, traitors and crackpots.

Has ANY politician demanded compensation from India?

Has ANY politician condemned the Indo Lanka Accord and sought a mandate to abolish that and the 13A?

Has ANY government called for India to be condemned at international fora – it is the Indians who should be tried for crimes not our armed forces. But sending fat fools like Samarasinghe to defend the nation (who like Mahinda and the modern day UNP argues that we should sing our anthem in multiple languages) is like sending the Indians themselves to represent us. 

Has ANY government promised to settle Sinhalese in the North of our country (first stopped by Bandaranaike the Indian bootlicker)?

I weep for our country because no one stands up to the true enemy of our country. INDIA. 

If the President GR is truly a patriot, then he should not endorse ANY of the parties in Parliament, including his brother. And he will institute a plan to stop purchasing Indian junk. 

I sincerely hope people will vote out Indian bootlickers at this election, and if no decent candidates are on the ballot paper, then the Sinhalese, Tamils, Moors, Burghers, Malays of this nation should ALL spoil their votes. Revolutions have happened in places like France, the 13 colonies that formed the United States, for far less than the ills that befall our nation!

Heaven help our blessed paradise isle.