{"id":104871,"date":"2020-07-25T15:55:31","date_gmt":"2020-07-25T22:55:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=104871"},"modified":"2020-07-25T15:55:31","modified_gmt":"2020-07-25T22:55:31","slug":"ipkf-withdrawal-and-india-sri-lanka-relations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/07\/25\/ipkf-withdrawal-and-india-sri-lanka-relations\/","title":{"rendered":"IPKF withdrawal and India-Sri Lanka relations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Rajkumar Singh Courtesy The Daily News<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Signing\nof the Indo-Lanka Accord in Colombo<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new Government formed on April 1, 1989\nunder the premiership of Vishwanath Pratap Singh inherited a tense Indo-Sri\nLankan relations paradigm. The interventionist approach adopted by the previous\nGovernment of Rajiv Gandhi resulted in the Indo-Lanka Agreement of July 1987\nthat paved the way for interference of the Indian Peace-keeping Force (IPKF) in\nthe country and had created a very complicated situation, bristling with\ndangerous possibilities and unpredictable consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the change of Government Sri Lankan\nForeign Affairs and Defence Minister Ranjan Wijeratne hoped that the change in\nIndia would have no impact on either the Indo-Lanka Accord or the agreed time\nframework for IPKF withdrawal from the island country. The new dispensation\nthat took over in India was serious over the loss of confidence and mutual\ntrust between Colombo and New Delhi. As such, it made initial attempts to\nredefine the parameters of Indian policy towards Sri Lanka. India had learned a\nlesson that while dealing with an independent sovereign country and that too\nduring a destabilization situation there was a point beyond which India could\nnot go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Front Government has viewed\nthat the very presence of IPKF would pose a grave danger for mutual trust and\nconfidence building from a small nation. In the circumstances there were three\naspects which the National Front applied to the situation in Sri Lanka. (i)\nThat South Asia was a troubled region emphasizing that in the context India\u2019s\ninterests must be protected. (ii) A Treaty of Peace and Friendship with Sri\nLanka to bring the island back to India\u2019s sphere of influence and to put an end\nto the penetration of the international forces of subversion became an\nimperative need for India, (iii) A good neighbourly relationship would make\nNational Front comfortable at home and enable it to concentrate more on\ncontaining domestic subversive activities and justify its action in quelling\nit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initially, the National Front Government\nwas charged with continuing the policy of the previous Government but soon it\nwas realised that it had different view of the problem. With all its concern\nfor the security of the Tamils in Sri Lanka\u2019s Northern and Eastern Provinces,\nthe new Government acknowledged the stern reality that the Indian Peace Keeping\nForce cannot do for the Sri Lankan Sinhalese but Tamils alone can do for\nthemselves and therefore, must live in peace and social stability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the webs of confusion prevailed on the\nissue as Inder Kumar Gujral, the Minister for External Affairs, under new\ndispensation going by the reply to a Parliament question stated that his\nGovernment is committed to another deadline\u2014March 31, 1990 for the withdrawal\nof the IPKF. New Delhi had assured President Premadasa that the Indian Forces\nwould leave Trincomalee and Jaffna districts much before the March deadline and\npossibly by January end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Negotiations\non deadline<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The declaration of the new deadline (March\n31) for withdrawal of the IPKF had surprised Colombo and in the background the\nsecond visit of Ranjan Wijeratne took place in the first week of January 1990.\nThe frequency and speed of the visits suggested serious efforts for sorting out\nbilateral problems\u2014the de-induction of the IPKF and related matters. During his\nstay at New Delhi, Wijeratne discussed with his Indian counterpart the schedule\nfor the de-induction of the Indian Peace-Keeping Force and related matters in\nthe context of Sri Lanka\u2019s plea for speeding up the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gujral, while giving an assurance that he\nwould personally look into the possibility of accelerating the withdrawal also\nexpressed the desire that Sri Lanka should take care of logistical and other\npractical problems. However, his main concern was to impress upon the visiting\nminister about the new Government\u2019s sincerity in sorting out its problems with\nSri Lanka. In his opinion, this, and not the change in deadline by a few weeks\nhere and there was material for a relationship of trust and confidence. In the\njoint statement issued at the end of the visit, India and Sri Lanka agreed to\nmake joint efforts to use their influence with the rival militant Tamil groups\nin the North Eastern Province and work towards a ceasefire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Delhi had reaffirmed the commitment\nmade in Parliament to complete the withdrawal of the IPKF by March 31, 1990.\nSri Lanka had pledged to ensure the safety and security of all communities in\nthe North-Eastern Province.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two sides agreed to finalise a\nfriendship treaty proposed by Sri Lanka that incorporated most of the elements\nof the 1987 Indo-Sri Lanka Accord and elements from the letters exchanged\nbetween New Delhi and Colombo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main outcome of the exercise, the one\nmost highlighted, is an agreement on finalising the friendship treaty, proposed\nby Colombo in an updating or upgradation of the Accord of July 1987. Wijeratne,\nwhile addressing a press conference after his visit to New Delhi, sketched an\noptimistic scenario of the future of Indo-Sri Lanka relations stating that We\nhave to have a change of heart and bearing in mind the compulsions of both\nsides there must be a growing understanding of each other\u2019s problems\u201d. He\nappeared to feel that with a new Government coming to power in New Delhi, a\nfresh chapter in Indo-Sri Lanka relations devoid of the irritants of the past\nfew years could begin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A week ahead of the deadline (March 31),\nthe last of Indian Peace-Keeping Force personnel left Sri Lanka ending a\nhistoric two and-a-half year long chapter in relations between the two\ncountries. Soon after coming to power V. P. Singh on his part, fielded\nKarunanidhi to hold talks with the squabbling Sri Lankan Tamil militant groups.\nThe Chief Minister, according to informed sources, assured\u201d the PM that he\nwould try to bring all these groups together so that the IPKF could be\nwithdrawn without the fear of a refugee backlash for India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No doubt, the present Government can claim\nto have improved relations with Sri Lanka after they had suffered under the\nRajiv Gandhi Government. The irony of that Government\u2019s policy was that India\ngot deeply involved in the complex international contradictions of Sri Lankan\npolitics. The fiasco of the policy of active intervention was writ large as\nIndian Armed Forces were virtually engaged in pulling President J.R.\nJayewardene\u2019s chestnuts out of the fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardly ten hours after the IPKF had left\nSri Lanka, Ranasinghe Premadasa, the President of Sri Lanka, thanked India profoundly\nfor withdrawing its troops completely and said, We were able to send home a\nmighty army not by war but by consultation\u201d. He did not hesitate in praising\nNew Delhi publicly and while addressing the Ceylon Workers\u2019 Congress (CWC)\nreferred to the Indian Prime Minister and said the Premier has won our love\nand I am pleased to announce that his Government has withdrawn its troops from\nthe country without attaching any condition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thank the Government and people of\nIndia for respecting our sovereignty.\u201d The Indian action was also hailed by the\nUSA and State Department Spokesperson Margaret Tutweiler, commenting on the\nwithdrawal said the US welcomed the departure of the Indian Forces from Sri\nLanka and that it makes a step on that troubled country\u2019s road to normalcy\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Rajkumar Singh is a University Professor for the last 20 years\nand presently Head of the P.G. Department of Political Science, B.N. Mandal\nUniversity, West Campus, P.G. Centre, Saharsa (Bihar), India. He is an\nauthority on Indian Politics and its relations with foreign countries. (Eurasia\nReview) <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Rajkumar Singh Courtesy The Daily News Signing of the Indo-Lanka Accord in Colombo The new Government formed on April 1, 1989 under the premiership of Vishwanath Pratap Singh inherited a tense Indo-Sri Lankan relations paradigm. The interventionist approach adopted by the previous Government of Rajiv Gandhi resulted in the Indo-Lanka Agreement of July 1987 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104871\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}