{"id":107188,"date":"2020-10-02T01:04:48","date_gmt":"2020-10-02T07:04:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=107188"},"modified":"2020-10-01T17:54:59","modified_gmt":"2020-10-02T00:54:59","slug":"modi-can-better-defend-india-by-shedding-tamil-interests-and-engaging-with-sri-lanka-at-the-national-interest-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/10\/02\/modi-can-better-defend-india-by-shedding-tamil-interests-and-engaging-with-sri-lanka-at-the-national-interest-level\/","title":{"rendered":"Modi Can Better Defend India by Shedding Tamil Interests and Engaging with Sri Lanka at the National Interest Level"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Dilrook Kannangara<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Unfortunately for\nIndia, PM Modi follows the outdated approach of using Tamil problems as a\nnegotiation tool with Sri Lanka. It never worked and does not work today. Tamil\ninterests are neither in Sri Lanka\u2019s nor India\u2019s favour. Rajiv Gandhi did\nmanage to gain some temporary leverage in 1985 and 1987 at a time when China\nplayed a minor role beyond its boundaries and USA was the biggest threat to\nIndia. Even then Sri Lanka reached out to Pakistan and China to counter Tamil\ninterests. In 2009 India made another 1987-style last ditch attempt to save\nTamil terrorists but having learned from 1987, Sri Lankan military very\ncleverly checkmated India. Had India invaded Lanka in 2009 as it did in 1987, a\nlarge number of Tamils in Menik Farm and Jaffna would have died in the\ncrossfire. It couldn\u2019t have saved the LTTE anyway and would have implicated\nIndia in war crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>India\u2019s real\ninterests are in safeguarding maritime trade routes, keeping Indian territory\nsafe from attacks and warding off separatism. Sri Lanka\u2019s national interest\nperfectly aligns with that of India in all these aspects. Therefore, India must\nengage Sri Lanka at the national interest level only which will be a\nsustainable win-win for both countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>India is\nbasically an island with no land trade routes. This is because India has\noffended all its neighbors! A sad plight due to India\u2019s appetite to interfere\nin domestic affairs of neighboring countries. If war breaks out, India will be\ntotally isolated with only sea routes taking and bringing in trade. An\nadversary only has to attack India\u2019s few ports and Delhi will be forced to\nsurrender (or suffer massive economic and social upheaval). Given these facts,\nIndia must not get distracted with wayside issues like Tamil problems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>India\u2019s\nreliance on USA is not as rock-solid as its past reliance on the Soviet Union.\nUSA will not defend India against an attack but will use India to achieve US\ninterests and then leave it high and dry. The same happened to Pakistan, Iraq,\nSouth Vietnam, Georgia, Ukraine, etc. US interests are best served by dividing\nIndia. Southern states have the largest economies, most pro-US views, biggest\nbusiness with USA and no border wars. Splitting India into north and south\nworks best for USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another\nheadache India has is the role of nuclear-armed Pakistan. An India-China war\nwill sufficiently ruin India that it will struggle to face off against Pakistan\nif another war breaks out over its Pakistani border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Should India\nmake another enemy towards its south? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If India\nwants dependable and sustainable safety from its south front, it must shed\nTamil issues and negotiate with Sri Lanka on the basis of national interests\nonly. Tamils are without a nation for a very good reason. India must not take\nit upon itself to change Tamil destiny. All those who attempted it before ended\nup in the rubbish bin of history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dilrook Kannangara Unfortunately for India, PM Modi follows the outdated approach of using Tamil problems as a negotiation tool with Sri Lanka. It never worked and does not work today. Tamil interests are neither in Sri Lanka\u2019s nor India\u2019s favour. Rajiv Gandhi did manage to gain some temporary leverage in 1985 and 1987 at a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dilrook-kannangara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107188","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=107188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107188\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}