{"id":107340,"date":"2020-10-07T00:23:29","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T06:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=107340"},"modified":"2020-10-06T17:22:43","modified_gmt":"2020-10-07T00:22:43","slug":"mahinda-rajapaksas-appropriate-counter-to-modis-thirteenth-amendment-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/10\/07\/mahinda-rajapaksas-appropriate-counter-to-modis-thirteenth-amendment-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Mahinda Rajapaksa\u2019s appropriate counter to Modi\u2019s Thirteenth Amendment"},"content":{"rendered":"

H. L. D. Mahindapala<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Managing Indo-Sri Lanka relations is\nprioritised as the most important item in the agenda of the Sri Lankan Foreign\nMinistry. In fact, the President and the Prime Minister have stretched every\nnerve since they came into power to go beyond the official diplomatic\ninteractions to maintain a personal rapport of the best kind with Prime\nMinister Narendra Modi. The recent meeting between the two prime \nministers was meant to smoothen the rough patches and reinforce the good\nrelations between the two heads of states. The official communique of the\nIndian Ministry of External Affairs (26\/9\/2020) has classified the meeting as a\nVirtual Summit\u201d between the two Prime Ministers. Indo-Sri Lanka relations\ncould not have been considered at a level higher than this Virtual\nSummit\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Joint Statement on Virtual Bilateral Summit\u201d\nissued by the Ministry of External Affairs in Delhi should be read against this\nbackground of both parties wanting  to emphasize the importance of each\nother in formulating policies for mutual benefit in a region  that has\nbeen hotting up, slowly but surely, with China muscling in to remind that two\ntigers cannot hunt in  one mountain. With China maintaining its steady\npace in the region the question for India is quite straightforward: Can India match\nthe Chinese art of winning and influencing friends  in  the region?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, in the  Virtual Summit\u201d in Delhi\nhas India taken any new initiatives, breaking  away from  its failed\npolicies in the past, to pave the path for peace and reconciliation to the North-South\ncrisis which was fuelled to a critical extent by India\u2019s interventionist\npolicies? India has a serious moral and political duty to play a positive role\n\u2013 not a partisan  one \u2013 having been a part of the problem from the early\ndays. Though India has been parading as the solution it has, in reality, been a\nprovocative source of causing, worsening  and perpetuating the problem. It\nhas been consistently rocking the cradle and pinching the baby.  For how\nlong can India  keep going down this track without destabilising  its\nown  position in the region? How many more Rajiv Gandhis and professional\nsoldiers must sacrifice their lives for India to regain its common sense?\nWhen  will India realise that a failed policy\/strategy, laid to rest by\nthe people, cannot be  resuscitated to do a Lazarus even if they had Jesus\nor Sai Baba running the Indian Foreign Office. In any case, how long  did\nLazarus last after he was revived?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of all, India\u2019s diplomats \u2013 some of whom are\nbrilliant — must ask seriously whether the time hasn\u2019t come for them to\nrevisit the failed past and learn lessons for a constructive and \nmeaningful future? Or is  India doomed to be stuck in the failed past\n(e.g., Kashmir) and take the  whole region into a deep black hole from\nwhich none cannot get out?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take the case of the Joint Statement on  the\n\u201dVirtual Summit\u201d. It sums up the conclusions of the two prime ministers. It has\nmany positives but one critical lapse makes  it look like a pail of sweet\nwhite milk with a smidgin of cow dung thrown into it. It is Clause 7 of the\nJoint Statement that sours the whole text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It says: 7. Prime Minister Modi called on the Government of Sri Lanka to address\nthe aspirations of the Tamil people for equality, justice, peace and respect\nwithin a united Sri Lanka, including by carrying forward the process of\nreconciliation with the implementation of the Thirteenth Amendment to the\nConstitution of Sri Lanka. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa expressed the\nconfidence that Sri Lanka will work towards realizing the expectations of all\nethnic groups, including Tamils, by achieving reconciliation nurtured as per\nthe mandate of the people of Sri Lanka and implementation of the Constitutional\nprovisions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this para the two contradictory positions have been\njuxtaposed in precise terms bringing out the stark differences in the approach\nto the vexed issue of Tamil aspirations\u201d and India\u2019s interventionist role in\nit. For his  part, Narendra Modi is talking only of the aspirations of\nthe Tamil people\u201d. Mahinda Rajapakse, on the contrary, is responsible for all\nthe communities \u2013 just  not the Tamils \u2013 and he focuses on the\nexpectations of all ethnic groups, including the Tamils.\u201d It is in the interests\nof Modi domestic politics to plug the narrow interests of the Tamils only.\nMahinda has a larger constituency. His constituency is the whole nation and\nhe  has a clearly defined mandate to look after the interests of all\ncommunities. Modi cares only for his Indian interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Joint Statement Modi is reiterating the failed\npolicy of India that (1) destabilised the oldest democracy in Asia, (2)\nreinforced the fascist power of a Tamil Pol Pot in the North of Sri Lanka and\n(3) led to the defeat of the fourth largest in  the world\u201d, as claimed by\nthe LTTE, which had the  power to even assassinate Rajiv Gandhi, the\nPrime  Minister, humiliating  India in  the eyes of  the\nworld. Indian strategists should also realise by now that the Thirteenth\nAmendment has not worked for the Tamils who were supposed to benefit most by\nit, and to India\u2019s status as a mighty force in the Indian Ocean Rim, (the\nfourth  largest army could not even disarm Prabhakaran as promised in the\nIndo\u2014Sri Lanka Agreement), or protect its own Prime Minister within its own\nborders. At best, reiterating the Thirteenth Amendment (i.e., the Tamil issue)\ngives India an opening to interfere in the domestic politics of Sri Lanka. The\nThirteenth Amendment is stoked from time to time to sustain and protect Indian\ninterests in the Southern flank which can\u2019t be left open for rivals to exploit.\nIt is also one of the tools in the neo-imperialist armoury of India which is\nyet to learn that imperialism is a force that can ricochet and  the\ndestroy the imperialists  more  than their victims. India is a\ntragedy surrounded by the angry victims of the (unintended) consequences of its\narrogant and short-sighted foreign policies.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pushing the failed Indian line, Modi has once again\ncalled on the Government of Sri Lanka to implement the Thirteenth Amendment\u201d.\nIt is, as everyone knows, an Indian creation to further Indian interests. \nMoreover, it is raised as a reminder to impress that it is India\u2019s prerogative\nto  dictate what is good and  bad for Sri Lanka. Mahinda Rajapakse,\nquite rightly, has countered this exhortation\u201d by emphasizing reconciliation\nas per the mandate of the people of Sri Lanka and  implementation of the\nConstitutional provisions.\u201d These are two conflicting positions. The Thirteenth\nAmendment project directly the Indian interests. And Mahinda Rajapakse is\nsaying, quite bluntly, that he is there to protect the Sri Lankan interests. He\nis insisting  that he has a mandate to fulfil and that is to obey the will\nof the people and not the will of a foreign power. Also, with the additional\nrulings from the Supreme Court he has obligations  to the Constitution and\nhe cannot override those to satisfy foreign interventionists pursuing their\ninterests. Besides, the mandate of the people of Sri Lanka\u201d given to him this\ntime round has, more than at other times, rejected any external interventions\nin the domestic affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In short, the Thirteenth Amendment remains as a\npathetic monument to India\u2019s diplomatic folly. It has been rejected by the Sri\nLankan minorities and the majority. It was meant to solve mainly the problem of\nPrabhakaran. He brazenly rejected it and took the next step of assassinating\nthe Indian  Prime Minister who imposed it against his will. It was\nsupposed to satisfy the political aspirations\u201d of the Tamils. But to this day\nit stands as the most dysfunctional solution \u2013 as dysfunctional as the\nAmericans planting Din Diem, a Catholic in Buddhist Vietnam, as their puppet. A\ncommon feature of imperialists is  to plant their puppets and solutions in\nforeign\/occupied territory which invariably drag them into black holes. Sri\nLanka, in short, was India\u2019s Vietnam. India gained nothing. India saved\nnothing. Modi\u2019s latest statement is a confession of the fact that its\nThirteenth  Amendment has failed. If it was successful there would have\nbeen no necessity to raise it again. Adding insult to Indian injury, the people\nin all the provinces have been functioning happily without the Provincial\nCouncils for the last two years. So, what is the use of a solution that is\nsuperfluous and unwanted by the  majority and  the minority?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indian experience of dealing with its own major\nminority is also instructive in dealing with Modi\u2019s insistence on the full\nimplementation of the Thirteenth Amendment. Let us, for instance, restate the\nformula in the Joint Statement substituting the Muslims in India to that \nof the Tamils in Sri Lanka. Let us consider a similar  summit meeting with\nModi, and Imran Khan, the Pakistani Prime Minister, who recently twittered that\nthe Muslims in India are worse than the Jews in Hitler\u2019s Germany. Let us\nimagine that Imran Khan had said that  India  should  address the aspirations of the\nMuslim people for equality, justice, peace and respect within a united India,\nincluding by carrying forward the process of reconciliation with the\nimplementation of the countless UN Resolutions on Kashmir\u201d. Well, how would\nIndia react to this counter move by Pakistan? If Modi thinks that his \nsolution  is good for Sri Lanka why isn\u2019t the same solution good for India\nto solve he longest running international crisis point in Kashmir? Wouldn\u2019t\nIndia consider that to be a direct intervention in its the domestic affairs?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides, India has applied all its diplomatic,\npolitical, international and military forces to resolve the issue of Tamil\naspirations\u201d which has several layers of meaning, including separation, and\nfailed. If India with all its might could not implement its own formula for\nthe  betterment  of the Tamil people, disarm the Tamil terrorists they\narmed, and stabilise the  region for its own interest  what is the\npurpose of going  down the failed track again and again?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Above all, the rationale on which Modi\u2019s argument for\nthe implementation of the Thirteenth Amendment is coloured by a political narrative\noverloaded with distortions, fiction, and concoctions. There would have been\nsome justification for the claim of the Tamils to be the victims of the\nSinhala-Buddhist majority if, as they claim, the Sinhala-Buddhist had done\none  fraction of what the Tamil Vellalas and the ruling elite of Jaffna\nhad done to the oppressed outcasts who were treated as despised pariahs kept\noutside their  sacred domains of<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaffna. Any accusation against the Sinhala-Buddhist\nmust be compared with the subhuman treatment of the Tamil minority by the\nVellala majority. The  high-caste Vellala elite ruled Jaffna with an\niron-fist, overseeing every aspect of Jaffna society from the womb to the tomb.\nThe low-caste Tamils were not allowed to walk in God-given sunlight. They could\nnot bury their dead if they did so according to Hindu rites \u2013 privileged ritual\nreserved only for the high caste. They could not worship  the same God in\nthe Hindu  places of worship. They couldn\u2019t drink a sip of water from\nVellala wells. Their schools were burnt. Vellala caste fascism bred the\npolitical fascism of Prabhakaran who killed more Tamils than all the other\nforces  put together.  Killing Tamils by Tamils was a part of Tamil\nculture ever since Sankili marched down to Mannar on the  eve of Christmas\n1654 and massacred 600 Tamil Christians for owing allegiance to the Portuguese\nking. Prabhakaran was his avatar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Vellalas were the most privileged caste\/class in\nJaffna. They dominated Jaffna society from  feudal times. They did not\ngiven inch to any other rival caste. They were the  owners of land,\ntemples and schools \u2013 three of the commanding heights of Jaffna society. With\ntheir education  they occupied key positions in the colonial\nadministrations. They had the ear of the colonial masters and as their\nsubagents in the colonial administrations they had the power of the state\nbehind them. Maintaining the caste supremacy was their primary political\nmission. One of the last acts of Sir. Ponnambalam Ramanathan was to go on a\nmission  to the Colonial Secretariat to urge the preservation of the\nexisting caste system that enthroned the Vellalas as the supreme masters\nof  Jaffna. He argued that it was a system necessary for the maintenance\nof law and order.  In other words, on the eve of independence they were\nthe most privileged community in Sri Lanka., sitting on the right-hand side of\nthe ruling British gods. When G. G. Ponnambalam went before the Soulbury\nCommissioners and complained of discrimination by the Sinhalese against the\nTamils, the British Commissioners who examined the details dismissed it as\nhaving no validity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In essence, the Vellala Tamils, who were also the\npolitical masters of Jaffna, were the most privileged community in Sri Lanka.\nFor them to claim to be the discriminated victims of the majority Sinhalese has\nbeen a common political ploy to gain political sympathy and through that\npolitical mileage. It is a narrative that they sold successfully round the\nworld, including the Foreign offices of India and, believe it or not, Sri Lanka\ntoo. This ideology of victimology has been  used to great advantage by the\nVellala Tamils to project themselves as the victims of the Sinhala-Buddhist\nmajority. It is this ideology that has influenced the foreign policies of\nill-informed global foreign offices. So, when Modi called on the Government of Sri Lanka to address the aspirations\nof the Tamil people for equality, justice, peace and respect within a united\nSri Lanka,\u201d he was parroting the usual litany of complaints of the most\nprivileged community in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking back at the history of the Vellalas (aka, the\nTamils), it can be asserted incontrovertibly that never in the  history of\nJaffna has the  Tamils (meaning all layers of Jaffna  society) ever\nreached the heights of equality, justice, respect and dignity as in the\npost-independent years of what they call the Sinhala state\u201d. Take, for\ninstance, the national flag. There are 193 flags flying at the UN. Never in the\nhistory of Jaffna Tamils did they ever have a place of recognition and respect\ninternationally as in the Sri Lankan flag. Not even in the Indian flag \u2013 the\none  and  only homeland of the Tamils. When the  heads of states\nstand up for the Sri Lankan flag they also stand up for the Muslims and Tamils.\nUnder which Tamil ruler did the Tamils receive this honour?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take also the national currency, stamps, and other\nnational symbols. Tamils have been  given their due place of respect in\nevery respect. But the reality has been distorted to demonise the Sinhala\nstate\u2019\u201d. R. Sampanthan goes around  the world complaining that the Tamils\nhave lost  their dignity, respect, equality and justice under the Sinhala\nstate. What respect and dignity did he get from the one and  only Tamil\nstate established by the Tamil Pol Pot? Did he ever have the right to act on\nhis own in his  Tamil state? In which state did he find the right to\ndissent and  act independently with dignity? When he and his fellow MPs\nwere taking orders from his Tamil Thallivar which state gave him his due\ndignity and the respect that any individual deserves? Did he feel like a better\nhuman being  when he was in Prabhakaran\u2019s state or in the \u2019Sinhala state\u201d?\nOh, by the way, when the Vellala gangs cracked the heads of the protesting\nlow-caste with bottles filled with sand in Maviddipuram when they were\ndemanding the right to worship their God in the Hindu temples where was he? Did\nhe fight for the dignity and the rights of the Tamils who were oppressed and\nkicked around as a subhuman species? The Tamils also talk of peace. Who\ndeclared the war in Vadukoddai and ran it for 33 years, causing untold\nsuffering to the Tamil people?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider also the case of R. Sampanthan who is a\nlawyer. Did he find justice in the Tamil courts of Prabhakaran or in the courts\nof the Sinhala state\u201d  presided, sometimes by his fellow-Tamils like\nJustice C. V. Wigneswaram? Did he ever as a lawyer fight for justice in\nPrabhakaran\u2019s courts? Did he ever fight for the rights of the abducted Tamil\nchildren  in  the  courts in Vanni?  Did he ever complain\nto the Indian Prime Minister or the American Ambassador that there is no\njustice in Prabhakaran\u2019s courts? That narrative was never told. Only the\nSinhala state\u201d was demonised. The list is unending. As I said earlier, there\nhas not been a period in the history of Tamils better than the last 72 years\nunder the Sinhala state\u201d. Yes, there were horrendous and  condemnable\nperiods during which the Sinhalese behaved like beasts. No decent Sinhalese is\nproud of those instances. Without making excuses, all those instances have been\na part of human history. No community is exempt  from violence. But, on\nbalance, judgments are passed on the greater evil. Invariably , fallible and\nfallen man has to be judged not on the blameless ideal but on the lesser evil\nwhich is the fairest judgement available to us all. On that score, the\nSinhalese have strived to build a culture that should provide a fit-dwelling\nfor all men\u201d (Mahavamsa). And that includes the Tamils.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mahinda Rajapakse has reiterated that message at the\nSummit  in India. His act in India at the Summit was on a low key than the\ntime he was confronted by David Milliband and Richard Kouchener, the two\nforeign ministers of UK and France respectively. But the message was the same\nand couched in diplomatic terms. While  cheap politicians go for the size\nof coconuts in the  market place the people take the measure of their\nleaders by the size of the giants they take on in defending the nation. It is\nacts like this, where he  stands up for the nation, that makes him \nthe most popular leader.  Who can blame him for winning  votes without\ntrying?,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don Mahindapala<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

H. L. D. Mahindapala Managing Indo-Sri Lanka relations is prioritised as the most important item in the agenda of the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry. In fact, the President and the Prime Minister have stretched every nerve since they came into power to go beyond the official diplomatic interactions to maintain a personal rapport of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-h-l-d-mahindapala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107340","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=107340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107340\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}