{"id":108019,"date":"2020-10-25T16:44:25","date_gmt":"2020-10-25T23:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=108019"},"modified":"2020-10-25T16:44:25","modified_gmt":"2020-10-25T23:44:25","slug":"the-pohottuwa-government-of-sri-lanka-part-2-a-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/10\/25\/the-pohottuwa-government-of-sri-lanka-part-2-a-2\/","title":{"rendered":"THE POHOTTUWA GOVERNMENT OF SRI LANKA Part 2 A 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

When India gained Independence as a sovereign state\nin 1947, it considered itself the natural leader of South Asia because of its\nsize, its antiquity and its classy leader, Jawaharlal Nehru. It considered\nitself a regional power  and took a very arrogant attitude towards it neighbors. This haughty, aggressive policy only succeeded in\nangering India\u2019s neighbors.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

India has interfered in the internal affairs of\nneighboring countries    and tried to bully them. As a result, India\nbecame heartily disliked by its neighbors. Indian analysts are concerned. One after another of India\u2019s immediate neighbors in South Asia are\nturning away from India. Bangladesh,\nSri Lanka and Nepal are tilting toward China, they said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With each of our South Asian neighbours, the potential for\naccommodating bilateral relations is immense. But our relations with nearly all\nof them is \u2018discordant.\u2019 India should secure its security\nthrough friendly relations with its neighbors, they advised. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pakistan, Sri Lanka and\nChina could gang up against India in the future.   China (1962) and Pakistan ((1965, 1971, 1999) fought wars against India. India does not have\ncordial relations with these two countries today either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India shares land borders with, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China,\nNepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar. There are border disputes with several\nof them. The main reason for this is that, except for China, all the other\nstates are \u2018new\u2019 states and the boundaries are not historical ones. In\naddition, the population in the northern states is clearly of Chinese origin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Pakistan\nand India are fighting over Jammu and Kashmir, Chinaand India are fighting over the two extremes of their border,\nLadakh and Arunchal Pradesh and Nepal has recently expanded its territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June 2020 Nepal <\/strong>took\nthree strategic areas bordering India, Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura,\ninto its territory through an Act of Parliament and then issued a map showing\nthese areas. Nepal says that its right\nto Lipulekh Pass is mentioned in Sugauli Treaty between the British East India\nCompany and Nepal in 1816. These places are at the border with India\u2019s\nUttarakhand state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biggest problem for India at\npresent is its land border with China.<\/strong>\nIndia has no historical links to its northern border, and wants Chinato recognize the McMahon Line. China says No. Imperial China was border conscious and\nwould have had a firm border in its south. But China prefers to settle the\nissue militarily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The entire\nSino-Indian border is 4,056km or 2,520 miles long, and traverses one Indian\nunion territory, Ladakh, and four Indian states, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh,\nSikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. India claims the McMahon Line drawn in 1914\nincluding Arunachal Pradesh as its border with China in the north-east and the\nJohnson Line drawn in 1899 including Aksai Chin in the north. China has brushed\nthis aside. China lays claim to several parts of Ladakh and the whole of\nArunchal Pradesh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July 2020 China\u2019s army pushed into several disputed areas in\nEastern Ladakh  and there was direct\nconfrontation. Over 100 Indian and Chinese soldiers were injured. this could  become the biggest confrontation after the\nDoklam episode in 2017.<\/em> India sent a\nsenior official from the Ministry of External Affairs to the border talks. This\nwas a surprise and China also sent a foreign ministry representative. India\nwants a final agreement  which will\nsettle all the friction points along the border with China.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

India\nhas good relations with Bangladesh. There is some arrogance arising from the\nfact that it was India that helped Bangladesh gain its independence. <\/strong>A\ncomprehensive bilateral treaty was signed by India and Bangladesh in 1996. The\ntreaty established a 30-year water-sharing arrangement and recognized\nBangladesh’s rights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

India has settled its land boundary issue with\nBangladesh with an exchange of enclaves. There was an exchange of territories\nin Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya and West Bengal. In July 2015, a total of 162 tiny\nIsland of land, 111 in Bangladesh and 51 In India were officially handed over\nto the countries surrounding them. they had been stateless, without schools,\nclinics, or power  since 1947.  The enclaves were allowed to decide where they\nwanted to go. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

West Bengal and Bangladesh share the Teesta River, Negotiations on the Teesta River have been going on for decades\nand a draft agreement was  prepared, in\n2011 but it  was not accepted and no\nprogress has been made since. there are over fifty\nrivers that flow from India into Bangladesh and sharing arrangements will be\nneeded for them all later said analysts.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

India\nannexed Sikkim in 1975 when Sikkim asked to be  made sovereign state.  The\nhead of Sikkim, the Chogyal asked India to revise the Indo-Sikkim Treaty, which\nmade Sikkim a protectorate of India. \nSikkim wanted to be a sovereign state like Bhutan.  But Sikkim was on India\u2019s border with China and\nPrime Minister Indira Gandhi did not want to let Sikkim go. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead she\nwanted Sikkim absorbed into India in the shortest possible time.  the task was given to RAW, India\u2019s\nintelligence agency. The operation was carried out by a secret three-member RAW\nteam. . Only they knew what the ultimate objective was. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

RAW ran a 27-month-long, ruthless operation from 1973 to 1975, to\nundermine and weaken the Chogyal. RAW instigated, directed and funded political\nand social agitation by political parties, notably Sikkim National Congress. The\nhead of the Sikkim National Congress, Kazi Lendhup Dorzi alone, knew what the\nreal purpose was. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plan\nsucceeded. There was an uprising against Sikkim\u2019s rule. Kazi won a landslide victory\nat the     general election. Parliament\npassed the   Government of Sikkim Act,\n1974, making Sikkim an associate state of India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Chogyal was removed from office in a bloodless coup. it took\nless than 20 minutes for the Indian Army to enter the palace, disarm the Sikkim\nguards and take the Chogyal. Chogyal was furious but was helpless. On May 15,\n1976 Sikkim officially became the 22nd state of India.  Chogyal\u2019s eldest son, the potential heir died\nsoon after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rarely has there been a more successful Indian intelligence\noperation than the merger of Sikkim, said RAW proudly. This is a classic\nexample of what RAW can do. The operation was low key and  executed without any international furore. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the matter is not ended. The\nSikkim public continue to recognize the Chogyal \nwho is living in Sikkim. In 2015, the Opposition in the Sikkim State\nAssembly asked for a reappraisal of India’s annexation of Sikkim.   Sikkim National Congress also pressed for an\nopen debate.   This annexation of Sikkim  by RAW is of interest to Sri Lanka. Analysts  in Sri Lanka  said that RAW was behind India\u2019s support for\nthe LTTE in 1980s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India would very much like to  become a  \nworld power, rivaling China.  In\n2016, India    announced the creation of\nan Asia-Africa Growth Corridor (AAGC) with Japan as a counter to China\u2019s One Belt\nOne Road (OBOR).  This was stated in the\njoint declaration issued by Prime Ministers Modi and Shinzo Abe in November\n2016   and declared at the 52nd annual\ngeneral meeting of the African Development Bank \nin May 2017.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

the AAGC has a plan to connect ports in Jamnagar (Gujarat) with\nDjibouti in the Gulf of Eden. Similarly, ports of Mombasa and Zanzibar will be\nconnected to ports near Madurai (Tamil Nadu); Kolkata (West Bengal) will be\nlinked to Sittwe port in Myanmar.. this will be under the Sagarmala programme. Unlike\nOBOR which entails development of a land corridor, AAGC will essentially be a\nsea corridor linking Africa with India and other countries of South-East Asia\nand Oceania. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is\nnow a powerful new Buddhist region, led by China, in South East Asia, with Sri\nLanka and Nepal joining in. India does not wish to be left out. India plans to\nreconstruct Nalanda University in Bihar.  Nalanda is one of\nIndia\u2019s largest archaeological complexes with stupas, temples, monasteries,\nhostels, meditation hall and libraries spread over 16 square kilometers. This\nis planned as an international project.                                           <\/p>\n\n\n\n

India is\nalso to create a Buddha Smriti Park in Patna, Bihar, with relics from Japan,\nThailand, Sri Lanka Myanmar and Dharamsala. \nIndia\u2019s most sacred relic of the Buddha, the Vaishali relic, discovered\nin excavations of 1958-62, is presently in display at the Patna museum,\nreported the media in 2010. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

India is wishes to emerge as a powerful military in its own right.\nIt buys its military requirements from both Russia and the US. In 2018 India\nsigned a Rs 39,000-crore deal with Russia for the supply of S-400 Triumf air\ndefence missile systems, ignoring Washington\u2019s concerns about the purchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 What we have to buy from\nRussia, we will buy. We do not recognize unilateral sanctions by any country.\nWe have made known to the US that we have our own national interest and the\nties with Russia are old and unique, said India. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US is also a leading supplier of weapons to India, accounting\nfor 12% of the country\u2019s defence imports. Since 2008, India has bought or\nordered military equipment worth $15 billion from the US, including C-130J\nspecial operations planes, C-17 transport aircraft, P-8I submarine hunter\nplanes, Harpoon missiles, Apache and Chinook helicopters and M777 lightweight\nhowitzers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.In 2020 India signed two deals worth $3 billion for 24 MH-60\n`Romeo\u2019 naval helicopters and six Apache attack choppers. They have taken the\ntotal value of lucrative Indian defence deals bagged by the US to over $21\nbillion just since 2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India has test fired a number of its own missiles including a new\nversion of the surface-to-surface supersonic cruise missile BrahMos and\nanti-radiation missile Rudram-1.The successful test firing of Rudram-1 was seen\nas a major milestone as it is India\u2019s first indigenously developed\nanti-radiation weapon. India also carried out successful test firing of a laser\nguided anti-tank guided missile and nuclear capable hypersonic missile\n\u2018Shaurya\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

BrahMos Aerospace, an India-Russia joint venture, produces a\nsupersonic cruise missile that can be launched from submarines, ships,\naircraft, or from land platforms. naval version of the BrahMos supersonic\ncruise missile was successfully test-fired from an indigenously built stealth\ndestroyer of the Indian Navy in the Arabian Sea it hit the target with\npin-point accuracy . It will engage naval surface targets at long ranges. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In May last year, the Indian Air Force successfully test fired the\naerial version of the BrahMos missile from a Su-30 MKI fighter aircraft. On\nSeptember  India successfully test fired\na new version of the surface-to-surface version of the BrahMos. The range was\nnow 400 km, increased  from the original\n290 km. India has already deployed a\nsizeable number of the original BrahMos missiles along the de-facto border with\nChina in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

India conducted wide-ranging military exercises in a tri-service\nformat (army, navy, air force) with   the\nUnited States and Russia, in separate exercises    in November and December, 2019. This\nwas the first time with USA and second with Russia. The first exercise with\nRussia was in Vladivostok in October 2017. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

India\u2019s ties with the US and Russia are independent of the relationship\nbetween those two powers, India said. India is guided by its own national\ninterests. It is imperative that India maintains good relations with both the\nUS and Russia. The fact that both those nations want to exercise with us shows\nthat India too is important in their calculations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

India has its own foreign policy it is not a\nsatellite of US, said its analysts.<\/strong>\nIn 2016, India ruled out US proposal for joint patrolling of Asia pacific\nregion to counter China.  India will\nparticipate in joint naval exercises, that is all. India and France held talks for exercises involving their armies,\nnavies and air forces in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However,  \nIndia has signed many military agreements with USA. India inked the General Security of Military Information\nAgreement (GSOMIA) with the US in 2002. It was followed by the Logistics\nExchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) in 2016, and then the Communications,\nCompatibility and Security Arrangement (COMCASA) in 2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

LEMOA provides for reciprocal logistics support like refuelling\nand berthing facilities for each other\u2019s warships and aircraft, while the\nCOMCASA has paved the way for India to get greater access to advanced military\ntechnologies with encrypted and secure communications and data links like armed\nPredator-B or Sea Guardian drones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020 India will ink the fourth and final `foundational military pact\u2019 called the\nBasic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geo-Spatial Cooperation (BECA)\nwith the United States. BECA will enable the US to share advanced satellite and\ntopographical data for long-range navigation and missile-targeting with India.\nThere are, however, some concerns about Indian inking BECA when India has its\nown considerable satellite imaging capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had refused to sign LEMOA, COMCASA\nand BECA on the grounds that it would compromise India\u2019s strategic autonomy\u201d, but\nNarendra Modi has signed, saying that there are enough India-specific\nsafeguards\u201d built into these pacts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

India is a part of the  Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) led by\nUSA. The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue was specifically  created to control China in the Indo Pacific.\nIt is however described as a strategic forum between the United States, Japan,\nAustralia and India ,maintained by regular summits, information exchanges and\nmilitary drills between member countries.  ( Continued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS When India gained Independence as a sovereign state in 1947, it considered itself the natural leader of South Asia because of its size, its antiquity and its classy leader, Jawaharlal Nehru. It considered itself a regional power  and took a very arrogant attitude towards it neighbors. This haughty, aggressive policy only succeeded in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108019","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=108019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108019\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}