{"id":108061,"date":"2020-10-26T16:43:29","date_gmt":"2020-10-26T23:43:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=108061"},"modified":"2020-10-26T16:48:07","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T23:48:07","slug":"the-pohottuwa-government-of-sri-lanka-part-2-a2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/10\/26\/the-pohottuwa-government-of-sri-lanka-part-2-a2\/","title":{"rendered":"THE POHOTTUWA GOVERNMENT OF SRI LANKA Part 2 A3"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Sri Lanka is important to India, because of its location and India is determined to bring Sri Lanka under its control. India set up consulates in Hambantota and Jaffna in 2010. India has a long-standing consulate in Kandy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critics wanted to know why does India want consulates in Jaffna\nand Hambantota. Consulates are established to look after nationals. India wants\na consulate in Jaffna, mainly to station some RAW official there to monitor\nwhat is going on and to foment trouble in Jaffna to create another insurgency\nlike last time, said one critic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  India wants an office in\nHambantota as a watch post for India to monitor what happened, said another.\nIndia should close its consulates in Jaffna and Hambantota. They are viewed as\nRAW stations set up to destabilize the country if necessary, said a third. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

India is\nemphasizing the cultural links between Sri Lanka and India, particularly\nBuddhism. India\u2019s using Buddhism to firm up ties with Buddhist-majority Sri\nLanka, said analysts. China and Pakistan have  \nstarted emphasizing their Buddhist past. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

India has\ninstalled a 16-foot-tall statue of the Buddha at the entrance to the\nInternational Buddhist Museum complex at the Dalada Maligawa, Kandy. There is   an India\nGallery in the Museum. It consist of eight major sections, including the origin\nof Buddhism in India, pilgrimage sites in India, symbolic representation of\nBuddha  in Buddhist  art in India and the  spread of Buddhism  from India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India and Sri\nLanka   signed an MOU in 2020 to\nestablish  a training school for Dalada\nMaligawa at Pallekele, Kandy to provide training in Kandyan dance and\ndrumming   as well as costumes, ornaments\nand musical instruments, lacquer painting, mahout training and sculpturing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delegation\nof Indian Buddhist met President Rajapakse in 2013. They want to install a\nstatue of Ambedkar in Sri Lanka and set up an institute to commemorate him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India is \ndrawing attention to two much admired Indians, who visited Sri Lanka,\nduring the British administration. They are Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath\nTagore. Mahatma Gandhi had visited Matale, Colombo, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya,\nBadulla, Bandarawela Hatton, Colombo, Galle, and Jaffna during his three week\nlong visit in 1927. He had made over 35 speeches to Sri Lanka audience and also\nvisited many schools including trinity, Dharmaraja, Zahira and Ananda,    Indian embassy said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore,\na Mahatma Gandhi International Centre funded by India,\nwas established in Matale in 2015. It had an auditorium, library,\nmeditation centre and a conference hall. Before\nthat, in 2014, a statue of Mahatma Gandhi was installed in the city square at\nPoint Pedro by the Urban Council of Point Pedro. It was unveiled by the consul\nfor India. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mahatma\nGandhi\u2019s statue at Mahinda College, Galle, was unveiled on November 4, 2019. A photo exhibition of Mahatma Gandhi,\norganized by India\u2019s Hambantota consulate was held at Mahinda College, Galle on\nthe same day.  In 2020 the Consulate   organized a series of events in the Southern\nProvince and Moneragala District to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of\nMahatma Gandhi.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are\nGandhi statues elsewhere in the world too. \nIn 2016 a statue of Gandhi was set up in the University of Ghana. University of Ghana lecturers began a petition for its removal\nsoon after. The petition<\/a> said Gandhi\nwas “racist” and African heroes should be put first. Gandhi looked\ndown on the Africans. The statue was\nremoved in 2018. Students<\/a> at the\nuniversity welcomed the decision to remove the statue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rabindranath\nTagore came to Sri Lanka for several highly successful visits. India wants his\nname remembered by the present generations. In\n2012, Indian Cultural Centre, Colombo conducted an essay competition for \u2018A\u2019\nlevel and University students on \u2018Rabindranath Tagore and Sri Lanka.\u2019  India built\nthe Rabindranath Tagore memorial auditorium at University of Ruhuna in\n2018.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka had been very impressed with Tagore\u2019s\ndance drama, Shap Mochan when it was performed in Colombo in the 1940s.  A\ndance troupe from Shantiniketan performed Shap\nMochan in Colombo in 2012. The audience was not impressed. The applause was\nweak. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

North Indian and Carnatic music became an influence\nin Sri Lanka during British   rule.\nSinhala musicians ran to Shantiniketan. They returned declaring that Indian\nmusic was \u2018high\u2019 culture while the local stuff was \u2018low\u2019 culture (\u2018cula\nsampradaya\u2019). India has not made any such assertion, but it has supported\nthe   study of Indian music in Sri Lanka.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020 India presented 104 Indian\nclassical musical instruments such as Veena, Sitar, Tabla, Sarod and Tanpura\nreceived from the ICCR, New Delhi to several schools in the south. The schools\nwere Richmond College, Siridhamma College, Anula Devi College from Galle and\nBeverly Tamil School, at Hulandawa, Tamil Maha Vidyalaya at Pitabeddara,   Handford Tamil Maha Vidyalaya, St. Matthew\nand Bilingual School, Deniyaya. India\nalso gifted these musical instruments to the Faculty of Engineering, University\nof Ruhuna. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\n2013, an India corner\u201d was started in Jaffna public library, with books on\nIndian cultural history, Tamil language. There are plans to set up a Jaffna\nCultural centre on the lines of the Indian Cultural Center in Colombo,\nsupported by the Indian Council for Cultural relations. This center will teach\nHindi and Indian classical music and dance.<\/em>\nA link between the Ramanathan academy of fine arts, and Kalakshetra Foundation\nin south India, was also planned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

India has\ntaken a special interest in the North .India said\nin 2015 that it was going to develop Kankesanturai port. It had signed an\nagreement in 2011. India has built many houses in the north after the\nEelam War. India has also focused on the estate\nsector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 As at 2020, of 12 Health and medical care\nprojects\u201d, 6 were in the Northern Province, 2 in Eastern province and 1 in\nestate sector at Dickoya.   In  the  \u201d  Education research and training\u201d   5 in estate sector, 4  in north, \n2 in East 2 in west,  2 in south.\nIn Transportation sector\u201d 3 in north, 1 in east, 1 in south . (Daily News 15.8.20 p 6 India\nsupplement)   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

India wishes to be a strategic partner in Sri Lanka.\nIndia   decided to link Sri Lanka to\nIndia in terms of energy. India was to build 500 MW coal based thermal power\nplant at Sampur in Trincomalee as a joint venture with CEB. In 2008 there\nwere plans for India\u2019s state run Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) to\nset up a link for 1,000 mw between India and Sri Lanka, of which 30km will be\nunder the sea. The undersea cable was\nprohibitively expensive and this was changed in 2019 to an overhead electricity\nlink. The India-Sri Lanka transmission link was to run from Madurai to\nAnuradhapura. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

India wants high\nvisibility for its projects. India had agreed to refurbish the road between\nAnuradhapura and Trincomalee, in 2004. It was to be named the Rajiv Gandhi\nAmity Highway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nmost visible Indian intervention in our economy is Lanka IOC.   In 2003, Indian Oil Corporation was\npermitted to set up a subsidiary, Lanka IOC \nto set up petrol stations all over the island. Distribution is through the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation\npipelines. This was approved through a cabinet paper of 2002 without any\ncompetitive bidding, said critics. Though 70 million was promised, only USD 40\nmillion has come in by 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Lanka IOC now has 202 petrol & diesel stations\nin Sri Lanka. Lanka IOC   received\napproximately USD 3.6 billion in sales  \nin 2002-2013. The profits went to India. \nLanka IOC also owns one-third share in Ceylon Petroleum Storage\nTerminals Limited (CPSTL), a joint venture of Lanka IOC and Ceylon Petroleum\nCorporation (CPC).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

IOC also runs\n235 Lanka IOC Servo  shops and 24\nlubricant distributors, offering a variety of lubricants and engine oil for\nmotorcycles to ships. Servo lubricants are produced in Sri Lanka in its\nfacility in Trincomalee.   Lanka IOC holds a 35% market share in the\nhighly competitive bunkering fuels market. Lanka IOC has an oil terminal at Trincomalee,\na lubricant blending plant of 18,000 tonnes per annum capacity and a\nstate-of-the-art fuels & lubricants testing laboratory at Trincomalee. . India said in 2015 that it has plans to set up its first\noverseas petroleum hub in Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critics observed that half of the petroleum trade is\nnow in the hands of   IOC, a partly state owned Indian company. If\nthe entire trade had been in their hands, the war effort could have been\nthrottled by India stopping the fuel supply to the military. It can cause\nproblems to Sri Lanka in the future too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

India\nhas many other business projects in Sri Lanka. Indian firms are managing Sri\nLanka tea estates. Indian companies have their factories here. There is a beverage\nfactory on 50 acre land in Gampaha importing fruit pulp and exporting juice. It\nis using about 50 million liters of ground water per annum, critics complained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indian\nassistance is heavily criticized. Several of the railways engines supplied by\nIndia have failed to operate after a few years, and the large extent of the\nrailways line laid by India contractors showed defects, including concrete\nsleepers, said critics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 In 1968 India offered a loan of Rs 100 million\nfor purchase of equipment used in government departments.  The items had to be of Indian manufacture.  The government department prepared a shopping\nlist, said Neil Perera of the Department of Government Electrical Undertakings,\nwhich were of international standard. The Indians refuse to provide these they\ninstead offered items which they could not sell in the international\nmarket.   The departments   which accepted these, such as\ntelecommunications faced difficulties. The Telecommunications switchboard in\nthe head office of the DGEU went out of order within a short period of\ninstallation.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka does not want too close a link to India. There was\nstrong objection to a highway link between India and Sri Lanka. Un-ESCAP had\nproposed a Trans Asian Highway to link 27 countries. India and Sri Lanka are\nsignatories to the highway. There was a proposal to extend the UN-ESCAP Asian\nHighway   into Sri Lanka,  with a bridge linking Rameswaram and\nTalaimannarand\nroads branching to Trincomalee and Hambantota.  Such a link with Tamilnadu is dangerous, said\ncritics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nrailway line constructed by the Indian thorough Mannar Island does not end at\nthe Talaimannar station but goes beyond and has been raised to marry with a\npossible future bridge head at Talaimannar. \nThe railway should have been terminated on the main land. This would\nhave left the sea open to Sri Lanka naval movement from north to south and easy\nmovement for other seagoing craft as well. The introduction of a rail bridge\nbetween the mainland and the island of Mannar would block this, said Ashely de\nVos.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Land\nBridge with India might lead to the introduction of a special type of malaria\nmosquito into Sri Lanka, observed Kamini Mendis. So far it has not come\nhere.  What keeps it away is the ocean.\nSo land bridge will help it come here. \nWe have eradicated malaria here.   \nIn 2014, it was announced that the India Sri Lanka road rail network had\nbeen stopped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India became the first country, since independence, to interfere\nwith the internal affairs of Sri Lanka. India\ndecided to foster, train and promote Tamil militancy in Sri Lanka with retired\ngenerals training the LTTE, the government of India providing funding and bases\nin India, said critics. India supported the  \nbreak up of Sri Lanka. india wanted the North east merger even more than\nthe Tamils. The purpose was to create a client state in North and east, said\ndiplomat Bandu de Silva. K. Godage agreed. He noted that India supported the\nestablishment of a North east Provincial Council and continued to insist\nthat   we merge the north and east\nprovinces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The parippu drop in Jaffna violating Sri Lanka air\nspace is still recalled with deep feeling. The Indo-Lanka accoard is resented.\nThe rifle but attack on Rajiv Gandhi by naval rating at the honor guard,\nsymbolized the deep resentment of a sovereign nation at the humiliation cause\nto them. India had forfeited the respect and confidence of Sri Lanka, observed\nGamini Gunawardene. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is considerable anti-India feeling in Sri Lanka. China gave\nthe Conference hall and the Convention center, Japan gave Sri Jayewardenepura\nhospital and the Dental faculty in Peradeniya. \nWhat India has given, Sri Lanka public asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indian\nfishermen are fishing in Sri Lanka water with impunity but When Sri Lanka\nfishermen are arrested by Indian coast guards, they are treated harshly.   One set arrested after straying into Indian\nwaters was ordered to kneel on a heavy iron plate which dad heated due to the\nsun. We were beaten up by the coast guards and offered rice with dhal and were\nforce to pick out the worms off the plates of rice before we ate. There were\nmore worms than rice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 We were kept in prison in Hyderabad for two\nand half month and were released only after paying Rs 75,000 each. We did not\nreceive any support from the government and had to manage our affairs on our\nown. But in contrast Indian fisherman are seen poaching in our water freely and\nwhen they are arrested they are provided with the best possible treatment and\nreleased a few weeks later. When we overpowered some Indian fisherman and handed\nthem over to the authorities they were released, without any punishment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The International Indian Film academy awards were\nheld in Colombo in 2010.  USA holds it\nOscars and Britain it Bafta in their own countries, but India hold its festival\nin different capitals. This is an attention getting device. IIFA has resulted\nin vast tourist publicity for Sri Lanka which no advertising campaign could\nhave bought. Event had an 80 million audience. IIFA is organized to promote\nIndian cinema all round the world, said India. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka was not thrilled. They complained about\nthe cost. In other countries India spends, here, critics allege that Sri Lanka had\nprovided the money. IIFA organizers\nwere invited to lunch by President Mahinda Rajapaksa.  Those supporting stated that Sri Lanka had\ngot a tremendous advertising boost from the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India\u2019s   activities\nin Sri Lanka are watched closely.  A\nRamayana Trail\u201d has been concocted to drag Buddhist Sri Lanka into the heart\nof Hindu mythology, making Sri Lanka a geographic extension of India. Indian\nmoney is funding Ramayana temples in Sri Lanka and Indian officials are coming\nas pilgrims. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are four Ravana destinations in Sri Lanka, Ravana\u2019s palace,\nAshok Vatika, Hanuman\u2019s entry point  at\nNagadipa, Donara where Rama first attacked Ravana, and Yudaganawa the main\nbattle ground. Ashok   Vatik and Donara\nare imaginary places. Yudaganawa is important in Sinhala history. India has\noffered many crores to build a Sita Devi temple at Divirumpola.  The object is to subvert Sri Lanka history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lanka IOC\nalso controls the oil tank farm in Trincomalee, formerly owned and operated by\nCPC. This has 99 tanks, made of the best Manchester steel, each with a capacity of 12,000 kilolitres.\nCurrently, only 15 of these tanks are operational. This was was handed over to\nIndia instead of to the highest bidder. Why was it not left in the hands of the\nSri Lanka navy asked critics. There is now a call to take it back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India\nloyalists think that India must be the dominant power in South Asia because of\nits size.  That Sri Lanka must recognize\nthis. India\nis Sri Lanka closest neighbor. When Sri Lanka looks upwards\nall it sees is India. Col Hariharan of India said that India dominates the\n south Asian region physically and\neconomically.  India\u2019s geographic\nlocation enables it to be a dominant power in the Indian Ocean region.  Sri Lanka does not agree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s\nlocation  to India is viewed critically. One reader  said\npersonally my wish is that we were not 20 but 200 miles away from India\u201d.  Sri Lanka is under\nthreat from the Kundukkulam and Kalpakkam nuclear complexes in south India. The\nsoutherly monsoon and wind will  bring\nany unwanted emissions for these installations towards Sri Lanka, said analysts\nin 2011.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sethusamudran canal, initially causd much concern in Sri\nLanka . It was then found that  this\nwould not be a threat to the ports of Colombo. The canal will only cater to\nvessel of less than 10 m draft and feeder vessels from  the Indian east coast could use the path to\ncome to Colombo on a shorter route. India will incur huge costs in dredging and\nalso in maintenance of the canal. In 2010, India stopped work on Sethusamnudran\ncanal due to its difficulty of dredging. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri\nLanka observed happily that Sri Lanka  \nhas   one important economic\nadvantage over India. Sri Lanka\u2019s ports are superior to those of India. India\u2019s\nattempt to substitute Indian ports for Colombo failed. India now recognizes\nColombo to be the regional transportation hub. \nSri Lanka\u2019s location gives it its port a natural advantage. Colombo port\nenjoys a better reputation in international shipping than the ports in South\nIndia. Turn over time for ships in Colombo is much less.  70% of the volume handled by the Colombo port\nis trans shipment of goods imported by India and this could be increased\nbecause Indian ports don\u2019t have adequate depth. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India is considered arrogant. At CHOGM when bilateral talks were\ntaking place between India and Sri Lanka, Indian delegates had suggested that\nSri Lanka cancel the Tuesday night dinner scheduled for visiting official\ndelegations to continue the talks. Sri Lanka had flatly refused to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India is concerned about China\u2019s influence in Sri Lanka. In 2007\nIndia objected to Sri Lanka purchasing Chinese built JY-11 3Dradar system,\nbecause it would \u2018overarch\u2019 into Indian air space. . India gave the radar\ninstead, but this was not effective and eventually Colombo acquired the Chinese\nradar. Delhi also complained about Chinese submarines in Colombo Harbor\nin 2014. India said it had not been notified. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since you\ncannot invade a country with an army, efforts are being made to invade through\ninfrastructure and technological advancement,\u201d admitted India. India has to use its cultural and historical\nties in the region to build personal ties with countries like Sri Lanka, to\nprevent them from drifting towards China. As\na result, areas of soft power such as the Buddhist circuit between India and\nSri Lanka, are being emphasized.    ( continued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS Sri Lanka is important to India, because of its location and India is determined to bring Sri Lanka under its control. India set up consulates in Hambantota and Jaffna in 2010. India has a long-standing consulate in Kandy. Critics wanted to know why does India want consulates in Jaffna and Hambantota. Consulates are […]<\/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-108061","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\/108061","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=108061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108061\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}