{"id":110842,"date":"2021-01-20T17:25:26","date_gmt":"2021-01-21T00:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=110842"},"modified":"2021-01-20T17:25:26","modified_gmt":"2021-01-21T00:25:26","slug":"convince-india-that-pcs-are-a-useless-burden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/01\/20\/convince-india-that-pcs-are-a-useless-burden\/","title":{"rendered":"Convince India that PCs are a useless burden"},"content":{"rendered":"

N.A.de S. Amaratunga<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Indian Foreign Minister in his recent visit to Sri\nLanka has firmly told the government that the 13th<\/sup> Amendment must be\nimplemented in a united Sri Lanka. Unitary state is not acceptable to India\nprobably because it is not acceptable to TNA and Tamil separatists. India has\nbeen reminding our governments when ever the opportunity arises that the 13th<\/sup>\nA is crucial for the dignified existence of the Tamils, their aspirations,\npeace and reconciliation of communities. When the Indian PM visited Sri Lanka\nhe reminded the then ‘yahapalana’ government about this matter and in his\nmessages to the present government also he does it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India doesn’t seem to have taken into consideration\nthat Tamils have been living quite comfortably without PCs for several years\nnow because the PC elections have not been held. The elections have not been\nheld because the TNA, the leading Tamil political coalition, colluded with the\n‘yahapalana’ government to postpone the elections. The question  has to be asked if the PCs are essential for\nthe well being of the Tamils would Tamil leaders get the elections postponed.\nWhy didn’t India intervene at that time and ask TNA not to postpone elections\nand kill its child, the 13th<\/sup> A and Provincial Councils.  India seems to be oblivious to this\nreality.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is India aware that the 13th<\/sup> A or the PCs\nhave not served the Tamils irrespective of where they live, in any sphere of\ntheir lives, economic, education, cultural or reconciliation with other\ncommunities. They had the opportunity when C.Wigneshwaran was the Chief\nMinister of the Northern PC. They squandered that opportunity by choosing to\nuse their provincial council as a platform for separatist political propaganda\nand agitation. The Northern PC adopted several seditious resolutions including\none that stated successive governments had caused a Tamil genocide. The CM\ninstead of giving responsible leadership to the Tamils chose to mislead them by\ndistorting historical facts aimed at creating emotions in sensitive areas like\nTamil origin in the island. The Northern PC did not spend 85% of the funds\nallocated for the development of the province. This was done probably to keep\nthe area under developed  to show that\nthe government is discriminating against the Tamils. India must be aware of all\nthis. Surely India did not want the 13thA and PCs installed for this kind of\nsubtle separatism to operate in the North. \nOr did it ?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The expenditure for maintaining the 9 PCs is more than\nRs. 250 billion per year and it is rising by about Rs.30 billion every year.\nThis amount could rise further if land and police powers are also devolved.\nThis little island doesn’t need PCs in the rest of the country. Yet the\ncountry, often battling to avoid being bankrupt, has to spend all this money to\nmaintain nine white elephants. Just to keep Tamil politicians and India happy.\nOne ninth of this money, which is about Rs.30 billion, would be available to be\nspent in the North to develop its industry, education, infra structure, culture\netc. Norochcholai power plant cost Rs. 91 billion.  Mattala airport cost about Rs.40 billion\nwhich shows what a waste PCs are from the economic development point of view.\nWe could build nine Mattala airports every year with this money, not that\nMattala airports are of any use, but just to give an idea of what we are\nmissing, the magnitude of the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the benefit that accrued to the people to\njustify this huge expenditure. Insignificant to say the least. Has the Northern\nPC in its short tenure or the other PCs in the last 30 years of their existence\ndone anything original and creative in the \neconomic, education, cultural or any other area. Nothing significant has\nbeen done except to form another obstacle to the people to be overcome to get\nany service done. And another opportunity for bribery and corruption.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no need for PCs for the economic, social and\ncultural development of the North or any other part of this country. However,\nthere could be two other reasons why they are being demanded by Tamil\npoliticians and India. Political power sharing is the long standing grievance\nof the Tamil political leaders. How this demand could be addressed has been\noften discussed in these columns by experts on the subject. A solution has to\nbe found which is acceptable to everyone including the majority community.\nGreater devolution of power will not solve the problem of the Tamils and may not\nbe acceptable to the other communities. Making the unit of devolution larger\nwill make matters worse as pointed out by several writers and also in my\nearlier letter (The Island 14.01.2021). Perhaps it may be possible to solve\nthis problem by two steps. The administrative powers could be devolved to a\nsmaller unit such as the district which would be economically and functionally\nmore feasible. Further a political power sharing arrangement  could be worked out at the centre where Tamil\npolitical leaders instead of being parochial in their attitude could serve the\nwhole country. It must be remembered more than 50% of Tamils live outside the\nNorth and East. Tamil leaders at the centre could serve all these Tamils<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other reason is the geo-political concerns of\nIndia. Sri Lanka due to its strategical situation in the Indian Ocean is a\nvaluable piece of real estate\u201d. China and the US are vying for a foothold on\nthe Island. India due to its border confrontations with China is supporting the\nUS. India’s policy towards Sri Lanka depends to a degree on its foreign\nrelations with the two opposing global power camps, the Western and\nChina\/Russia camps. There was a time when India sponsored Tamil terrorists to\ncounter the then government’s tilt towards the US and now it is with the\nopposite camp and is using the ethnic issue to have a support base in Sri\nLanka. A Northern PC in a United Sri Lanka\u201d would serve this purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It must be said that though the US and India interfere\nin Sri Lanka’s internal affairs China strictly adheres to the UN convention on\nnon-interference in other countries’ affairs. In this sense it is a true\nfriend. Sri Lanka in this hour of need and peril must strengthen its relations\nwith China, Russia and other countries in that camp. Sri Lanka must not be\nbrowbeaten by the big neighbour for it is not friendless and helpless at this\njuncture. China is forging ahead in spite of Covid and has beaten the US\neconomically and also in the trade war that the latter waged against it. China hence\nis a good friend to have on one’s side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It should be possible to convince India on the futility\nof pursuing with the 13th<\/sup> A and PCs as a solution to the ethnic\nissue. Leaders of this government were once successful in convincing India on\nthe desirability of eliminating the LTTE and the war was fought to its\nconclusion. A similar strategy may have to be adopted in this instance as well.\nIndia has to be shown the unfeasibility of PCs and the available alternatives\nto solve the problem. India must also be shown that Sri Lanka cannot be used as\na piece of real estate\u201d by any foreign power, including China. It must also be\nshown that arm twisting may not work, for Sri Lanka is not without powerful\nfriends.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

N.A.de S. Amaratunga Indian Foreign Minister in his recent visit to Sri Lanka has firmly told the government that the 13th Amendment must be implemented in a united Sri Lanka. Unitary state is not acceptable to India probably because it is not acceptable to TNA and Tamil separatists. India has been reminding our governments when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-n-a-de-s-amaratunga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110842","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=110842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110842\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}