{"id":113039,"date":"2021-03-27T17:53:54","date_gmt":"2021-03-28T00:53:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=113039"},"modified":"2021-03-27T17:53:54","modified_gmt":"2021-03-28T00:53:54","slug":"indian-hypocrisy-is-himalayan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/03\/27\/indian-hypocrisy-is-himalayan\/","title":{"rendered":"Indian hypocrisy is Himalayan"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

In a  lofty speech delivered via video to the\n75th<\/sup> General Assembly of UN (September 2020) \u2013 the first of its\nkind initiated in the wake of the pandemic — Prime Minister Narendra Modi took\ngreat pains to explain a range of  issues from India \u2019s Neighbourhood\nFirst Policy\u201d to the new dimensions of the Indo-Pacific region. Among the\nachievements he highlighted was this unusual factor peculiar to India\nonly: In the same period (i.e., within\n4-5 years),\u201d he said 600 million people have been freed from open defecation.\nThis was not an easy task. But India has achieved it,\u201d he said with\npride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The entire SAARC neighbourhood joins India in\ncelebrating this achievement. But what baffles the  SAARC partners in the\nregion is why India continues to defecate in the neighbourhood so openly and\n unashamedly? The biggest shock of being a SAARCian is that no one ever\nknows when India would decide to defecate either in your front yard or\nbackyard. There isn\u2019t a single SAARCian that is not working ceaselessly to keep\ntheir patch free from India faeces. India\u2019s do-as-I-say-and-not do-as-I-do\npolicy\u201d has been a fundamental flaw in  India\u2019s foreign policy. The\nfailure of SAARC to progress as a regional bloc \u2013 the only regional bloc\nto  stagnate so far — is due solely to India\u2019s pursuit of self-interest\nat the expense of its neighbours. If there is a problem in SAARC you can be\nsure that India is somewhere in it. And yet Prime Minister boasted in the same\nspeech:  We have always worked for the interests of humankind and not\ndriven by our own self-interests.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Gandhi-Nehruvian idealism that inspired\nthe  Non-Alignment Movement went out with India defecating in and around\nits neighbourhood. Cleaning up India was long overdue and Modi deserves credit\nfor achieving this Herculean task. Which reminds me of the cynical story that\ncirculated after the visit of Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet Premier, to India\nin 1960. An eye-sore to Khrushchev,  the story went, was the Indians\ndefecating in public and on one of his long  train rides he  chided\nNehru for letting  his people dirty both sides of the railway track.\nNehru\u2019s pride was wounded and he remembered it well and on his return visit to\nUSSR (as Russia was known then) he was out to get even with his counterpart. He\nthought he found one at last in one  of his long train rides across\nSiberia when he saw in the open distant a squatting man defecating. He quickly\nsummoned Khrushchev and pointed to the ugly scene which, naturally angered\nKhrushchev. Immediately, he pulled the chain and stopped the train and got his\nNKVD to bring the culprit before him. It was Nehru who was chagrined again\nbecause they discovered that the defecator was none other than India\u2019s\nambassador to Moscow!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, SAARCians are well aware that the South\nBloc in Delhi is a factory that produces these incontinent specimens who should\nnot have been let out of Indian toilets. J. N. Dixit, the noted Mr. Fix-it\u201d\nwho was sent by Mrs. Indira Gandhi, to execute her excremental mission in Sri\nLanka, was full of regret later when he realised, rather late, that it was\nIndia\u2019s biggest mistake. The entire mission was undertaken on the assumption\nthat India could fix the domestic problem of Sri Lanka by using its superior\nmilitary, political and Big Brother muscles. In the end it was  driven\naway by the very forces that welcomed them as their  saviours. And the LTTE\nboasted that they had beaten the fourth  largest Army in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each defeat diminishes India\u2019s stature as a\nreliable guide, partner and leader in the global competition for power and\ninfluence. India\u2019s rivals are asserting and making their presence felt with more\ncredible and viable use  of power. In short India is losing its grip in\nthe neighbourhood \u2013 let alone the India Ocean Rim — by the day to its powerful\nrival China. India is drifting away from its neighbourhood \u2013 its nearest and\nvital mates needed for its defence \u2013 to depend on distant power blocs like the\nQUAD. Consequently, India is forced to rely on the Pacific friends\u201d with a\ncommon interest in containing China, which questions the validity of India\u2019s\nNeighbourhood First Policy\u201d.  And the more it alienates its neighbours\nthe more it  is compelled to rely on LOCs and LACs. How many frontiers\nmust it maintain just to survive in the neighbourhood, dissipating its military\nenergies on mini-wars and  skirmishes from time to time, sometimes going\nto the brink? Is India going to live on  tenterhooks for the rest of its\nlife by hanging on to controversial  legacies and self-serving\ninterventions?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India of course rushes into places where\nangels fear to tread ( e.g., Sri Lanka) believing that it is a problem-solver.\nBut the records show that she ends up as a problem-exacerbator, not \nknowing how to get out of it without exiting  in body bags. Invariably,\nIndia\u2019s foreign forays boomerang on her blinkered bureaucrats in the South\nBloc. India has this penchant also to bite more than what it can chew. And, in\nthe process, she gets choked. That is what happened to her in Sri Lanka. Had\nIndia allowed the Sri Lankan forces to finish off the LTTE in the Vadamarachchi\noperation in the 70s the needless internal war would not have dragged on till\n2009. It could have been nipped in the bud. But Big Brother India had to come\nin and worsen  the  situation  for all concerned \u2013 mostly to\nIndia. Had India allowed Sri Lanka to solve its problems in their way India\ncould have saved face without  having  to experience the humiliation\nof its forces being  driven  out with their  tails between their\nlegs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India\u2019s latest diplomatic thrust at the UNHRC\nagainst Sri Lanka is typical of India\u2019s duplicitous diplomacy. It is the\nabsolute lack of moral finesse that makes India a despicable figure in the eyes\nof those who know India\u2019s role in sabotaging and destabilising her neighbour\nand friend for thousands of years. It is the nearness that makes India both a\nfriend and an enemy. As a neighbour with thousands of years of relations with\nSri Lanka, we cannot remain untouched by developments in that country and will\ncontinue to remain engaged in this matter,\u201d said Dilip Sinha, India\u2019s High\nCommissioner in Geneva in 2013. In other words, India is saying that it will\nnot let Sri Lanka be independent and handle its domestic affairs or foreign\naffairs according to its national interests. India gave a new meaning to\nNeighbourhood First Policy\u201d by imposing Article 370 and wiping out the\nindependent status of Kashmir violating international  agreements and UN\nresolutions and absorbing the Muslim state into Indian Hindustan. India would\nnot  have hesitated by now  to make Sri Lanka its 29th state if it\nhad the power to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The Neighbourhood First Policy\u201d is a rather\nbelated approach to mend broken fences. But India can\u2019t live up to its own\ncommitments. India\u2019s lobbying against Sri Lanka in Geneva, roping in Nepal, is\nnot the best way to pursue policy that gives priority and confidence to the\nneighbourhood. Pakistan and Bangladesh, the two big neighbours, were not with\nIndia. Isn\u2019t this another sign  that meddlesome  and \ninterventionist India cannot coexist with  its neighbours? Of course, the\nModi government was under pressure in Tamil Nadu to prove that they are with\nthe Tamils in Sri Lanka. Selling Sri Lanka is another  way of \nwinning  votes in the Tamil Nadu election due on April 6. Modi is boasting\nthat he is the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Jaffna. He is also claiming\nblood relationship with the Tamils by  and referring to them as his\nbrothers and sisters\u201d. No doubt, this is electoral rhetoric. That is for\ndomestic consumption. But the consequences of this rhetoric go beyond the\nborders to impact on Indo-Sri Lanka relations. India is literally pushing Sri\nLanka into the arms of China \u2013 the last thing that both sides want to happen.\nBoth sides are sensitive to possibility of Sri Lanka, swinging away from India.\nIndia is openly wooing the Tamils partly to keep the pot boiling for it to intervene\nand partly to keep them as the Fifth Column to provoke and pressure the GOSL.\nIndian diplomats on the ground are stirring the pot, playing ball with the\nTamil parties. Driven by Indian funds, patronage and interventionist policies\nthe local Tamil parties too are only too happy to go along  with Indian\nmanoeuvres. In doing this India is playing with fire again. Playing with\ndivisive politics is a risky gamble. Foreign powers tend  to join with the\nlocals to exploit divisions to their advantage. But it doesn\u2019t go according to\nplan in  the best of cases. Vietnam for  USA and Sri Lanka for\nIndians prove that it can go the other way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India finds Tamil aspirations\u201d a good excuse to\nintervene. So it should not be surprised to find the Sri Lankan aspirations\u201d\ntoo compelling the Sri Lankan policy-makers to seek their comfort\/security\nzones abroad. So far, India\u2019s handling of Tamil aspirations\u201d has not satisfied\nthe Tamil aspirants. Velupillai Prabhakaran went against India because  he\nfelt that India was pushing its own  neo-colonial program more than that\nof the Tamils. Right now India has moved into UNHRC to push its neo-colonial\ninterventions. Apart from power politics, what makes the Indian adventure in\nGeneva so obnoxious is its blatant lies and immorality. Of course, India makes\na big issue of trying to present its role as neutral middle-man guaranteeing\nterritorial integrity to Sri Lanka and in the same breath guaranteeing Tamil\naspirations\u201d which it says is in the interest  of Sri Lanka. In other words,\nIndia will follow the policy of rocking  the cradle and pinching  the\nbaby. But the sudden and arbitrary application of Article 370 to Kashmir \u2013 a\nkind of final solution to the vexed issue since Pandit Nehru created it at\nIndependence \u2013 proves that India is not shy of redrawing the political maps\naccording to its whims and fancies. India is provocative. It is aggressive. And\nthreatening  regional peace and stability with each big move. A\ncounterweight is needed to balance India\u2019s arrogant approach to its neighbours.\nIf an alternative counterweight  is not forthcoming, perhaps, an alliance\nof non-Indians in  the region to lock in India \u2013 if achievable — would be\nthe answer to put India in its place<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, somebody\nmust stop India running wild. Take the case of Sri Lanka. India exploited the\nsimmering internal stirrings in  its very early stages to recruit derelict\nTamil youth to be India\u2019s covert arm to destabilise Sri Lanka. It provided training,\nfinance, military equipment, political patronage, diplomatic cover, the\nuse  of  its territory to export terrorism to its thousand-year-old\nfriend and neighbour. Eventually it forced its way into Sri Lanka on the\npromise of solving the problem. When the Tamils realised that the Indians had\ncome in to exploit them they turned against  the IPKF. In response the\nIPKF sprayed bullets indiscriminately targeting civilians. The Indian committed\nthe most heinous war crime by raiding the Jaffna Hospital and slaughtering\ndoctors, surgeons, nurses and patients and all others who stood in the way.\nAnd  it is this India \u2013 this hypocritical India — that is asking Sri\nLanka to give justice, dignity, equality and peace for Jaffna Tamils in\nGeneva.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three parties engaged\ndirectly in finding a military solution and all the human rights  issues\narose from the military engagements of the three forces : 1. The quasi-Tamil\nstate of the LTTE which came out of the declaration of war by the Tamil\nleadership at Vadukoddai urging  the Tamil youth to take up the gun in\npursuit of establishing a Tamil state.(2) the democratically elected state of\nSri Lanka which fought to defeat the Tamil Pol Pot and liberate the Tamils from\nTamil tyranny and 3. The state of India which intervened military to impose its\nwill assuming its power to find a solution. All parties violated human rights\nand committed war crimes. The UN resolutions repeatedly refers to violations of\nhuman rights by the GOSL and the LTTE but never by the state of India. Why? In\ntheir reports to UNHRC all the High Commissioners have been quick to pick on\nGOSL. But not a single report has ever dared to raise the violations of the\nIndian forces in Sri Lanka. Why? Are they above the law? Or are the High\nCommissioner, as usual playing  the hidden games of exempting the powerful\nand flaying only the powerless \u2013 and that too on flimsy excuses compared to\nwhat  India had done to Sri Lanka from the beginning? The scale of India\u2019s\ncriminality in creating, promoting, financing, legitimising the killing machine\nof its agents in Jaffna is unforgivable. India has no moral leg to stand on and\naccuse Sri Lanka of anything after what it has done to its thousand-year\nneighbour and friend. On the contrary, India should have accepted guilt for paving\nthe path to crimes that killed innocent lives in Sri Lanka and legally forced\nto pay compensation to the victims. Apart from kick-starting the killing the\nTamil killing machine and exporting it to Sri Lanka it is India\u2019s direct\nmilitary intervention that prolonged the war leading to thousands of deaths\nand  violations  of human rights. After that, after committing those\ninhuman  crimes what right has India to pontificate to Sri Lanka on\ndignity, peace and  justice? After promising to restore peace and\nreconciliation India departed disgracefully, leaving Sri Lanka in bloody\nshambles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only India, the entire\nCore Group led by UK and the West should hang their heads in shame for hiding\nthe facts that undermines the  veracity and the validity of their fake\nresolution against Sri Lanka. Their secret files contain the truth and they\nwill not reveal them because it blasts their accusations to smithereens. Lord\nNaseby\u2019s revelations knock the bottom out of the resolution that was sponsored\nby the Core Group. His  tireless efforts to dig up the truth and expose\nthe concocted  resolution, full of inaccuracies, exaggerations,\ndistortions and denials confirm that UN and its agencies are manipulated by\nmendacious agents who have the least respect for basic and decent values needed\nfor  delivery of justice. Michelle Bachelet has not failed to imitate\nColin Powell with deadly accuracy. Both should be awarded honorary degree for\ndeliberately lying to mislead and  deceive the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reading Lord Nasby\u2019s\naccount of what happened  in Geneva one is forced  to conclude\nthat  the whole episode was a farce enacted by liars, hypocrites,\nconspirators and plain criminals presenting  themselves as human rights\nactivists. It was UK that Chaired the Core Group and the evidence was with \nLord Ahamad, the Minister for Human Rights, who had purposely and consciously\nwithheld robust evidence\u201d of utmost  importance being  sent to the\nUNHR\u2026. He should have sent them unredacted to create an informed Report. The\naction is made even worse by UK Chairing the Core Group and is absolutely\nreprehensible. It is unforgiveable and is a black day for my UK Government,\u201d\nsaid Lord Naseby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added: I find  it\nunacceptable that the senor UK Minister responsible for Human rights policy\nshould  state that the UNHRC did not ask for these Dispatches. The\nMinister knew how crucial the contents of these Dispatches are to the truth.\u201d\nOne of the objectives of the UNHRC resolution  is to find  evidence\nof the human  rights  violations  in Sri Lanka. Shouldn\u2019t the UN\nbegin  with the office of the UK Minister for Human Rights  and then\nwith Ms. Bachelet\u2019s office? In failing to obtain the necessary information\nbefore presenting her report to UNHRC isn\u2019t she guilty of criminal neglect of\nduty?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The emerging \nevidence is exposing the calculated manipulation that had operated, with the\nhidden plotters in the NGOs and officials in key places hiding evidence,\nconcocting evidence and  distorting  realities on the ground. For\ninstance, the UN produces accusations against Sri Lanka with evidence from\nnameless, faceless accusers who  will remain anonymous for the next thirty\nyears. And Sri Lanka is forced to face the consequences of mysterious evidence\nkept hidden in the UN archives. India which was a prime conspirator  in financing\nand honing  the Tamil killing machine turns up at UNHRC as a pious\npreacher of humane values and lobbies  against  its victim demanding\njustice. UK which presides over the Core Group hides the  evidence that\ngoes against  its own resolution. Ms. Bachelet who is the Chief Officer\nresponsible for  coordinating and presenting the  evidence for the\nresolution goes along  with the lies, deception and the  conspiracy\nto indict Sri Lanka. Put  together all this adds to one big calculated\nmove to indict Sri Lanka no matter what the truth is. What chance had Sri Lanka\nagainst such massive plotters?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

H. L. D. Mahindapala In a  lofty speech delivered via video to the 75th General Assembly of UN (September 2020) \u2013 the first of its kind initiated in the wake of the pandemic — Prime Minister Narendra Modi took great pains to explain a range of  issues from India \u2019s Neighbourhood First Policy\u201d to the new […]<\/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-113039","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\/113039","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=113039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113039\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}