{"id":113375,"date":"2021-04-08T15:02:18","date_gmt":"2021-04-08T22:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=113375"},"modified":"2021-04-08T15:02:18","modified_gmt":"2021-04-08T22:02:18","slug":"the-indian-trojan-horse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/04\/08\/the-indian-trojan-horse\/","title":{"rendered":"The Indian Trojan Horse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sugath Kulatunga\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

It is a consolation that the\nGovernment has decided to defer the resurrection of the Provincial Councils,\nuntil after a new law is approved by the Parliament. Meanwhile, 10 leading\nVenerable monks have strongly protested on the very idea of bringing back the\nProvincial Councils. It is noted that these same Venerable monks played a lead\nrole in bringing this government to power. They have given five very cogent\nreasons why it should not be done. It is not necessary to elaborate on each\nreason adduced by the leading Buddhist clergy. But there are many more reasons\nwhy this white elephant should not be given a new life. Since the introduction\nof the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, there had been an abundance of\narguments against the Provincial Councils. At present, it is important to\nconsider why it should not be done now and even in the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The contemporary pressing argument\nis pollical. In the recent past the government has had to face heavy flak on a\nnumber of slipups which the opposition has taken advantage of to hurt the\npopularity of the government. The non-identification of the \u2018brains\u2019 behind the\nEaster Bombing is harped on and is given a vicious twist and is made use of to\nswing the Catholic votes. Sugar scam has been taken to courts. Deforestation\nhas accelerated despite action by the government. Now, a coconut oil fiddle is\nmaking ripples. Cost of living has affected the majority of the population. If\nthere is no issue the opposition will create one. Even Viyathmaga which is\nfacing ridicule for bad policies of the government has signaled alarm at the\nrapid loss of popularity by the government. People do not take a balanced view\nof problems against the global crisis of Corvid 19 and the achievements of the\ngovernment in managing the pandemic. The government does not have an effective\npublicity system to counter misinformation and provide positive information.\nThe legal system is not geared to tackle fake news. It is a truism in Sri Lanka\nthat oppositions do not win elections, but the governments lose them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would be politically disastrous\nto hold Provincial Council Elections now, when the popularity of the government\nis not rosy at all. If the objective is to please the former SLPP PC members,\nit is not an astute decision as they are only the second-string leaders. The\nbetter candidates would have already contested the Parliamentary elections.\nThere will also be a tussle for seats from the now desperate SLFP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In relation to Provincial Councils,\nwhat is of paramount importance now is to recognize the heightened inflexible\nstance of India. One must not forget that Indian stance has always been\nnarcissistic and self-centered. In his Discovery of India, Nehru had written\nthat \u2018the small national State is doomed\u2019, and envisaged that Sri Lanka would\ninevitably be drawn into a closer union with India \u2018presumably as an autonomous\nunit of the Indian Federation\u2019; and Panikkar, also writing before independence,\nhad averred that \u2018the internal organization of India on a firm and stable basis\nwith Burma and Nepal was the classic instance of the \u2018buffer state\u2019 from\nBritish times, buttressing the defense of India on its northern flank; Sri\nLanka, on its southern flank, had long been considered by naval strategists to\nbe an essential link in India\u2019s security. Not surprisingly, the proclamation of\nthe strategic unity of India and her regional smaller neighbors became the\nrecurrent theme of Indian pronunciations on relations with these States. These\nprognoses were later discarded by Nehru and Panikkar, but they reappeared in\nsome guise or another in Indian writings and pronouncements. Even after the\nmodern South Asian states system had become a reality Ceylon was the essential\npre-requisite to \u2018a realistic policy of Indian defense\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(https:\/\/openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au\/…\/019_sdsc…<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The failure of SAARC to progress as\na regional bloc \u2013 the only regional bloc to stagnate so far \u2014 is due solely to\nIndia\u2019s pursuit of self-interest at the expense of its neighbors. India was a\nleader in the Non-Aligned Movement. In the recent past India has veered away\nfrom non-alignment. India\u2019s External Affairs Minister, S. Jaishankar, said\nrecently that non-alignment was a concept of relevance in a specific era and a\nparticular context, though the independence of action enshrined in it remains a\nfactor of continuity in India\u2019s foreign policy\u201d. The Hindu interprets this\nstatement as\u201d explicit an assertion as one is likely to get from our political\nleadership of an obvious post-Cold War fact: that non-alignment, as a foreign\npolicy concept, is dead. Today India is more interested in the QUAD due to a\nshared threat perception with the USA, Japan, and Australia towards China and\nthe objectives in the Indo- Pacific region. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Big Brother attitude of India\nhas been depreciated by all its neighbors. India has pressurized its smaller\nneighbors at all times to tow the Indian line. Nepal and Bhutan in the North\nare India Locked\u201d and have to depend on transit access through India for\ninternational trade. In September 2015, Nepal\u2019s popularly elected Constituent\nAssembly passed a new constitution by an overwhelming majority (more than 90%\nof the CA members), but some socio-political groups protested against some\naspects of the new constitution in the southern region of the country. India\nsupported these disgruntled groups of the south because it was not in favour of\nNepal\u2019s new constitution, India\u2019s Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar visited Nepal\nto pressure the Nepali political leadership and prevent its promulgation. This\nwas when Such a direct interference in the internal affairs of an independent\nand sovereign country like Nepal can be argued as motivated by India\u2019s\nhegemonic arrogance. By imposing the economic blockade, India wanted Nepal to\nforcefully amend the new Constitution. Historically, India has continued its\ninterventionist and hegemonic policies vis-\u00e0-vis its neighbors through its intelligence\nagencies, most notable Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). (https:\/\/www.nepjol.info\/index.php\/joia\/article\/view\/29085<\/a>.\nIndia can apply similar pressure on Sri Lanka if and when disgruntled minority elements\nprotest on the proposed new Constitution of Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

India has been lording over the tiny\nBuddhist country of Bhutan from the time of Indian independence. India\nconsiders Bhutan to be a buffer between hostile China and India. It was India\nthat decided the foreign policy of Bhutan until the time of Man Mohan Sing when\nthe restriction was relaxed, but even today India retains a high level of\ninfluence over the Kingdom\u2019s decision-making processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is the presence of the Indian\nArmy inside Bhutan in the guise of a training school for the Bhutanese Army and\nas a unit of construction engineers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through a tripartite agreement and\nthe Government of Sikkim Act, 1974, a dictatorial constitution was imposed on\nthe ‘protectorate’ by the Government of India. The resolution, drafted by an\nIndian ‘legal expert’ and in hardly comprehensible legal terminology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The modalities of Sikkim’s\nabsorption certainly lacked the finesse and diplomatic sheen. It was a sneaky\nand cynical act of consummation of a process that had been going on ever since\nindependence, a process marked by twists and turns and periods of lying low and\nedging forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Government of India claims that\nthe absorption of Sikkim ‘reflects the true aspirations of the Sikkim people’ as\nexpressed through the Assembly. Certainly, this is a cruel joke played on the\npeople of Sikkim. Like every regime that carries on its anti-democratic designs\non another people, the Government of India does so in the name of ‘protecting\nand extending democracy’. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(http:\/\/www.darjeeling-unlimited.com\/absorption.html<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nlate 1980s this writer was a member of an ESCAP delegation, led by Minister\nLalith Athulathmudali to China where the delegation had an audience with the\nthen President of China, where he very nonchalantly said,\u2019 we used to hear\nabout a country called Sikkim, of which we do not hear any more.\u201d He continued\nto say that the duty of big countries is to protect small countries and not\nswallow them. He warned Lalith that Sri Lanka had to be careful of its\nsovereignty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The role of India towards Sri Lanka\nis derived from the perspective of India on its concept of lebensraum, that\nSouth Asia has a distinctive personality, and that India is not only the single\nsuccessor of the British Raj, but also of this civilizational heritage has\nimportant repercussions for the way how Indian governments deal with India\u2019s\nneighbors, particularly with Pakistan that also claims to be the successor\nstate of the British Raj and the heir of this civilizational heritage. The\nnarrative of Indian Greatness treats South Asia as a confined geopolitical and\ncivilizational space with India at its core. India is the pre-eminent power,\nleader, and hegemon in South Asia and the Indian Ocean \u2013 a status that is given\nby geographical, historical, and cultural facts, and what happens in this\ngeopolitical and civilizational space is of crucial importance to India (Mohan\n2004a, Singh 2004b, 2009, Mukherjee 2005, Rao 2010c) (https:\/\/d-nb.info\/1114735116\/34<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is in this background that India\nbrowbeat Ceylon on the citizenship issue, where despite the findings of the\nDonoughmore Commission and the Privy Council India drove a hard bargain to give\ncitizenship rights to a large number of Indian workers. India went further and\ncreated a category of Stateless people without actively absorbing under Article\n8 of the Indian Constitution, the Indian workers who did not qualify for Ceylon\ncitizenship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From mid-1983, on the instructions\nof Indira Gandhi, RAW began funding, arming, and training several Tamil\ninsurgent groups. There was suspicion that RAW had a hand in the 1983 communal\nriots and the attacks on Sri Mahabodhi and Dalada Maligawa to provoke a\nSinhalese backlash. Indian government support to the LTTE was not just to give\na message to J.R. Jayewardene but to subvert Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indira Gandhi had even asked her\nBritish counterpart Margaret Thatcher to stop helping Sri Lanka with military\nadvice (SAS help) to crush the separatist Tamil Eelam movement in the 1980s,\naccording to newly declassified documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The role of R&AW is well\ndescribed in the Indian Defense Review as Covert action capability is an\nindispensable tool for any State having external adversaries. Its purpose is\nnot just the collection of intelligence, but the protection of national\ninterests and the safeguarding of national security through deniable actions of\na political, economic, para-diplomatic, or para-military nature. A State\nresorts to covert action if it finds that its national interests cannot be\nprotected or its national security cannot be safeguarded through conventional\npolitical, economic, diplomatic or military means or if it concludes that such\nconventional means are not feasible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttp:\/\/www.indiandefencereview.com\/…\/role-of-raw-in…\/\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the use of R&AW in Sri Lanka\nthere was no national interest of India to be safeguarded or national security\nto be protected. It was more the reaction of a show of power by a power-drunk\ndictator to teach a lesson to a tactless small nation leader. Hariharan a\nformer Commander of IPKF has said that Her strong-willed leadership bordered\non autocracy, and she focused on ends rather than the means to achieve them\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/…\/a-tale-of…\/article3693348.ece<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both leaders had similar qualities\nand mindsets and their imperious actions had negative consequences in both\ncountries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Indian political journalist of\nthe Asian Research commented on Indian foreign relations in an article\npublished in (https:\/\/theasiadialogue.com\/…\/india-and-the-mantle-of…\/<\/a>\n) an excerpt of which is as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since its independence in 1947,\nIndia has held its smaller neighbors, with the exception of Pakistan and\nAfghanistan, in a tight embrace. Not only has New Delhi exercised enormous\nlevels of unilateral political influence in these countries, with a few it\nmaintained lopsided treaty relations for many decades and still enjoys many\none-sided economic and political arrangements. In the last seventy years, it\nhas annexed one such neighbor (Sikkim); carried out military interventions in\nSri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh, and Bhutan; coerced all of the neighbors with\nopen threats of war at one point or another; and ham-fistedly interfered in\ntheir domestic affairs and civil wars. Almost all of these actions have gone\nwithout any notable pushback from other major powers. This geopolitical\nequation is a historical anomaly. Almost no other regional power has been\nallowed to exercise such a level of regional domination for so long on such a\nlarge scale. What makes the case more puzzling is the proximity of China.\nLogically, the smaller countries should have begun balancing against India long\nago by developing evenhanded relations with Beijing and New Delhi.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The present predicament of the 13th\nAmendment to the Constitution and the Provincial Councils is a direct outcome\nof the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord. The pathetic tale of the arrogance of the Indian\nHC Dixit, the abject surrender of the President and the Cabinet to the Indian\nproposals are well known. The 13the Amendment drafted by the two Indian\nMinisters Chidambaram and Natwar Singh had the same trademark of the resolution\ndrafted by the Indian experts to absorb Sikkim. Dixit outmaneuvered the Cabinet\nand Parliament of Sri Lanka by getting Jayawardhane to cede the sovereignty of\nthe country by an exchange of letters. This included the employment of foreign\nmilitary and intelligence personnel, the use of the Trincomalee Harbor and any\nother port or the oil tanks, and even broadcasting, that were purely in the\nrealm of domestic jurisdiction. India (the malicious fox Dixit) played on the\nquandary faced by Jayawardhane in confronting two insurgencies in the North and\nthe South at the same time. He was more concerned with the JVP threat and\nwanted to shift the military from the North to the South and found a willing\npartner in Rajiv Gandhi who was also looking for an excuse for a show of force\nin Sri Lanka. But for the destructive JVP insurrection in the South, the\nconduct of JR would have been different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indian regional hegemonic doctrine\nwas first enunciated by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and followed by Prime\nMinister Rajiv Gandhi. Gandhian foreign and security policies in the\nneighborhood are characterized by rigid adherence to realpolitik,\naggrandizement of power, the assertion of hegemonic status and aggressive\npursuit of self-interest with open defiance to established norms of global\norder.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.etd.ceu.edu<\/a> shanmugasundaram\nsasikumar.pdf<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This doctrine has been faithfully\nfollowed by every successive Indian government. The presence of China in Sri\nLanka has given more resolve and urgency to this doctrine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A leopard never changes its spots\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the recent past the statement of\nthe Indian Minister Jaishankar, that \u2018India still sees the 1987 amendment \u2014 the\nconstitutional basis for the provincial councils \u2014 as central to addressing\nTamil political aspirations,\u201d is significant. This stand was confirmed by the\nIndian representative at the UNHRC at the last session. He called for the full\nimplementation of the 13th amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The implication of these statements\ncannot be ignored. They also infer the amalgamation of the Northern and the\nEastern Provinces. In both the strategic interests of the Tamil separatists and\nIndia, the Eastern Province with the Trincomalee Harbor becomes crucial. There\nlies the future threat to the National Security of Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the domestic scenario, the threat\nto the security of the island has not abated with the defeat of the LTTE. The\nmeasured statements of the elder statesman TNA leader R.Sampanthan\u2019s speech at\nthe 14th Annual ITAK convention ( May 2012) are significant. He does not hide\nthe intentions of the Tamils. He said that The softening of our stance\nconcerning certain issues, and the compromise we show in other issues, are\ndiplomatic strategies to ensure that we do not alienate the international\ncommunity. They are not indications that we have abandoned our fundamental\nobjectives.\u201d His statement made in 2012 that In the past, the United States\nand India stood against us. However, in the favorable circumstances that have\nnow come about, the United States and India are to a great extent supporting\nour position\u201d applies more to the current situation. He rejected the 13th\nAmendment and uttered the oft-repeated untruth that a national ethnic group\nhas lived here for several tens of thousands of years, is now on the cusp of\nextermination.\u201d He stressed that their expectation for a solution to the ethnic\nproblem of the sovereignty of the Tamil people is based on a political\nstructure outside that of a unitary government. Sampanthan mentioned\nunequivocally that devolution should go beyond the 13th Amendment to the\nConstitution. The new spokesman of the TNA Sumanthiran has repeatedly claimed\nfor a federal solution. Now there is another champion of separatism in former\nPC Chief Minister Vigneswaram who distorts history and says A federal system\nis the only way out. The details can be worked out. But the fact that the\nTamils, with over 2,000 years of continued history, [are] occupying definite\nareas of residence in the North and East needs to be accepted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Provincial Council system is the\nTrojan Horse introduced by India. The powers given to Provincial Councils\nexceed the powers devolved to State governments in India. With the Provincial\nCouncils, India has placed an enemy within. The issues are very clear. Sri\nLanka has to be ingenious and dismantle this Trojan Horse before the hidden\nforces inside are released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Decentralization and delegation of\npowers are essential management techniques universally practiced. The unit of\ndecentralization has to be democratic and result-oriented. In this, national\nsecurity has to be given the highest priority. It is a topic that needs to be\nexamined in depth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sugath Kulatunga\u00a0 It is a consolation that the Government has decided to defer the resurrection of the Provincial Councils, until after a new law is approved by the Parliament. Meanwhile, 10 leading Venerable monks have strongly protested on the very idea of bringing back the Provincial Councils. It is noted that these same Venerable monks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113375","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=113375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113375\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}