{"id":57700,"date":"2016-08-16T22:25:03","date_gmt":"2016-08-17T04:25:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=57700"},"modified":"2016-08-16T14:07:14","modified_gmt":"2016-08-16T21:07:14","slug":"etca-holy-and-unholy-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/08\/16\/etca-holy-and-unholy-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"ETCA: Holy and unholy issues"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Editorial\u00a0Courtesy The Island<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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August 16, 2016, 8:02 pm<\/span><\/div>\n

The proposed Economic and Technological Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) between Sri Lanka and India continues to dominate public discussion. The Government Medical Officers\u2019 Association (GMOA) has reiterated its position that the formulation of a national policy on international trade pacts must precede the inking of the ETCA. Else, doctors say they will go all out to torpedo it. They are capable of shoving bitter medicine down the throats of self-important politicians. In fact, they have done so on several occasions in the past. Maniacally determined to sign the ETCA, the government has embarked on a mission to debilitate the GMOA by setting up a parallel health administration with non-medical personnel in key slots. For, the government doctors\u2019 strength is derived from, inter alia, having their trade union members in top positions in the health sector.<\/p>\n

The GMOA is not alone in the fight against the ETCA; it has the backing of several other professional organisations whose members fear India will use the controversial pact to be signed to solve part of its unemployment problem and expand the market for its goods and services at the expense of Sri Lankans.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, while the Sri Lankan professionals are on the warpath, the campaign against \u2018Indian expansionism\u2019 has reached celestial heights, so to speak, with some people resisting an alleged attempt to build a branch of an Indian kovil here. There was a street protest the other day against what was called a move to set up a \u2018Tirupati kovil\u2019 in Kataragama; the protesters claimed a vast extent of land belonging to the Kataragama Devale had been cleared for that purpose. The Basnayake Nilame of the Devale has, however, rejected the allegation as baseless. Let the benefit of the doubt accrue to him.<\/p>\n

We are wary of dealing with issues concerning holy shrines, which we believe, are best left to the deities concerned. However, it needs to be added that the gods and religious leaders of Indian origin have gained wide acceptance here. After all, the majority of Sri Lankans are followers of the Buddha, one of the greatest sons of India, and there is a school of thought that even God Kataragama is not of Sri Lankan origin. Most political leaders of Sri Lanka are often seen at famous shrines in India including Tirupati Temple, making votive offerings. (Cynics say a great deal of valuable forex could be saved if branches of those shrines could be established here!) So, it may be argued that people\u2019s resistance to the alleged attempt to build an Indian Kovil in Kataragama stems not so much from their antipathy towards foreign deities but their aversion to the increasing Indian involvement in Sri Lanka\u2019s domestic affairs, the Ramayana Trail and Hanuman Bridge projects which have stirred up a real hornets\u2019 nest here. It is only natural that there are people who look askance at even the Indian-funded ambulance service.<\/p>\n

Indophiles may accuse the opponents of ETCA etc of seeing more devils than vast hell can hold, but, the latter\u2019s fears stem from many a RAW deal Sri Lanka has received from a domineering India including the creation of the terrorist problem here. Suspicions many Sri Lankans harbour as regards India and its projects boil down to a chronic goodwill deficit, which has also caused India\u2019s standing in the region to take a heavy beating. The best way India can overcome this problem, if it cares to, is to act as an elder brother in keeping with the Gujral doctrine and not as Big Brother. As for the controversial ETCA, New Delhi can allow Colombo enough time to formulate a national policy on international pacts and, thereby, allay the doubts, suspicions and fears in the minds of Sri Lankan professionals and others if it has nothing to hide.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editorial\u00a0Courtesy The Island August 16, 2016, 8:02 pm The proposed Economic and Technological Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) between Sri Lanka and India continues to dominate public discussion. The Government Medical Officers\u2019 Association (GMOA) has reiterated its position that the formulation of a national policy on international trade pacts must precede the inking of the ETCA. Else, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57700","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=57700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57700\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}