{"id":96115,"date":"2019-12-07T17:09:28","date_gmt":"2019-12-08T00:09:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=96115"},"modified":"2019-12-08T17:25:13","modified_gmt":"2019-12-09T00:25:13","slug":"insofar-as-india-remains-a-useful-idiot-the-security-of-both-india-and-sri-lanka-will-be-in-jeopardy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/12\/07\/insofar-as-india-remains-a-useful-idiot-the-security-of-both-india-and-sri-lanka-will-be-in-jeopardy\/","title":{"rendered":"Insofar as India Remains a \u2018Useful Idiot,\u2019 the Security of Both India and Sri Lanka Will be in Jeopardy."},"content":{"rendered":"

Kudaligamage Geethanjana<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n
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Rajapakses, Geopolitics, \u2018Eurocentric Developmentalism,\u2019 and the western hegemony\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

(Part 21)<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Indo Lanka Accord \nwas an outcome of a brawl between old school politics of the cold-war mentality \nof Indira Gandhi and Junius Richard Jayawardene. This outdated agreement must be \nrenegotiated or entirely repealed for the benefit of both nations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agey \nwayiraya\u201d “<\/strong>\u0d87\u0d9c\u0dda<\/strong>  \n<\/strong>\u0dc0\u0ddb\u0dbb\u0dba<\/strong>“<\/strong> is a term not \nonly related to the silver screen but also very much related to politics. There \nis a well-known piece of political advice shadowed through the ages, never ever \nto mess with a woman in power.\u201d J.R. Jayawardene, the \u2018old fox\u2019 of Sri Lanka\u2019s \nmodern politics, dared to cross that figurative \u2018Rubicon.\u2019 And made not him, but \nus to pay dearly for his mischievous political conduct like a slippery \u2018Anda\u2019 \n\u2018<\/strong>\u0d86\u0db3\u0dcf<\/strong>,\u2019<\/strong> fond of \nhabituating in the muddied water of politics rather than the clear political \natmosphere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

JRJ had ridiculed \nIndira Gandhi and her son in his 1977 election campaign. JRJ\u2019s criticism of \nGandhi was entirely unnecessary but premeditated political play for the \nentertainment of the western gallery. He was heavily investing in Western \nassistance for his development plans for Sri Lanka, therefore, he might have \nthought of repaying the west by means of becoming the pet of the west in South \nAsia. His criticism of Indira was not at all a gaff or a slip of the tongue. It \nwas a calculated performance to win the hearts and minds of the western \npolitical establishment who hated Indira Gandhi due to her pro-Soviet policies \nat the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

JRJ may have \nthought to entertain some of his fans in the west, especially in the USA to make \nthem rally around his administration and to reap the benefits of being \npro-western. It was a very dangerous but well thought political gamble. JR was \nno Sirisena or Mangala to make ridiculous statements not knowing their \nrepercussions, but a well-experienced politician. It was pretty clear that he \nhad envisioned to use our country’s strategic importance as a bargaining chip to \nmake our country the darling of the western block and receive western assistance \nfor the development of Sri Lanka in the same manner how Lee Kuan Yew had \nused Singapore located in close proximity to China. But Washington had different \nplans. So, the consequences of his political \u2018Cabaret\u2019 on his election campaign \nstage did not bring expected results; instead, asking even more from JRJ, \nWashington made JRJ to perform a \u2018Lap Dance\u2019 for India\u2019s PM Rajive Gandhi, \nmaking JRJ\u2019s entire gambit politically calamitous to Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indira Gandhi and \nJRJ were old school politicians who lived in a cold-war mentality. During their \ntime, neo-liberalism was not as powerful political force as of today. What \nIndira and JRJ thought at the time were outdated to current conditions with the \nnew realities of our time. Indira Gandhi and JRJ could not see through the \ncontemporary politico-economic changes of the time and beyond- that were taking \nplace in England under Thatcher, and in the US under Reagan. Global capitalism \nwas restructuring itself during that time gradually straining post \n2nd<\/sup> World War freedoms granted to the newly independent colonial \nworld. The world was changing rapidly. JRJ came into power in 1977, by 1989, the \ncollapse of the Berlin Wall marked the ending of cold-war creating an absolutely \n\u2018free\u2019 world, free to global capitalism to act free from the restraints of \nsocialism. JRJ or Indira could not see any of this was coming. They could not \nenvision the direction of global capitalism\u2019s desire to change itself from its \npretentious freedoms to its true nature, the complete global authoritarianism. \nThey couldn\u2019t foresee the new potentials of global capitalism and its re-masking \nitself with \u2018neo-liberalism\u2019 and globalization. In this trajectory of western \nglobal dominance, Sri Lanka became a victim, the sacrifice.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indira Gandhi or \nJRJ would never have thought that India would become a strategic partner of the \nUS within the next 30 years in the Indian Ocean region under \u2018pivot to Asia\u2019 \npolicy of the US. Although JRJ dreamed to be the \u2018poodle\u2019 of the USA in the \nIndian Ocean in 1977, by 2016 India not only had stolen JRJ\u2019s dream of becoming \nUSA\u2019s poodle from him, but also she had demonstrated that she even can go \nfurther by becoming the prodigious example of the world political history by \nbecoming \u2018useful idiot\u2019 of the US\u2019s Indian Ocean policy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However cunning \nJRJ may be, he still couldn\u2019t foresee that the Tamils could play \u2018Judas\u2019 \nsabotaging his election promise of taking us to the promised land through \nwestern aid. The west playing the judge Pontius Pilate, (the Roman governor of \nJudea,) asked the question from messiah JRJ: what\u2019s the truth about racial \npolitics in Sri Lanka?\u201d Knowing that he was not telling the truth, just like \nwhat Mangala did at the UNO, JRJ also said what western administrations and \nIndia wanted to hear. With the outcome of the1983 communal riots, India, with \nfull diplomatic and moral backing of the west, signed Indo Lanka Accord and sent \nIPKF to Sri Lanka. The real reason behind enforcing the Indo Lanka Accord was \nnot the Tamil grievances but to bring JRJ\u2019s Sri Lanka under the Indian sphere of \ninfluence because India thought JRJ was creating a security threat to \nIndia.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, the \nIndo-Lanka accord must be considered as a document outdated to the current world \nconditions. It is a security threat to both India and Sri Lanka. \n  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Remembering and \nrecollecting history to understand our challenges in the Indian \nOcean<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If \nwe are to understand our challenges in the Indian Ocean, more than anything \nelse, it is very much symbolic to defend the name of it. By saying in uncertain \nterms that you are not any Tom, Dick or Harry but Kunta Kinte, we must stress \nthe fact that the Indian Ocean is the Indian ocean and not Indo Pacific Ocean. \nThe Pacific Ocean is located beyond the narrow strait of Malacca. Therefore, \nwhen we participate in any international forums or signing agreements related to \nthe Indian Ocean, we must stress the actual name of the ocean. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \ntwo world powers, China and the USA competing with each other to have their \nphysical presence in Sri Lanka, the island nation naturally inclined to asses \nboth powers in relation to Sri Lanka\u2019s own security concerns. Unfortunately, the \nfindings are not pretty for the USA. For Sri Lankans, it is clear that the USA \nis not only desiring to have a foothold in Sri Lanka but also has other \nvendettas, vested interests and hidden agendas in the region and therefore \nmanipulating the island\u2019s internal issues to its advantage. For that reason, Sri \nLankans feel the USA as a dishonest harbinger, that invites more problems than \nsolutions to the current crisis, and has become even a part of the problem. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In \ncontrast, Sri Lanka doesn\u2019t find any evidence to prove that China has hidden \nagendas in the Tamil separatist struggle in Sri Lanka other than their desire to \nhave a foothold on its soil. Assessing this situation, if Sri Lanka inclines to \ntilt toward China and embrace Chinese assistance for her development, would that \nbe Sri Lanka\u2019s fault or the failure of the USA\u2019s foreign policy toward Sri \nLanka? The USA doesn\u2019t seem to care about the national security concerns of Sri \nLanka and her unwavering commitment to preserving its unitary status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Had \nthe USA remained a neutral and honest partner in the national issue of the \nisland, and if it really desired only to have a foothold, it would have been \nable to establish a physical presence in Sri Lanka on friendly terms way back in \nthe late 70s or early 80s during the tenures of ambassadors William H. Wriggins \nor John H. Reed with a little bit of hullabaloo from the leftist parties of the \nisland at the time. But strangely enough, the US didn\u2019t pursue it. Not only \nthat, in the mid-80s, Ambassador James W. Spain reaffirmed the official position \nof USA about Trincomalee harbor declaring that the USA had had no interest \nwhatsoever, military or otherwise, in the Trincomalee harbor. (However, despite \nambassador\u2019s statement, people were suspicious and rumored about the \nSingaporean-American venture \u2018Prima Sri Lanka\u2019 wheat flour-mill that was \nestablished in the Trinco harbor-front as an America\u2019s tacit way of entering \ninto the Harbor) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under \ntremendous pressure from the naked aggression of India, JRJ sought assistance \nfrom then US president Ronald Reagan, but just to learn that the Reagan \nadministration already had trashed him altogether with the baby elephant that \nPres. JRJ had gifted to Pres. Regan during his official visit to the USA. (This \nbaby elephant had died in Diarrhea due to lack of attention.) Adding insult to \nthe injury, giving a tenderfoot treatment to this senior-most politician in \nentire Asia at the time, Pres. Regan was audacious enough to advise JRJ to \nfollow the dictates of India. It was clear that JRJ was hurt very badly by this \nsurprising treatment. Later he had mentioned this to the visiting US diplomat \nPeter Galbraith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although \nwe inclined to think that experienced politicians make political decisions \nobjectively away from emotions, they too can become very subjective and \nemotional like any other person when they make political decisions, no matter \nwhether those decisions are history-changing epochal decisions. JRJ, a \nwell-known pro-American politician and the bearer of the nickname \u2018YankyDickie, \ntook a 180-degree turn and became a lap-dog of India overnight, not only because \nhe had been forced by Washington but also he was unable to see the reason behind \nwhy the USA was forcing him to take the Indian advice. This is the reason why \nmany reluctant to call JRJ a statesman. Driven by the emotional reactions due to \nhis wounded heart, he reacted in vengeance. He may have thought to teach a \nlesson or two to Washington by becoming pro-Indian all of a sudden. But any \nstatesman in his shoes under his circumstance would have resisted India since \nthe Vadamarachchi operation was almost ending with a successful result. (But JRJ \nhad lied to media about his military saying that his military leaders refused to \ntake Jaffna due to high casualties.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But \nJRJ\u2019s emotions were justified by the behind the scene activities of Washington \nforcing JRJ to deal with India leaving JRJ without any other options. On \nFebruary 05, 2017 writing to The Hindu, under the caption of I was forced into \na deal with India, Jayawardene told US envoy\u201d Amit Baruah says\u2026 that JRJ \nrevealed that Sri Lanka was forced <\/em><\/strong>(by Washington) into \nmaking a deal with India<\/em><\/strong>\u2026 He <\/strong><\/em>(JRJ) stressed that \nnone of his outside friends<\/em><\/strong> (obviously referring the west) would \nhelp him, so he had no choice but to make a deal with India, the unclassified \nCIA document read\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026it appears that the Americans also played a behind the scene role in ensuring channels of communication between president Jayawardene and PM Gandhi\u2026 interestingly, a third CIA intelligence assessment of September 1986 stated that India was rapidly expanding\u201d its armed forces to intervene in Sri Lanka\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/international\/I-was-forced-into-a-deal-with-India-Jayewardene-told-U.S.-envoy\/article17195748.ece<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I \nsaid earlier, it was well known that JRJ was pro-western in general and \npro-American in particular. When analyzing JRJ\u2019s important political decisions \nduring the initial few years of his rule, such as inviting VOA to have its relay \nstation in Chilow, one can argue that JRJ was really envisioning to go even \nfurther to accommodate American military presence in Sri Lanka to put Sri Lanka \nfirmly and loyally within the western sphere of influence like Singapore or \nSouth Korea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given \nthe overwhelming western enthusiasm and pledges for development aid soon after \nhis election victory in 1977, JRJ\u2019s thinking of exploiting our strategic \nlocation as a bargaining chip to impress the west in this cold war era was \npretty predictable. From his point of view, it could have been viewed as a \nlogical move. But considering US ambassador James W. Spain\u2019s sudden public \nstatement about Washington’s unwillingness to occupy Trinco in the 1980s, it \ncould be conjectured that it was USA (not Sri Lanka) that demonstrated their \nunwillingness to establish a military base in SL at that time even if Sri Lanka \nwas willing to accommodate one.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under \nthis hypothesis and JRJ\u2019s political history, I think JRJ purposely antagonized \nIndia to please the west especially the USA. And considering JRJ\u2019s risky \npolitical maneuvers in the past, it is also logical to presume that he might \nhave given sufficient window purposely for the UNP mobs in Colombo and inner \ncities to escalate communal riots in 1983 to inflict colossal damage to the \ncountry\u2019s image. By doing so he might have calculated to provoke India, and in \nturn, give a reason to react militarily, thus he might have expected to create \nfavorable conditions for him to gain the American sympathy and hence to keep the \nUSA on his flank in the equation. This could be the last of all senseless \npolitics of JRJ. Does JRJ capable of executing such a heinous criminal political \ntreachery? Those who have lived under JRJ might give an answer in a single word. \nYES! As we have experienced in recent history, decent politics of the UNP died \nwith Dudley Senanayake. All the rest of UNP politicians after him were criminals \ncapable of doing unthinkable. There are only three political parties that had \nmastered political violence in Sri Lanka, the LTTE, JVP, and the UNP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, \nafter Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984, Rajiv Gandhi continued Indira\u2019s \nSri Lankan policy of destabilization. JR may have expected a firm American \nreaction favorable to him. But Washington was not interested to swallow the bait \nof JRJ. But instead, they already had another bait put in position for JRJ and \nIndian foreign policy establishment. They both gulped the American bait \ngleefully without a second thought.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For \nWashington, JRJ\u2019s reaction was predictable. Hurt by American humiliation, (as \nWashington may have predicted) JRJ reacted in such a way expecting to pinch the \nAmerican nerve by signing Indo-Lanka accord. By doing so he thought he also can \ntake revenge from Washington by placing SL within the influence of the Soviet \nbloc, all of a sudden portraying himself as a cute panda of the Russian bear. \nBut Washington was way beyond JRJ and India had already foreseen the collapse of \nthe Soviet Union and had envisioned the impending unipolar world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \nyou see this entire issue through this historical perspective, the Indo-Lanka \nAccord becomes an outcome of an outdated global condition. It was a product of \nthe cold war. Today world realities are different. Today India is pro-American \nthan Sri Lanka (at least until one of the parties shake the apple cart). It is \ntime for Sri Lankan administration to renegotiate the Indo-Lanka Accord with \nIndia based on current geopolitics and the challenges of both nations due to the \nexisting global conditions driven by the Neoliberal agenda of balkanizing entire \nregion. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

US \npassivity of Indian hostility toward JRJ was unusual and could be a part of the \ndesign<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

US \nAmbassador James W. Spain, an enthusiast of JRJ, was heading the American \nmission during this most volatile period of Sri Lankan history. During \nIndo-Lanka Accord, he was there and personally witnessed a Sri Lankan sailor \nattacking the then Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi when Mr. Gandhi was receiving the \nmilitary guard of honor after signing the infamous Indo Lanka Accord. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, \nthe unusual passive position of the US mission in Colombo toward highhanded \ninterventionism of the Indian government in 1987 (including the violation of SL \nair space and dropping humanitarian aid to North of the island) was pretty \nobvious and could be witnessed during and after the Indian mediation and in the \naftermath of the Indo Lanka Accord. This passivity was so obvious as well as so \nmysterious that the then US ambassador, an experienced career diplomat James W. \nSpain must have received strict instructions from Washington to treat the then \nIndian High Commissioner Jyotindra Nath Dixit as if Dixit was the undeclared \nviceroy of Sri Lanka at the time. Ambassador Spain closely associated with Dixit \nduring these turbulent times. Dixit also acted as if he was the clandestine \nruler of the island. By passively approving Indian McCarthyism in this island \nnation, the USA not only signaled India a specific message of encouragement but \nalso sent a trembling signal to JRJ\u2019s administration not to shake the cart or \nmake any stupid turn but to comply and obey Indian dictates. It was inexplicable \nto think why did the USA behave that way? The USA wouldn\u2019t behave in that manner \nif Indian intervention was going against its interests in the region. So, it is \nclear that Indian intervention was exactly what Washington awaited and was \npretty compatible with the grand strategy of the USA in the region. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I \npersonally knew Ambassador Spain. He was a soft-spoken wonderful individual. I \nhappened to paint his portrait after he got retired. Since he had chosen to live \nin Sri Lanka in his retirement life, he was living at Gall-Face Court at that \ntime. I had to spend about a week with him until I finished the painting. \nKnowing the fact that Ambassador Spain had a lot of information about the ruling \nclass of Colombo, and that he knew a lot of behind the curtain dealings and \nother details about Kolombian politics in relation to Indo-Lanka accord, I asked \nhim to write a book about his experience as the US ambassador during that \ntroubling time of Sri Lankan history which culminated inking \n Indo-Lanka accord. (He was the author of a number of books and I \ncreated the cover page for one of them.) My request might be a very selfish and \ncircuitous way to know the information that I was not privy to access. He said \nit was a good idea, but never said he would do it. A few years later he passed \naway in Chicago burying a compendium of secrets about USA-Sri Lanka relations \nduring the time of Indo Lanka accord with him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \nwe recall this volatile period of history, it is pretty clear that the US \nforeign policy establishment had taken India for a ride (big \ntime).<\/strong> It \nwas a very clever strategy from the US\u2019s part, that had planned and estimated \nevery bit of detail to trap India to do exactly what Washington had anticipated. \nWashington had laid the trap and projected India to react in a particular way, \nand India reacted exactly the way that the US had expected like a \u2018useful \nidiot.\u2019 The US at that time tacitly purveyed all sorts of trickeries and \nsignaled the Indians that the USA was fully in compliance with India\u2019s regional \nsuperpower position and had no intention to upset or interfere in the sphere of \nIndia\u2019s influence. Stupid Indians have swallowed it hook, line and sinker \nwithout question. By that way US got India to do the bidding on its behalf for \nthe long-term US strategies in the region. In other words, Washington made the \nstupid cats in Delhi to pull the jack seeds out of the fire on its behalf. \nIndian cats in Delhi happily did it with pride. This strengthened the position \nof LTTE and India and helped them to push the separatist agenda to the very \nbrink of dividing Sri Lanka. What a superb crafty fiat of diplomacy of \nWashington? It will take another 100 more years for the Indians to accomplish \nsuch a mastery level of diplomacy that Washington had applied to trap India. \nKautilya (c. 350\u2013283 BC), the master of diplomacy and crafty politics must have \nbeen reborn in foggy-bottom this time to teach a lesson to the naughty Indians. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \nit comes to Sri Lanka, Indian stupidity had no limit. It was not India that \nbuckled US calculations amassed for 50 years of diplomatic hard work but it was \nby two upset jockeys hailed from a southern village of the jungle, Mahinda \nRajapaksa and Gotabhaya – by unexpectedly defeating the pet of the west, the \nLTTE. This unpredicted turn of events messed entire US plans and pushed the \ndesign for another 20 years into the backseat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If \nthe USA had only an honest desire to have a foothold in Sri Lanka, it would have \nbeen a much easier problem for Sri Lanka to resolve it, and the USA might have \ngotten it with a little bit of shouting and yelling from the left, and \nconsiderable acceptance from the general public during JRJ\u2019s administration. (of \ncourse, JRJ\u2019s pro-US policy was the main reason for then Indian PM Indira Gandhi \nto fund, train and arm separatists in Sri Lanka, but if the USA firmly stood \nbehind JRJ without playing double games and without speaking from both ends, JRJ \nwould have approved a US base in Sri Lanka at that time. Don\u2019t forget, JRJ was \nenjoying 5\/6 of parliamentary majority) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

JRJ \nwas a great politician but not a good statesman. He was an old-fashioned \npolitician; therefore, he could never understand the emerging realities of \nglobal politics that was developing since Reaganism in the US and Thatcherism in \nthe UK. If he could see through the reason why he had been abandoned by \nWashington at the very crucial hour of need, he could have analyzed the reason \nbehind it. I even suspect 1983 black July\u2019 also could have been a staged event \nby some faction to advance their separatist agendas. Whoever triggered it, the \nBlack July had trapped JRJ without having an escape route. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thirty \nyears ago, global politics was different from that of today and with the \npresence of the Soviet Union playing a bigger role in global politics, it was \nmulti-polar in character. Then, on the other hand, China and India were not as \nsignificant economic powers as of today. If the USA had a military position in \nSri Lanka at that time, that situation would have been similar to that of \nUSA-Singapore, USA-Malaysia type of economic-military partnership. It is \nbaffling as to why the USA never pursued to achieve that goal when it was a much \neasier task then? Isn\u2019t that because the USA\u2019s grand strategy assigned to the \nSouth Asian region was much larger than merely having a foothold in Sri Lanka? \nThis is the area of India\u2019s complete witlessness exposes. India behaves \noverconfidently about its regional position and strategic partnership with the \nUSA. What they haven\u2019t taken into notice is that the USA can pull a new enemy \nfrom anywhere at any time out of the hat as it wishes. Today\u2019s strategic partner \nof the USA could be a potential enemy tomorrow. For the American foreign policy \nestablishment, it is simple as such. What happened to Pakistan, former USA’s \nregional strategic partner? They used Pakistan when India was in the Soviet \nsphere of influence and abandoned it after Soviet Union was collapsed. Now they \nare pitting India against China. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Militarily \nspeaking, India is just a paper tiger. The incompetence and inefficiency of the \nIndian military were exposed big time during its deployment in Sri Lanka. \nWashington knows this. China knows it. The Indian union never had confronted a \nformidable enemy in her entire post-independence history. India still has to go \nthrough the acid-test of the nation\u2019s patriotism of its artificial union. \nGermany has proved it, China has proved it and even another one, the greatest of \nthe loose unions in human history, the Soviet Union had proved it. But can India \nprove that her entire population is willing to sacrifice their lives to \nsafeguard the Indian union? The only occasion when India briefly engaged a \nformidable enemy was the Sino-Indian war in 1967. She lost it embracingly. Under \nthis condition, if India ever had to confront a western military, likes of the \nUS military in the Indian Ocean, oh\u2026the only conclusion I can come to is\u2026sorry \nabout them. God Shiva must save India since I doubt if the Indian military can \nsave it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, \nIndia must understand the fact that as far as it plays the same ugly game of \n13th<\/sup> amendment with Sri Lanka, she digs her own grave much deeper \ninch by inch. India must reevaluate her Sri Lanka policy since Indira Gandhi was \na cold-war hoax, therefore must acknowledge that the Indo-Lanka accord, the end \nresult of her SL policy, was a security blunder that threatens both \ncountries.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For \nSri Lanka\u2019s weakness, it has an ethnic minority that can be useful for any \npotential enemy of India that is aspiring to balkanize it. Because India is the \nhome for 70 million Tamils. Sri Lanka sees the USA\u2019s Sri Lankan policy as an \nexistential threat. Any analytical mind would conclude that the USA\u2019s policies \neventually threaten the unitary status of the country. From Sri Lankan point of \nview, SL is baffled to answer the question \u2018why?\u2019 Why the USA cannot get out of \nthe ethnic issue of the island and sincerely seek help from Sri Lanka to \nstrengthen its economic-military strategy in the region? The answer to this \nquestion is the location where we can find the kernel of the problem<\/strong>. The \nentire purpose of the west getting a foothold in Sri Lanka is unchanged since \nthe Portuguese; it is to hold sway over the whole of India\u201d<\/strong> Actually Sri \nLanka would have been a much safer place without India, or if India was a \nsubcontinent full of small nations. Sri Lanka has been victimized because of \nIndia. If India wasn\u2019t there next to us, the Sinhala majority population would \nnever be treated like this by the west. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It \nwas not the sympathy of Jews that the USA supports Israel unconditionally, but \nthe USA\u2019s desire to dominate oil fields of the region. The USA needs Israel to \nexist in the region to achieve that end. Israel knows this and Americans know \nit. In Sri Lanka, it is not the sympathy of Tamils that drives the USA\u2019s foreign \npolicy establishment to diplomatically and morally support the Tamil cause, but \nthe Tamils are the best tool to balkanize India. We know it, Tamils know it and \nthe USA also knows that we know it. But India is indifferent about it. \nWashington knows once the Tamil separate state is created in NE of the island, \nit won\u2019t rest there until the division of Tamil Nadu is achieved in India. And \nthen, it will never take long to bring a domino effect in this artificially \ncreated Indian union for many other Indian states to break away from it. To \nachieve that goal, a separate state in Sri Lanka is a fundamental necessity. For \nthat reason, American policy planners consider the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka \nas a foreign policy asset and a useful strategic tool than the friendship of the \nmajority Sinhalese. This is the bitter truth of the USA Sri Lanka relations. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, \nas far as Sri Lanka holds its position of resistance, India will stay together. \n(I know some of the Lankaweb forum members had said earlier that divided India \nis good for its neighbors. That\u2019s true. But unfortunately, the road to the \ndivision of India has been fallen across our home country, that is how it has \nbeen strategized by the west. For that reason, we like it or not, when we \nprotect our unitary state, eventually India will be saved. It might be bad news \nfor some in the west but can\u2019t help. Change your strategy, we will support you \nto divide India if India behaves and treats us the same way. If the USA could \ndismantle the mammoth superpower Soviet Union, India must realize that \ndismantling India is just a cakewalk for the west.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given \nthat the origin of Tamil separatism in Sri Lanka was India\u2019s making, \nconveniently and convincingly Sri Lanka can claim that they are fighting to save \nIndia from the stupid Indians. That is the rib-tickling irony of Indian \npolitics. Sri Lanka is fighting India\u2019s war while India is in a deep slumber \nenjoying the strategic partnership with the USA. India has cunningly dislocated \ntheir fight of Tamil Separatism into Sri Lanka. Until we firmly address this \nexistential threat and remove the reason for the recurrence of this problem, \nexternal interference in the country and Tamil separatism will stay in Sri \nLanka. I am sure Pres. Gotabhaya will have the courage to take the bold decision \nto solve this problem once and for all. That is the reason why we must advocate \nrelocating our capital to Trincomalee as a part of the strategy. Pres. Gotabhaya \nalso needs to convince the Indian establishment to stop insisting on the full \nimplementation of the 13th<\/sup> amendment. And he must renegotiate it or \nabrogate it entirely ASAP, not only for the sake of the unity of Sri Lanka but \nalso for the unity of INDIA.      <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kudaligamage Geethanjana Rajapakses, Geopolitics, \u2018Eurocentric Developmentalism,\u2019 and the western hegemony\u00a0 (Part 21) Indo Lanka Accord was an outcome of a brawl between old school politics of the cold-war mentality of Indira Gandhi and Junius Richard Jayawardene. This outdated agreement must be renegotiated or entirely repealed for the benefit of both nations. Agey wayiraya\u201d “\u0d87\u0d9c\u0dda  \u0dc0\u0ddb\u0dbb\u0dba“ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geethanjana-kudaligamage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96115","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=96115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}