Months have passed since
India demonstrated its opposition against its next-door ally Sri Lanka at the UNHRC
by voting in favour of a resolution that censured Sri Lankan Government
for alleged human rights violations by the nation in the final
phase of the bloody civil war that took the lives of over 70,000 people in
30 years.
The vote was purportedly
to pressurise the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government to fall in line and
expedite the process of political reconciliation by addressing the
grievances of the minority Tamils.
The move came after
intense political brinkmanship by parties from Tamil Nadu, where the issue
takes a highly emotional proposition given the cultural and traditional
links between Tamils of both countries.
However, five months
after the vote in March, which marked a break from the diplomatic
tradition India has followed all long, the move seemed to have severely
back-fired for the country as Sri Lanka is still moving at snail's pace in integrating the
Tamil minority with the Sinhala majority politically and economically.
The statements and
actions that emerge from Rajapaksa and his coterie, constituting mostly of
his powerful brothers who virtually control the administration especially
the Armed Forces, seem to indicate that Sri Lanka is in mood to listen to
India on issues like rehabilitation of Tamils and a political solution to them.
The President, in a
brazen comment in an interview to a leading Indian English daily, said that he
was disappointed with India, Sri Lanka's largest donor and which is involved in
a number of developmental projects across the island, on the voting at the
UNHCR.
He has been indulging in
flip-flop on the issue of implementing 13th Amendment-plus approach, a pet word
in the Indian diplomatic circles, by openly assuring Indian leadership of
pursuing it but later telling his people that he never gave any such commitment.
His comments came after
the Indian establishment cajoled him in a number of ways, including in the form
of a letter from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh clarifying that the vote against
the country was no way to demean the ties but to amplify its concerns over the
slowness in redressal of genuine grievances.
But nothing has been able
to heal the bruised ego of Sri Lanka, a tiny country which is slowly recovering
from years of devastation that a three-decade civil war wreaked upon it, which
expects India to toe its line rather than the other way.
In fact, Sri Lanka
expects its relations with India to be a one-way affair. While it wants the
millions and millions of dollars from India to improve its war-torn
infrastructure, it would not listen to 'political sermons' from the neighbour.
No one from Indian side
would come on record to say this. But it is an open secret that New Delhi
agreed to support Sri Lanka in the last phase of the war and infused crores of
rupees in return for a genuine political solution to the Tamils which has been
long overdue.
It has been more than
three years since peace dawned in Sri Lanka and with the LTTE and its once
dreaded megalomaniac chief Velupillai Prabhakaran no more in this world, no one
seem to understand the Sri Lankan reluctance in walking the talk.
Rajapaksa had promised a
'home grown' solution just a day after the war came to an end. No one, not even
India, wants to impose a solution on Sri Lanka, but what New Delhi wants is a
quick follow-up of the military solution.
With Sri Lanka refusing
to pay heed in the past three years and indications that it has no inclination
to listen, India should get into real diplomacy to make things work in the
neighbouring country.
The stand taken by India
at the UNHRC, though taken under pressure, was a welcome departure and the
country should put its foot down and ask Sri Lanka to come out with a political
solution that satisfies everyone.
If it is not able to
achieve this through diplomacy, then the country should try the political route
of directly dealing with the Tamil political parties, which truly represent the
voices of the hapless ethnic Tamils.
India could bring all the
Tamil political parties under one umbrella through negotiations with them and
thus pressurise the Sri Lankan Government to fulfill its promise.
Tamil National Alliance,
which has emerged as one of the most credible voices of the Tamils after the
Parliamentary polls in 2010, is opposed to a Select Parliamentary Committee
looking into the issue of political solution.
Instead of wasting time
by dealing with the Sri Lankan leadership, India should reach out further to
the Tamil parties, persuade them to come on board overcoming their internal
differences and fight as a single entity for getting back genuine rights of the
community.
Though the Indian
establishment engages with the TNA, it does not directly talk to several other
fringe Tamil outfits spread across the Sri Lankan island which wield some
influence among the people.
When Tamil parties are
united and they speak in one voice backed by India, the Sri Lanka is bound to
listen to the voices and would be forced to at least think on the process of
bringing about inclusiveness.
India has to walk the
extra mile and even indulge in some tough-talking with Sri Lanka on this
sensitive issue because it has a vital stake not only with regard to Tamils'
interest but also from the security angle.
Not only Sri Lanka, India
would also be affected if there is another armed struggle in the northern part
of the island.
After all, Prabhakaran
did not emerge on his own, but situation spawned him. Hope India and Sri Lanka
will not bring back the situation to square-one again.
