India Shields Colombo From International Pressure
By Athithan Jayapalan
19 September, 2014
Countercurrents.org
The newly elected Modi government is seemingly consolidating a foreign policy towards Colombo centered on the modus operandi of the New Delhi bureaucracy and its predecessor the Congress. Subramaniam Swamy, the current Chairman of the BJP committee for strategic action and notorious for defending the Sri Lankan state genocide against Tamils met SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa, Defense secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Foreign minister G.L Peiris during his visit to Sri Lanka. Simultaneously India, supported by SAARC members Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Maldives announced on 21 st of July the collective decision to deny entrance to the feebly mandated UNHRC committee appointed to head investigation on ‘war crimes and crimes against humanity' in Sri Lanka.
The UNHRC put forth a request to collect evidence and data in neighboring countries such as India as the Sri Lankan government had refused to cooperate. Commissioner of the Sri Lankan Human Rights commission Prathiba Mahanamahewa expressed Colombo's welcome of the decision by stating “The SAARC countries have united for the first time this manner. This is very significant gesture from the part of the Indian leadership”
The possibility for any shift in the Indian establishments relationship with the Sri Lankan state is disintegrating as the Modi led New Delhi is increasingly aligning its interests with Colombo. In appointing anti Tamil opinion makers as emissaries to Sri Lanka and in shielding it from ‘international' pressure, the BJP government is subscribing to the resilient Indian state endorsement of Colombo and its genocidal actions towards the Eezham Tamil nation. The Modi government seems to have shed the promised confrontation with Colombo and have rather opted to strengthen its status as a regional power through emphasizing cooperation within the SAARC. In this regard New Delhi is pushing to make the SAARC more attractive as a political platform for Colombo to gain political leverage to shield against western pressure. Such an interest on part of New Delhi is specifically driven by the gullible belief that strong cooperation and dependency can deter Sri Lanka from tilting towards Beijing. To the contrary Colombo is milking India while steadily entrenching China in a bid to create a competitive market of world powers that would compete with one another in assisting Colombo to gain concessions while the latter pursues its structural genocide on the Eezham Tamils.
Subramaniam Swamy had also delivered a speech titled 'Modi: relevance for the region and the world' in Colombo during an event organized by the Bandaranaike Centre for International studies.
During the lecture Subramaniam Swamy was reported to vigorously have defended Sri Lanka's conduct during the last war and refuted the international pressure targeting Colombo on human rights and stated “ “We are very proud of your president for decisively finishing a sinister terror organisation that was a threat to our country too ”. Refuting the demands of the Pro-Eelam agitations in Tamil Nadu, he asserted that in regards to foreign policy national interests will supersede that of state interest, and he urged Indo-Lanka relations to be delinked from Tamil Nadu and what he termed the ‘Tamil problem. He continued “It can be one of the problems, but the major problem is economic development, cooperation and working together in the UN and other places ” .
The Panel in the lecture included notable Indian government officials and public opinion maker furthering the character of the visit as one of integration between the two establishments. As part of the panel were the national convener of the BJP's foreign policy cell, Seshadri Chari, former union minister Suresh Babu, journalist Swapan Dasgupta and Madhavan Nalapat, professor of geo-politics at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education.
During the lecture Sehsadri Chari elaborated the importance of the south asian region in Modi's foreign policy as signaled by the invitation of the head of states of SAARC countries at the presidential inauguration ceremony in New Delhi. Furthermore he clearly expressed the very nature of the BJP's policy on Sri Lanka “ Sri Lanka is the guardian of the Indian Ocean for India. India's security and prosperity depends on security and prosperity in Sri Lanka ”. The strategic importance of Sri Lanka and the bilateral ties between seems to unequivocally determine the geo-political strategy of the BJP government and subsequently the two states are expected to further advance their structural linkages.
The BJP aligned Swapan Dasgupta articulated the economic and developmental paradigm behind Modi's foreign policy. He further asserted New Delhi's principle of not interfering in Sri Lanka's ‘Internal problems' and reiterated that multilateral agencies have either marginal or no role in resolving internal conflicts. Subramaniam Swamy added that international ‘pressure' on Sri Lanka on grounds of Human rights had gone too far to the effect of belittling the achievements of last war. This is a direct glorification and legitimatization of the genocidal war in 2009, in which a UN report estimates that just in the last phase over 70 000 Tamils were massacred by government forces relentless military offensive and bombardment.
With such fervor and predilection towards the genocide accused Sri Lanka, the Indian emissaries are furthering the beguiling grip Colombo holds on New Delhi regarding China who are rapidly being entrenched in the Island. In fact they are ensuring that India slips blindfolded into the geopolitical game engulfing the Island in a free market style competition between the West, India and China to provide assistance, finance and in politically defending Sri Lanka. This unholy alliance facilitates Colombo with multiple geo-political venues at its disposition to utilize to carry on and advance its genocidal policies towards the Eezham Tamils.
References:
Sunday Times July 27 2014: Columns “India's vision for a commonwealth of Asia where Sri Lanka matters”
Athithan Jayapalan is a student of social Anthropology and belongs to the Tamil Diaspora and lives in Norway.
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