Shenali D Waduge

Those in the Indian-basket were quick to shower merit upon India for deciding to be on the fence in a decision that had nothing to do with Sri Lanka and everything to do with India beginning to realize that India’s balkanization was not far off. India’s decision also had influence of the South Bloc given that the Congress was now functioning as only a caretaker government with India awaiting the country to be led by Modi whose Hindutva policy if not compromised may just help India out of the abyss it has compromised itself to via the Gandhis and Maino family.

While Sri Lanka cannot ignore the Gulliver presence of India geographically as well as realize the geopolitical influence India exerts globally, it does not require Sri Lanka’s leaders to prostrate before Indian leaders similar to how Tamil Nadu politicians behave before Jayalalitha. In order for Indian leaders to command respect, our leaders must behave and act with respect. To do so, Sri Lanka must exert leverage politically without fear and that requires Sri Lanka to be bold enough to spell out some hometruths which sets India on the back foot. No sovereign nation desiring respect can simply remain silent without reminding India of some of its crimes for these are aspects that can easily silence India’s decision makers.

The list must cover:

• India’s role as a state-sponsoring terrorism and terrorists : India cannot shy from acknowledging India’s role in taking unemployed Tamil youth from Sri Lanka and training them in batches all over India by retired Indian military personnel to be handled by Indian intelligence. This took place well before 1983 and in the 1970s as proved by scores of sources that include the Jain Commission report, US think tanks and essays of Indian military/intelligence personnel
• India’s role in financing and arming these trained Sri Lankan Tamil youth and providing them not only the logistics but allowing Tamil Nadu to be used as a hub.
• India’s role in silently watching LTTE and other militant groups use Chennai
• India’s role in allowing Catholic fishermen to supply arms clandestinely to LTTE and other militants and allowing these militants to run away and use India as a place of refuge.
• If India’s RAW was handling LTTE the question of the 1983 riots being part of the plot cannot be ruled out with the mob riots turning into a bonus. The NIB was well aware of this but there was no counter-mechanism in place. Let us not forget that the rioters were not ONLY Sinhalese – there were Tamils and Muslims involved too.
• With TULF the main political opposition party in 1980 the Tamils really had no valid demands to make thus, the 1983 became a perfect excuse to bring out LTTE from hiding. Thus, reiterated again is that July 1983 was choreographed by LTTE/RAW and this needs to be investigated.
• Misconceptions also need to be corrected. It was not after the 1983 that Tamils fled to India. Tamils had roosted in India as far back as 1979 and these were all linked to smuggling and other racketeers operating from Jaffna and it was these who were recipients of RAW training.
• With this reality we now need to wonder whether the orders for the Tamil groups to kill Tamil policemen on duty, Tamil mayor Duraiappah and shot at Sri Lanka Army in 1983 that was said to trigger the riots was ordered and plotted by the Indian RAW?
• The Tamil Grievance theme was a perfect means for India to get its dirty hands into Sri Lanka using the ‘concern for Tamils’ card.
• The accusation that J R Jayawardena was a CIA agent next leads us to ask if he was fooled into signing the 13^th amendment given its relevance for the West at a future date. We see how far the 13^th amendment is being pushed in particular by foreign governments through the UN, its bodies and puppet heads. Let us not forget that JR’s expectation that US would come to his aid failed and Sri Lanka ended up receiving parippu drops and Indian troops.
• India also stands guilty of scores of heinous war crimes that include 4000 rape of Tamil women (which LTTE has prepared evidence of), IPKF firing at the Jaffna hospital killing even doctors on duty, IPKF killing scores of Tamil unarmed civilians. The Sri Lankan Government cannot shy from conducting these investigations given that India has demanded Sri Lanka carry out its own investigations. Simply because India is now trying to protect its own turf it should not mean that Sri Lanka should compromise its turf for history should have given us enough lessons to show that India is neither a friend and not to be trusted either.
• India’s Achilles heel is its inferiority complex and obsession of its big brotherly image over its immediate neighbor leading India to feel itself too small to reach out to its neighbors as equal partners. Thus, India has and will continue to treat India’s immediate neighbors the SAARC countries as mere subjects that must take India’s orders. This has left India rejected by neighobors in particular the public of these countries who have no hesitation to vocalize hatred towards India’s successive Governments. This is a major failure in Indian diplomacy and likely to be a key component when the balkanization of India is put into fast track mode.

Where Sri Lanka’s leaders have repeatedly failed is to go overboard in their relations with India. In not understanding the dynamics with which India functions showering India with this that and the other and in particular handing India strategic stakes on the platter would never provide the reciprocation that Sri Lanka’s leaders look for. A prime example of that was the manner that India proudly associated with the 2 US-backed Resolutions in 2012 and 2013. India was well aware that Sri Lanka’s leaders were docile enough not to take action against India and take away stakes that India held in Sri Lanka though the Sri Lankan public demanded such for its government. It was a gamble India took and a gamble well taken for Sri lanka’s own cabinet ministers were found declaring that Sri Lanka had forgiven India.

Obviously with this type of Sri Lankan Government reaction needless to say we should not be surprised that India treats Sri Lanka as a doormat. We have given to India every strategic stake possible and not stopping there we have given the fox key areas of the North which it has been hungry for without realizing the manner that the RAW had infiltrated among the Tamils to create groups of armed youth. Looking back at many of the post-conflict isolated incidents we cannot overrule an Indian hand now that Sri Lanka has been a Wessanthara to allow even an Indian deputy mission to be setup in the North as well. These are all political blunders with dangerous repercussions.

Many may scoff at Mrs. Bandaranaike for her lack of education to govern but the foreign policy under her helm was at an all time high and she commanded great respect and her statements sent via her emissaries are tantamount to prove that she was never one to be taken for a ride and the manner she came to the aid of Vietnam during President Kennedy’s tenure using her officer R S S Gunawardena played a key role in ousting Ngo Diem for which Vietnam remains ever grateful to this day. Pakistan’s gratitude towards Sri Lanka never omits fondly mentioning Mrs. Bandaranaike as well even to this very day. Thus, there were key decisions that Sri Lanka took at diplomatic levels in the tenure of Mrs Bandaranaike that shaped the respect given to the country and that respect prevailed to Sri Lanka even from India. Mrs. B was never shy to ensure Sri Lanka’s turf was protected.

When we see that India is a victim of its own doing it is for Sri Lanka to ensure that we keep India at arms length for India’s vulnerability at present should not afford Sri Lanka to be tied down to India too much and this entails the leaders to take closet look at the stakes given to India and the likelihood of that falling into India’s enemies as well as Sri Lanka’s and the entire Indian ocean region itself. Some of Sri Lanka’s locals who function as Indian stooges are likely to be double agents working for the Christian agenda as well and keeping them in close governance circuits is committing hara kiri.

It is a good time that Sri Lanka’s policy makers take up the 13^th amendment for given the Christian eelam line being towed it is upto Sri Lanka’s leaders to put forward the argument that the prevalence of the 13^th amendment is just as dangerous for India as it is for Sri Lanka. Whatever India’s aspiration to become a superpower it cannot escape the reality that India remains led only by a handful of people in a country with billions unable and unwilling to think beyond their nose which makes destabilizing operations a cakewalk when the time to disunite India is decided upon by the Christian west.

For India to realize the realities of this, all India has to do is to take the statistics of how US and West is funding evangelical groups and organizations and how far they have worked their way intricately into interior India and influencing Hindus in masses. It is for this reason that India needs to have a Modi come on stage but how far a single man can change the status quo of a nation influenced too long by Western NGOs is a question that will be answered in the manner Modi is allowed to lead India. As things stand a look at the propaganda inside India against Modi it is not too hard to tell how people are being influenced in India and who is funding that.

The story is no different in Sri Lanka as well.

Given these realities there is really no requirement for Sri Lanka to lay any red carpet for India. We cannot forget that Sri Lanka’s 30 years of woe started with India and if we are talking about accountability India needs to own up for this once and for all.

India may now say it is not in favor of an international investigation having saddled together with US for the 2 previous Resolutions, but India’s statement comes in the light of India beginning to realize that the kettle in Kashmir will easily boil over as will the IPKF crimes now that the US ambassador has also shown interest in covering the entire spectrum of crimes in Sri Lanka.

These are all ghosts that lead back to India’s backyard.

If we are to help India off the hook, India needs to reciprocate for a change. India must stop using 13^th amendment thinking India is in a position to annex Sri Lanka if the situation goes off track. India must realize that its size may be one thing but as things stand the Congress Government has removed every semblance of integrity India had left to manoevre itself and simply pretending to be the big bully among the neighbors is unlikely to get India anywhere. It is good for the South bloc to realize that it needs to reshape its thinking that imperial Indian mode of planning and plotting is likely to lead India nowhere except to end up doing the dirty work on behalf of the West as a loyal sepoy poodle so that the West can nicely divide India into bits as it did to Yugoslavia and then eye Russia and China.

If Sri Lanka’s leaders have not had time to sit down and study the dynamics of how the West functions and the entities tasked to fast forward these plans it is a good time to start now for we are walking into some rough weather and Sri Lanka does not deserve another 30 years of trouble created by our own mistakes.

What India and Sri Lanka should jointly agree to is to repeal the 13^th amendment and remove obstacles for the West to manoevre in the Indian Ocean rim.