g countries suggests that it happens exactly LTTE had systematically exterminated all the other way round. In the Sri Lankan Tamil politicians resulting in the present context it would delay the second objecleadership vacuum. The Tamil National tive. Instead of trying to find a political Alliance (TNA), which came into being in solution the debate would veer around October 2001, just before the 2001 parliahow much has the Sri Lankan governmentary election, consisted of All Ceylon ment done to identify and punish the war Tamil Congress, Eelam People’s Revolucriminals, which essentially means courttionary Liberation Front (the Suresh facmartialing armed forces personnel. There tion), Tamil Eelam Liberation Organizaare two problems here. First, the issue is tion and Tamil United Liberation Front. It so emotive in Sri Lanka that it would be conceded that LTTE was the sole spokesvirtually impossible to institute court man of the Tamils. In the post-LTTE phase martial against accused soldiers who are it is groping in the dark to reinvent itself. national heroes now. From India’s own The political agenda it flaunts is largely experience in Kashmir, North East and in outdated not because the issues are not 160 districts where the Maoist militants relevant but because the situation has are active India should know better that to changed. It requires a new language and a handle allegations of HR violations is not new orientation. It still demands merger simple. In spite of widespread popular of the Northern and Eastern provinces. resentment against AFSPA (Armed Forces This demand is one that no Sinhala leadSpecial Powers Act) the Indian state has ership worth its salt would concede whatnot been able even to amend, leave alone ever lip service it may give to the Indian or abolish, the act. other interlocutors. A political solution to the Tamil quesIn the given situation TNA will have tion requires politics of scale because polto make compromises. It serves little itics is the art of the possible. Sri Lanka purpose if TNA continues to boycott the Tamils may be at present a demoralised Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) lot but they alone will have to find for after all through this procedure a solution to their problem. alone it can re-enter the politiNo UNHRC resolution or cal mainstream. In politics it India-Sri Lanka no amount of Indian and is important to understand international pressure one’s relative strength. trade has been would do the miracle. On Given this reality the latsystematically growing ter should start with a the contrary, they may prove counterproductive and reached $5 billion limited agenda to extract by fanning Sinhala chauwhatever little it can. (Approx Rs 27,000 vinism making Rajapaksa Commanding an unprecmore powerful and defiedented Sinhala support, crore) in 2011 ant. Tamil diaspora pressure the ruling United People’s too has mere news value. The Freedom Alliance (UPFA) nostalgia of diaspora Tamils for can make concessions which no their lost homes is real and for that they evenly balanced political situation can. are willing to make financial sacrifices It is the best time for Sri Lanka Tamils to but they will not return to Sri Lanka. A grab the opportunity with utmost pragJNU doctoral student who did extensive matism. fieldworks amongst the Tamil diaspora in TNA’s Tamil Nadu support has limthe West found that hardly five per cent ited efficacy to help solve its problems. of them were in a mood to return. More Tamil parties in India are playing to their were willing to buy real estate in Jaffna or respective galleries by using the Sri Lanka Colombo where they could spend their card with the ostensible purpose to barfamily holidays. gain with the centre. The same DMK chief The problem at hand now is the poK. Karunanidhi who was so circumspect litically unequal situation that exists beonly nine months ago (June 2012) to tell tween the Sinhalese and Tamil leadership. the Union Home Minister P. ChidamWhile the Sinhala leadership is in the baram that the demand for a Tamil Eelam hands of a towering leader its Tamil counwould not be discussed at the forthcomterpart is just the opposite. Any political ing conference of the recently revived deal means a clever bargaining depending TESO (Tamil Eelam Supporters Organupon the acumen of contending parties. isation) and that the latter was meant to
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INTO THE STORM: Sri Lankan President Rajapakse is facing allegations of Human Rights Violations during the LTTE war.
discuss merely the various solutions to Sri Lanka’s Tamil question is now up in arms to hold the Manmohan government hostage to the TESO agenda to teach Sri Lanka a lesson. He not only threatened to withdraw DMK ministers from the central cabinet unless India insisted at the UNHRC meet on an independent inquiry into the HR violations in Sri Lanka, but also went ahead and withdrew his support from the ruling centre. It is legitimate to ask the DMK as to what was the substantive change in Sri Lankan political reality from June 2012 to March 2013. India-Sri Lanka trade has been systematically growing and reached $5 billion (Approx `27,000 crore) in 2011. Indian investments in the country are on the rise and there are nine projects in operation at present worth $168 million (Approx `900 crore). A reversal of the situation would throw Sri Lanka into the lap of China which has already made its presence felt in Sri Lanka. It invested $1.4 billion (Approx `7500 crore) for the modernisation of Hambantota and Colombo ports. The China factor has the potential complicate the Tamil question making it even more difficult to solve. The irony is that while in India its domestic politics seems to have all the legitimacy to influence its foreign policy, in the case of Sri Lanka its domestic politics is expected to play no role. Does India expect that Sri Lanka must remain unaffected by what happens in Tamil Nadu and subjugate its national interest to the UNHRC resolutions just because it is a small country? Do Indian politicians think that they alone have the monopoly of playing to the galleries? (The author is Senior Fellow, the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library and Editor of India Quarterly)
April 2013