{"id":113634,"date":"2013-11-06T11:29:14","date_gmt":"2013-11-06T05:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=113634"},"modified":"2013-11-10T15:46:13","modified_gmt":"2013-11-10T10:16:13","slug":"salman-khurshids-unease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/salman-khurshids-unease\/","title":{"rendered":"Salman Khurshid\u2019s Unease"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Malinda Seneviratne<\/a><\/span>\u00a0–<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Malinda Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n

Meanwhile in a parallel universe called Humiliy\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the Minister of External Affairs I have to be diplomatic. I have to be pragmatic.\u00a0 I have to walk on eggshells, to be honest.\u00a0 On the one hand, there\u2019s Tamil Nadu, where political parties touting Tamil nationalism don\u2019t give a hoot about Indian Tamils and even as they shed copious tears over Tamil \u2018brethren\u2019 across the Palk Straits treat \u2018refugees\u2019 from that island like untouchables.\u00a0 These same politicians, unhappily, cannot be dismissed out of hand; electoral arithmetic just doesn\u2019t permit it.\u00a0 So I have to give ear to Jayalalithaa<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0 If that\u2019s not a come down, what is, I ask myself sometimes.<\/p>\n

But India, big as it is, ICC-bully though it is, is still not the USA or Russia.\u00a0 Indeed, it is Lilliput to the Chinese Gulliver.\u00a0 My boss, Manmohan Singh<\/a><\/span>, and the entire Congress Party can be coy to Jayalalithaa, but virtually handing Sri Lanka on a platter to China is not about tickle-and-smile.<\/p>\n

So I said what had to be said.\u00a0 I said that a no-show would cost India and added a caveat: the Prime Minister\u2019s office has the final say regarding his participation.\u00a0 That\u2019s where we are now.\u00a0 I have no idea what boss has decided or what his thinking is at this point, but I can\u2019t seem to fall asleep.<\/p>\n

I think of worst case scenarios.\u00a0 I know that a complete boycott would cost us really bad.\u00a0 Canada\u2019s decision to boycott didn\u2019t make any waves.\u00a0\u00a0 All it did was provoke a bored response, \u2018so what?\u2019\u00a0 Well, not really.\u00a0 Canada\u2019s track record on human rights was taken out and aired.\u00a0 Skeletons we all have and ours are easy to pull out and display.\u00a0 We don\u2019t want that to happen.<\/p>\n

I think of a situation where boss calls and says, \u2018hey boy, I stay, you go!\u2019\u00a0 I imagine myself in Colombo looking like a sore thumb.\u00a0 Well, Colombo will probably be nice to be and that is what would hurt most.\u00a0 I would feel like a sore thumb sticking out.<\/p>\n

And it is not as though the USA were a member of the Commonwealth and had offered us the cover of announcing boycott first. \u00a0It is easy to be Uncle Sam\u2019s South Asian pawn.\u00a0 Sadly, a little more than 200 years ago, some people in that country decided to have a \u2018tea party\u2019 that the British hadn\u2019t been invited to.\u00a0 Today, Britain is client state.\u00a0 The USA has robbed from Britain the title \u2018Common Thief\u2019.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t need the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n

I would like to think that Britain is proxy for the USA, but that\u2019s giving the Queen too much credit.\u00a0 I tried to draw strength from British Prime Minister David Cameron\u2019s statement about talking tough with (reading \u2018talking down to\u2019) Sri Lanka, but I know Sri Lanka and I know President Mahinda Rajapaksa.\u00a0 He will smile and rattle off a few places names associated with crimes against humanity, whack poor David on his back and let out of a few gusty guffaws.<\/p>\n

I am terrified that I will be all alone in Colombo.\u00a0 There are times when I think to myself, \u2018If my boss doesn\u2019t give a hoot about India, why should I?\u2019<\/p>\n

There are times I want to resign.\u00a0 There are times I actually wish I was born in Sri Lanka to Sri Lankan parents.<\/p>\n

Most times I break out in a sweat.<\/p>\n

*Malinda Seneviratne is the Chief Editor of \u2018The Nation\u2019\u00a0and his articles can be found at\u00a0www.malindawords.blogspot.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":105560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nSalman Khurshid\u2019s Unease - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/salman-khurshids-unease\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Salman Khurshid\u2019s Unease - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/salman-khurshids-unease\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-11-06T05:59:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-11-10T10:16:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Malinda-Seneviratne-150x150.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"130\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"135\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/salman-khurshids-unease\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/salman-khurshids-unease\/\",\"name\":\"Salman Khurshid\u2019s Unease - 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