{"id":115844,"date":"2013-11-27T00:31:24","date_gmt":"2013-11-26T19:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=115844"},"modified":"2013-12-03T05:09:33","modified_gmt":"2013-12-02T23:39:33","slug":"indo-lanka-relations-post-chogm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/indo-lanka-relations-post-chogm\/","title":{"rendered":"Indo-Lanka Relations Post-CHOGM"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"Malinda<\/a>

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

Now that the CHOGM<\/span><\/a> circus is done, along with frills, clowns and performing monkeys, we can return to the man and country that had teased and taunted but in the end was hardly missed. That\u2019s Manmohan Singh and India.<\/p>\n

India cannot wish away Sri Lanka and neither can Sri Lanka wish away India. That\u2019s geography. That\u2019s political reality.\u00a0 India snubbed Sri Lanka when Manmohan Singh<\/span><\/a> chose to privilege domestic electoral compulsions.\u00a0 CHOGM came and went, but the significance of snub remains.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it is an indication that Delhi is in damage-control mode that we now here \u2018tut-tut\u2019 noises emanating from India about David Cameron<\/span><\/a>\u2019s CHOGM antics, but then again as the proverb goes no cat that defecates on rock can do cover-up with sand, however hard the scratching is.<\/p>\n

India\u2019s last-minute support for Sri Lanka\u2019s military putsch on the LTTE<\/span><\/a> was understandably covert, but that change of heart was less about love for Sri Lanka\u2019s political stability or territorial integrity as it was about necessity to put to rest a Delhi-spawned monster that had got out of control.\u00a0 No illusions there.<\/p>\n

Now there were those who didn\u2019t want Sri Lanka to be awarded CHOGM 2013.\u00a0 Once awarded, they agitated for venue change.\u00a0 When that didn\u2019t happen, they lobbied for boycotts.\u00a0 When Manmohan decided at the last minute to send someone else in his place, they cheered. They were thrilled when Harper said \u2018no can do\u2019.\u00a0 They were upset when Cameron said \u2018I will go\u2019.\u00a0 They were consoled when he said \u2018I will talk tough\u2019.\u00a0 They were happy when he fielded friendly questions and fired shots at Sri Lanka from a veritable no-fire zone.\u00a0 They cling to Cameron\u2019s ultimatums and do not question his moral right to talk about human rights, freedom of expression and such given his own and his country\u2019s horrendous track records on these matters.<\/p>\n

Most of the above was predictable.\u00a0 Sri Lanka would do well to take stock of Delhi\u2019s snub and use it to good effect.<\/p>\n

It is no secret that India has never been Sri Lanka\u2019s friend and certainly was not a friend-in-need.\u00a0 India need not be either, for in international relations only \u2018interests\u2019 matter, \u2018love\u2019 being a mere rhetorical tool, a sweetener to help a bitter thing go down.\u00a0 The political significance of the snub means, however, that India has conceded the diplomatic right to sweet-talk Sri Lanka. From now on, India has to engage in the raw; no more beating around the bush, no more love talk, no more big-brother.\u00a0 From now on, if at all, it has to be big-thug-talk.\u00a0 And that may very well be the biggest (unintended) gift that India has offered Sri Lanka in well over three decades.<\/p>\n

From now on India cannot pretend that it is trying to help Sri Lanka.\u00a0 Sri Lanka can now move on or more correctly move away from aberrations celebrated or suffered in silence in the name of \u2018friendly bilateral relations\u2019 such as the 13th<\/sup> Amendment<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 If Delhi objects, it will have to say, \u2018we object because we want you to inhabit our version of your reality.\u2019\u00a0 And Sri Lanka can say \u2018Really?\u2019<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka has multiple tasks to handle.\u00a0 First there is a post-conflict reconciliation process where the Government is supposed to clap with one hand.\u00a0 Then there\u2019s the matter of fending off pressure from the biggest perpetrators of crimes against humanity. \u00a0Sri Lanka has to find ways of opening the eyes of those who pretend to be asleep or who, if one is generous, just cannot understand that terrorism can be eliminated without resorting to the methods of dealing with enemies that these criminals have used for so long that they know no other way.<\/p>\n

Things have to begin at home of course and there\u2019s a lot to be done, even though\u00a0 a lot has already been done.\u00a0 The \u2018beyond home\u2019 part of it begins with India.<\/p>\n

The island of Sri Lanka will not unmoor itself somehow and float away towards, let\u2019s say, Australia.\u00a0 Sri Lanka will have to live with a bad-tempered bully as neighbor.\u00a0 This does not mean that Sri Lanka has to capitulate to Indian hegemony in its affairs.\u00a0 The world and its processes are not reducible to the prerogatives of simple geographical proximities.\u00a0 They are more complex.\u00a0 In navigating the options afforded by these complexities one thing is of paramount import: accurate reading of factors.\u00a0 Right now there\u2019s an easy \u2018truth\u2019 that must be accepted and factored into all calculations when it comes to policy formulation: India is not friend.<\/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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms"],"yoast_head":"\nIndo-Lanka Relations Post-CHOGM - 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\/indo-lanka-relations-post-chogm\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Indo-Lanka Relations Post-CHOGM - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/indo-lanka-relations-post-chogm\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-11-26T19:01:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-12-02T23:39:33+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=\"4 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\/indo-lanka-relations-post-chogm\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/indo-lanka-relations-post-chogm\/\",\"name\":\"Indo-Lanka Relations Post-CHOGM - 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