{"id":125094,"date":"2014-05-26T12:49:17","date_gmt":"2014-05-26T07:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=125094"},"modified":"2014-06-03T15:04:31","modified_gmt":"2014-06-03T09:34:31","slug":"meeting-indias-concerns-to-sustain-new-relationship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/meeting-indias-concerns-to-sustain-new-relationship\/","title":{"rendered":"Meeting India\u2019s Concerns To Sustain New Relationship"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jehan Perera<\/span><\/a> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Jehan<\/a>

Jehan Perera<\/p><\/div>\n

The Sri Lankan government sees in the Indian Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi<\/span><\/a> a new opportunity to win India over to its side. President Rajapaksa<\/span><\/a> has made sure that he will be off to a flying start with his decision to be present at the swearing in of the new Indian Prime Minister, who had tweeted that it was a great pleasure to talk to the Sri Lankan President when he made his congratulatory call.\u00a0 It is clear that the Sri Lankan government leadership senses, or believes there is, a resonance with the new Indian leadership.\u00a0 Indeed, the change of government in India has opened up the possibility of a new dimension of personal warmth to enter into the relationship between the two leaders of Sri Lanka and India.\u00a0 There is every possibility of the personal charisma of President Rajapaksa, and his closeness to the ethos of the masses of people, to find resonance in the new Indian Prime Minister.<\/p>\n

However, there is a danger of reading too much into the personal relations between leaders.\u00a0 Politicians and the general public have a tendency to prioritise the role of individuals in history. When Russia annexed Crimea, much of the debate in the international media revolved around the personal motivations of President Putin. In reality, however, individual leaders have a limited ability to affect international relations, which are primarily driven by geopolitical and socio-cultural forces. President Putin is important no doubt, but only insofar as he reflects the values and goals of his inner circle, a broader coalition of the elites that back him, and, no less importantly, the general population.\u00a0 All parties represented in the Duma (Russian Parliament) were behind the annexation. In the Duma vote, 445 votes were for the annexation with only one against.\u00a0 Not only did President Putin\u2019s party, United Russia, support him, the other three parties, Just Russia, the Liberal Democrats and even the Communists, were also behind him.<\/p>\n

\"Mahinda-Gotabhaya\"<\/a>This same prevalence of national interests over personal relationships can be seen in Sri Lanka\u2019s own experience with India in the past.\u00a0 Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike<\/span><\/a> enjoyed a warm personal relationship with Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 Both were women leaders, both were widows bringing up families, and both were strong in their leadership.\u00a0 But when the Pakistan civil war broke out and India moved to cut off West Pakistan from East Pakistan, Prime Minister Bandaranaike gave permission to Pakistani airplanes to refuel in Sri Lanka.\u00a0 This would have been in opposition to India\u2019s interests, but the Sri Lankan Prime Minister decided to act in Sri Lanka\u2019s longer term interests. She was backed in this by the key decision makers within her government.\u00a0 During Sri Lanka\u2019s own civil war, Pakistan was one of Sri Lanka\u2019s staunchest allies, and its defense of Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council in March of this year was very special.<\/p>\n

Disappointing Failure<\/strong><\/p>\n

The failure of President Rajapaksa to persuade Chief Minister of the Northern Provincial Council C V Wigneswaran<\/span><\/a> to accompany the Sri Lankan delegation to the swearing in ceremony for Prime Minister Modi in New Delhi is another example of the limitation of relying on personal relationships.\u00a0 The Northern Chief Minister has, to all appearances, an affable personal relationship with President Rajapaksa.\u00a0 When there was doubt as to whom he would take his oaths before, and where he would take them, Chief Minister Wigneswaran came down to Colombo and took his oaths before the President.\u00a0\u00a0 There is no doubt, that as an individual he would have liked to be at the swearing in ceremony of the new Indian Prime Minister at which the leaders of neighbouring countries and most of India\u2019s states will be present.\u00a0 However, Chief Minister Wigneswaran felt constrained to decline the invitation<\/span><\/a> to join the Presidential delegation to New Delhi.<\/p>\n

In declining the President\u2019s invitation the Chief Minister of the Northern Province said in a rather strongly worded letter that \u201cacceptance would indicate that there exists a strong cooperative spirit between the Centre and the Province, when in fact the peoples of the North are engulfed in a climate of fear on account of the presence of the military while the activities of the Northern Provincial Council have been stultified. \u201c\u00a0 He had added that he would \u201cbe guilty of facilitating tokenism\u201d had he accepted the invitation.\u00a0 Indeed, from the government\u2019s perspective taking the Northern Chief Minister along would have given an impression of unity within Sri Lanka that has yet to materialize although five years have passed since the end of the separatist war.<\/p>\n

It can be expected that the government will be disappointed at the Chief Minister\u2019s rejection of the President\u2019s invitation.\u00a0 However, the government\u2019s inability to persuade him to join the government delegation in a show of Sri Lankan unity is an early warning to the government in relation to its strategy with the Indian government.\u00a0 Both India and Sri Lanka have their national interests, and these can diverge and converge.\u00a0 Personal relations alone are unlikely to be able to bring about a convergence where there is divergence.\u00a0 One area in which there is likely to be divergence is in relation to the manner in which the Sri Lankan government has been addressing post-war issues of governance in the North and East where the Tamil people live in large numbers.\u00a0 The lament of Chief Minister Wigneswaran about the militarization of the North and disempowerment of the Northern Provincial Council would be concerns that parties in Tamil Nadu would wish to take up with the Indian government.<\/p>\n

Indian Concerns<\/strong><\/p>\n

India\u2019s approach to conflict resolution in Sri Lanka so far has been to seek the devolution of power to the Tamil-majority areas, which would assuage the sense amongst the Tamil people that they are a marginalized community without access to state power.\u00a0 Under the previously dominant Congress-led governments, the Indian solution to Sri Lanka\u2019s conflict has been to implement the 13th Amendment and provincial council system it established, and ensure the maximum possible devolution of power to the Tamil-majority areas.\u00a0 This solution has never been fully acceptable to successive Sri Lankan governments. However, in 2012, when an Indian all-party delegation led by Sushma Swaraj who led the BJP parliamentary opposition visited Sri Lanka they reaffirmed its commitment to the principle of devolution of power as a key part of the solution to the Sri Lankan conflict.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Modi has already come under criticism from political parties in the state of Tamil Nadu who are boycotting the swearing in ceremony on account of the invitation extended to the Sri Lankan President.\u00a0 Prime Minister Modi\u2019s primary duty is to keep his huge country with its diverse peoples together.\u00a0 He will also be conscious that the BJP won only 31 percent of the popular vote, and with its allies won no more than 38 percent of the vote.\u00a0 There is a vast mass of people whom he has to take along with his government if fragmentation is not to occur in India.\u00a0 The fact that Sri Lanka\u2019s Tamil community is bound by kinship and close cultural ties with the Tamils who inhabit southern India links the two countries together.\u00a0 This is a reality that any Indian government will seek to cope with in a manner that is not detrimental to its own internal relations.<\/p>\n

The Sri Lankan government needs to appreciate this reality if it is to build on the personal rapport that President Rajapaksa is surely likely to generate with Indian Prime Minister Modi.\u00a0 But there is also sure to be another important issue that will have to be faced.\u00a0 This is Sri Lanka\u2019s relationship with other great powers and their impact on India\u2019s national security concerns.\u00a0 President Rajapaksa gives his primary and focused attention to Sri Lanka\u2019s national sovereignty and national security interests.\u00a0 He is therefore well suited to understand that Prime Minister Modi is likely to have the similar concerns where it concerns India.\u00a0\u00a0 A potential rise in nationalism in India might also become a subject of concern, with implications not just for India’s relations with China, but also its approach toward Pakistan, multilateral issues and the United States.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In dealing with other foreign powers, it will be necessary for Sri Lanka to take India\u2019s national security concerns seriously if it is to keep Prime Minister Modi\u2019s goodwill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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