{"id":73300,"date":"2013-02-12T00:07:13","date_gmt":"2013-02-12T00:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=73300"},"modified":"2013-02-15T11:24:58","modified_gmt":"2013-02-15T11:24:58","slug":"india-is-our-friend-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/india-is-our-friend-right\/","title":{"rendered":"India Is Our \u2018Friend\u2019, Right?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>

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

It was not the first time that Sri Lanka<\/a><\/span> and Sri Lankans have been treated shabbily in India and by Indians.\u00a0 Friday\u2019s vandalization of an office of the Bank of Ceylon in Tamil Nadu by pro-LTTE<\/a><\/span> elements of that state who are wont to shed copious tears over \u2018the plight of Tamil brethren in Sri Lanka\u2019 ironically left two Tamils, one Sri Lankan and one Indian, injured.\u00a0 It is a well-known fact that for all the love professed for Sri Lankan Tamils by Tamil Nadu politicians, they (Sri Lankan Tamils) are subject to ridicule and harassment in that State and treated with derision and suspicion.\u00a0 If there are CCTV cameras at the Chennai Airport, the footage would reveal a lot about \u2018love\u2019.<\/p>\n

It is now customary for uncouth Tamil Nadu<\/a><\/span> politicians to whip up hysteria among ill-educated supporters and organize demonstrations and attacks on Sri Lankans.\u00a0 It is customary for Delhi<\/a><\/span> to issue statements of concern and trot out assurance-homilies regarding safety.\u00a0 And yet, officials have been harassed, pilgrims attacked and properties damaged.\u00a0 That\u2019s \u2018India Shining\u2019, one supposes.\u00a0 But India is a \u2018friend\u2019.<\/p>\n

A quick recap is called for.\u00a0 India funded, armed and trained the LTTE<\/a><\/span> terrorists to destabilize Sri Lanka to the point of annexure (ref Rajiv Gandhi<\/a><\/span>\u2019s statement on turning Sri Lanka into a second Bhutan).\u00a0 \u00a0The LTTE blunted development, terrorized a nation, killed thousands of innocent civilians and more than any other entity caused untold suffering to the Tamil community (courtesy forced recruitment of children, hostage-taking and turning regions the Tamils lived in into combat zones for decades).\u00a0 India helped them.\u00a0 But India, ladies and gentlemen, is a \u2018friend\u2019.<\/p>\n

India took up an anti-Sri Lanka position at the UNHRC<\/a><\/span> in March 2012 and is said to be readying to do a repeat this year.\u00a0 India tried to and is still trying to secure a strategic foothold via the Sampur Power Plant with exclusivity clauses as well as cost-upping inferior technology specifications.\u00a0 India has always arm-twisted Sri Lanka to sign trade and other agreements with unequal benefits.\u00a0 Indian companies are trying to secure drilling rights in the Mannar basin.\u00a0 All for the love of Sri Lanka.\u00a0 India is wary of Chinese influence in Sri Lanka, perhaps because India feels that China is not Sri Lanka\u2019s friend and that as Sri Lanka\u2019s \u2018friend\u2019, India needs to protect \u2018Lil\u2019 Bro Sri Lanka\u2019.\u00a0 The condescension should be ignored because, after all, India is Sri Lanka\u2019s \u2018friend\u2019.<\/p>\n

India dumped a mammoth white elephant called the 13th<\/sup> Amendment<\/a><\/span> preying on J.R. Jayewardene<\/a><\/span>\u2019s inability to do simple arithmetic.\u00a0 The \u201813th<\/sup>\u2019 was used and is being used by those who want a Sri Lanka break-up to concretize the myth of \u2018Traditional Tamil Homelands<\/a><\/span>\u2019, never mind the fact that the majority of Tamils live outside the Northern and Eastern provinces.\u00a0\u00a0 India is a \u2018friend\u2019, though.<\/p>\n

Indians visit Sri Lanka, some as tourists, some on business.\u00a0 Indian companies operate freely in Sri Lanka.\u00a0 India exports a lot to Sri Lanka, including cheap and sub-standard drugs.\u00a0 That\u2019s \u2018friendship\u2019 and we have to conclude that there are nice, decent, Sri Lankan \u2018friends\u2019 who facilitate such \u2018friendship\u2019, for it takes two hands to clap.<\/p>\n

The point is that Sri Lankans who take issue with India would at worst just demonstrate outside the Indian High Commission.\u00a0 Indians are not button-holed and screamed at.\u00a0 Indian properties are not vandalized.\u00a0 Is that out of \u2018fear of reprisal\u2019? \u00a0Hardly.\u00a0 India has shown its worst face and ended with egg on it, ironically courtesy of the bad-eggs they warmed in Tamil Nadu (that\u2019s the IPKF<\/a><\/span>, dubbed at the time as the Illan Parippu Kana Force<\/em>, or \u2018Force that asked for it and duly got it\u2019).<\/p>\n

In short India and Sri Lanka are friends but ones who have different ideas about what constitutes friendship.\u00a0 Different ideas about civilization too, one might add.\u00a0 People learn from one another, though, and over time \u2018friends\u2019 pick up each other\u2019s traits.\u00a0 It is hard to think that India would become less uncouth and thug-like though.\u00a0 It would be a pity, however, if Sri Lanka became like India and did the works-both-ways-brother number on Indians and Indian establishments here.<\/p>\n

*Malinda Seneviratne is the Chief Editor of \u2018The Nation<\/a>\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":44732,"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-73300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nIndia Is Our \u2018Friend\u2019, Right? - 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\/india-is-our-friend-right\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"India Is Our \u2018Friend\u2019, Right? - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/india-is-our-friend-right\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-02-12T00:07:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-02-15T11:24:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Malinda.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"336\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"413\" \/>\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\/india-is-our-friend-right\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/india-is-our-friend-right\/\",\"name\":\"India Is Our \u2018Friend\u2019, Right? 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