Modi visit: Time to apologise

Friday, 13 March 2015 00:51 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting Sri Lanka. He must offer an apology for India’s role in fomenting violent separatism in Sri Lanka. India armed, trained and financed terrorism long before the ugly riots of 1983. Those riots resulted in an influx of refugees to India and it becoming a political problem for the C

entral and Tamil Nadu Governments. Tamil chauvinism has always existed in Tamil Nadu and a section of their political leaders have been on the Tiger payroll for a long time. However, India’s role in arming, training and financing Tamil separatism precedes 1983. It started after 1977 when the pro-US and openly anti-Indian UNP regime took office in Sri Lanka. JRJ did marvellous things by opening out the stagnant socialist Sri Lankan economy, but he erred by antagonising India first. He foolishly, ignoring Sri Lanka’s geographic realities wanted to join ASEAN. India started training Tigers to destabilise Sri Lanka. There was also political pressure from Tamil Nadu. India viewed Sri Lanka as veering towards Lanka started moving towards US and Pakistan, during the cold war. Keep in mind, at that time India was extremely close to the USSR and even had a defence pact it signed with it in 1972; USSR was its main weapons supplier. Indian foreign policy The attempts to have a Voice of American station on Sri Lankan soil, attempts to open Trincomalee Port to Western military vessels (the US was quite hostile towards Indira Gandhi and India at that time), these reasons gave Indira Gandhi reasons to worry about national security. It did not help that Sri Lankan leaders

openly attacked Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi with “we will chase our cow and calf the way India did,” insults and talk about Sirimavo Bandaranaike and Anura Bandaranaike the same way, saying both nations chased them away after Indira lost to Moraji Desai. In a remarkable comeback, she won the election in 1980 in a decisive manner. As Prime Minister, Gandhi was known for her political ruthlessness and unprecedented centralisation of power (Wiki). She was also a vindictive woman. For Indira Gandhi and India, these were the considerations then:

Sri Lanka was veering away from Indian orbit and mutual cooperation to hostility
nUS hostility towards India during the Cold War
nUSSR and KGB interesting in destabilising nations viewed as pro-US
nIndira feared Sri Lanka’s ties with the US and Pakistan
nJRJ’s attempts to identify Sri Lanka as part of the pro-US anti-communist ASEAN group which was absurd considering the geographic realities

The LTTE proved an ideal ruse for India to establish its foreign policy writ. Some of the armed groups it trained in camps inside India include the PLOTE, EPRLF, TELO, EROS and LTTE. There were camps all across South India and even Himachal Pradesh was given its own camps across Tamil Nadu and some even went to Libya, Syria and Lebanon to get trained. They learned the deadly tactics of suicide bombing (the LTTE was the most effective in this deadly skill). All this was revealed by the Jain Commission Report on the Growth of Tamil Militancy. In 1982, LTTE Leader Prabhakaran engaged in a shootout with his rival Uma Maheswaran in broad daylight in the middle of Chennai. Although the Police arrested him, he was released immediately on bail (presumably due to the intervention of RAW). Eventually, the other organisations either got merged or got destroyed by LTTE. July 1983 The crimes of July 1983 were a watershed for our country. The UNP Government of the day stood by and did nothing, as carnage was unleashed for a week. These were the all-powerful days of virtual dictatorship by Parliamentary writ. President JRJ did much to transform Sri Lanka by opening the economy, bringing in foreign investments and re-setting the outdated stagnant socialist economy. But unfortunately, the legacies his Government will be remembered for are responsibility for attacks on Tamils after 1977 and reckless antagonising of India in the field of foreign policy. It was his Government which also gave us this Constitution, which is proving to be such a hindrance to democracy. It was also his regime that silenced the democratic representation by Tamils by engineering the removal of the TULF from Parliament. However noxious or unpalatable a person’s political view is, it was foolish for the UNP to expel the TULF from Parliament. In the absence of a viable Opposition, many mistakes are made due to hubris and overconfidence. The deliberate targeting of minorities (Tamils primarily) by the gangs from the majority communities, resulted in the beginning of a period of carnage and terrorism and grief. Terrified people fleeing to India and becoming refugees put greater political pressure on the Indian Central Government to intervene in Sri Lanka. Please note, except for the horrible riots in 1958 where there were victims of both communities, all targeted attacks on Tamils happened during the UNP-led regime which came after 1977. Those riots were carried out by gangs associated with the UNP and its JSS thugs. These targeted attacks were a deliberate “pogrom” (an organised massacre of a particular ethnic group) that shook the psyche of innocent Tamils, even those of the English speaking upper class. Many of these people felt more protected and comfortable growing up and living in Colombo than in their ancestral villages; places they had no connection to far away in the north or east of the island. Those who witnessed the 1983 riots report that there was a distinct “class envy” angle to it, when even successful corporate entities were targeted simply for being owned by Tamils. The LTTE or Tigers could not have survived and grown without 1983. It took the events of July 1983 to finally drive even moderate Tamils into the hands of violent separatists, as obviously the State could not, or would not, protect them. Thus a small ragtag group of rebels became overnight heroes and were seen as protectors of Tamil people. Rise of the LTTE The LTTE systematically wiped out other Tamil groups and became the uber-dominant fascist racist organisation claiming to be the single group representing all Tamils. Historically, Sri Lankan Tamils had a high level of support in Tamil Nadu and politicians including M.G. Ramachandran and Karunanidhi put enormous pressure on the centre. Indira Gandhi needed one of these to shore up her politics. She did the same in the State of Punjab. She wanted to split the Akil Dal hold on the traditionally Sikh ruled Sikh majority State of Punjab. She created a figure named Jarnail Singh Bindranwale and a Khalistani movement to take control of the State government of Punjab. The end result was that Bindranwale, like the LTTE, could no longer be controlled by RAW or the Indian Government. History of the Khalistani war, Blue Star operation, subsequent assassination of Indira Gandhi, the pogrom unleashed by Cong-I goon squads and then the long cruel terrorist separatist war in the State of Punjab are well known. Supporting separatism Despite all the missed opportunities for successive Sri Lanka regimes, India’s intervention in the Vadamaarchchi operation, which could have ended with the defeat of the LTTE at much less human cost, open violation of its airspace with the parippu drop, and the continued supported for armed terrorism are reasons PM Modi should apologise to Sri Lanka. The new regime in Sri Lanka has done everything right to re-set the relationship to a comfortable level of trust. Yet all the grief and violence that set Sri Lanka’s economy back by 30 years would not have happened if India did not start arming separatist terrorists in the first place for domestic political advantages and because of geo-political and strategic paranoia. For its part, India didn’t even have a Southern Air command until 1984 when it actively decided to intervene and manage events in Sri Lanka for its own geo-political reasons. Sri Lanka and India can sign a pact assuring that neither nation will militarily intervene in the other, nor support separatism in the other, nor cosy up to other international powers whose intentions towards the other may not entirely be altruistic. This will allay India’s unfounded fears about China. Modi, it is now up to you to make sure you no longer act as the neighbourhood bully power. Apologise and make sure India will never arm and train separatism in Sri Lanka. Mano Ratwatte, USA