Now that the CHOGM 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’s Manmohan Singh and India.
India cannot wish away Sri Lanka and neither can Sri Lanka
wish away India. That’s geography. That’s political reality. India snubbed Sri Lanka when Manmohan Singh
chose to privilege domestic electoral compulsions. CHOGM came and went, but the significance of
snub remains.
Perhaps it is an indication that Delhi is in damage-control
mode that we now here ‘tut-tut’ noises emanating from India about David
Cameron’s 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.
India’s last-minute support for Sri Lanka’s military putsch
on the LTTE was understandably covert, but that change of heart was less about
love for Sri Lanka’s political stability or territorial integrity as it was
about necessity to put to rest a Delhi-spawned monster that had got out of
control. No illusions there.
Now there were those who didn’t want Sri Lanka to be awarded
CHOGM 2013. Once awarded, they agitated
for venue change. When that didn’t
happen, they lobbied for boycotts. When
Manmohan decided at the last minute to send someone else in his place, they
cheered. They were thrilled when Harper said ‘no can do’. They were upset when Cameron said ‘I will
go’. They were consoled when he said ‘I
will talk tough’. They were happy when
he fielded friendly questions and fired shots at Sri Lanka from a veritable
no-fire zone. They cling to Cameron’s
ultimatums and do not question his moral right to talk about human rights,
freedom of expression and such given his own and his country’s horrendous track
records on these matters.
Most of the above was predictable. Sri Lanka would do well to take stock of
Delhi’s snub and use it to good effect.
It is no secret that India has never been Sri Lanka’s friend
and certainly was not a friend-in-need.
India need not be either, for in international relations only
‘interests’ matter, ‘love’ being a mere rhetorical tool, a sweetener to help a
bitter thing go down. 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. From now on, if at all, it has to be
big-thug-talk. And that may very well be
the biggest (unintended) gift that India has offered Sri Lanka in well over
three decades.
From now on India cannot pretend that it is trying to help
Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka can now move on or
more correctly move away from aberrations celebrated or suffered in silence in
the name of ‘friendly bilateral relations’ such as the 13th
Amendment. If Delhi objects, it will
have to say, ‘we object because we want you to inhabit our version of your
reality.’ And Sri Lanka can say
‘Really?’
Sri Lanka has multiple tasks to handle. First there is a post-conflict reconciliation
process where the Government is supposed to clap with one hand. Then there’s the matter of fending off
pressure from the biggest perpetrators of crimes against humanity. Sri 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.
Things have to begin at home of course and there’s a lot to
be done, even though a lot has already
been done. The ‘beyond home’ part of it
begins with India.
The island of Sri Lanka will not unmoor itself somehow and
float away towards, let’s say, Australia.
Sri Lanka will have to live with a bad-tempered bully as neighbor. This does not mean that Sri Lanka has to
capitulate to Indian hegemony in its affairs.
The world and its processes are not reducible to the prerogatives of
simple geographical proximities. They
are more complex. In navigating the
options afforded by these complexities one thing is of paramount import:
accurate reading of factors. Right now
there’s an easy ‘truth’ that must be accepted and factored into all
calculations when it comes to policy formulation: India is not friend.
msenevira@gmail.com
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