The Island Editorial, March 15, 2015
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has returned home after a successful overseas tour, of which the Sri Lanka leg had been very well planned. It was a diplomatic masterstroke. He paid a floral tribute to the statue of Anagarika Dharmapala at Mahabodhi Viharaya, Colombo, visited Anuradhapura and offered alms to the Buddhist monks before getting down to business.
PM Modi, making a speech couched in very diplomatic terms on Friday, made his position very clear on Sri Lanka’s ethnic problem. He said Colombo should not only implement the 13th Amendment fully but also go beyond it to achieve true reconciliation.
One is intrigued. What does Modi think is the solution? Going beyond 13A can mean anything—a federal state or even a confederation. Devolution cannot be an open-ended process if secession is to be avoided. Is it that New Delhi wants Colombo’s hold on the provinces weakened through devolution to such an extent that the strategically important North and East (with Trincomalee, which Indians are planning to develop as the region’s petroleum hub) will come under India’s sphere of influence?
Northern Province Chief Minister C. V. Wigneswaran reiterated his position on devolution when he welcomed PM Modi in Jaffna on Saturday. He lamented that his council was not vested with adequate powers to look after the needs of people unlike in Indian states, especially Gujarat, of which Modi was Chief Minster prior to his election as PM. Wigneswaran has made no bones about his party’s position that the 13A is no solution in itself; it is only a stepping stone. He said to Modi: “Thirteenth Amendment can never be the final solution. No wonder you referred to your firm belief in co-operative federalism yesterday in Parliament … Indian Constitution provides for the facilitation of sustainable development, internal security, law and order, policing and protection pertaining to lands and so on within the State. Our inability to function in our Province to the extent you were able to help Gujarat under the Indian Constitution needs to be understood.” And Wigneswaran called for India’s intervention to make this possible. “We need the services of a guarantor and it is our considered view that the Government of India under your stewardship is best suited for this role!”
Interestingly, Modi’s visit to the North would not have been possible but for the defeat of the LTTE. Not even the Indian army was safe in that part of the country while Prabhakaran and his combatants were around. India lost as many as 1,500 of its battle-hardened soldiers at the hands of the Tigers. If the previous government had succumbed to India’s pressure and stopped the war in its final stages Prabhakaran would have escaped and the North and East would still have been dangerous; no Indian would have dared visit those areas. It may be recalled that India could not protect Rajiv Gandhi on its own soil!
President Maithripala Sirisena, welcoming PM Modi in Colombo, took pride in the latter having accepted his invitation to visit this country. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told the Indian leader that the latter’s visit was long overdue. Now, they will have to face the political consequences of Modi’s go-beyond-the-13th Amendment call.
Meanwhile, the former government drew a lot of flak from its critics for ‘compromising Sri Lanka’s sovereignty’ and turning Sri Lanka into what they called a ‘Chinese colony’. How would they react to India’s interference with Sri Lanka’s domestic affairs? And what would the detractors of the Chinese-funded Colombo Port City Project say to India’s grand plan to make Trinco the region’s petroleum hub?
Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was accused of blocking the full implementation of the 13th Amendment, tells us that India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) engineered his ouster. Following Modi’s recent call for more devolution a question that arises in one’s mind is whether India engineered a regime change here as part of its strategy to make Sri Lanka adopt a solution that goes beyond the 13th Amendment.
The UNP-led government has been struggling to implement its 100-day programme with an eye to the next general election. Now, following Modi’s visit, it has another problem, a very serious one at that, to contend with. Having benefited from the TNA’s block vote to oust its predecessor, it will have to tell the public whether it is willing to ‘go beyond the 13th Amendment’. It will be interesting to see what the JHU and the JVP which is represented at the National Executive Council have got to say to Modi’s call.
Courtesy:
Smart Patriots Sri Lanka 