Week after week, I have been hearing news about the humanitarian catastrophe that is unfolding on the north eastern coast of Lanka. Initially, I didn't want to bother too much about what is happening in a foreign land. But recently, the UN described the fighting as a 'bloodbath' and the UNICEF has reported that hundreds of innocent children have been brutally killed by heavy weapon fire.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gVoaDFmbCYS-Usz9ACDRIengj21QD984BUQ80
My blood curdled when I went through the chilling accounts of the civilians who escaped this hell on Earth. It seems there is no limit to the war crimes being committed there. Why has this untold suffering of thousands of innocent civilians not been made a big international human rights issue? Why have world governments not condemned this inhuman massacre in unequivocal terms? How is it that the Lankan army blatantly disregards the civilian cost in their murderous zeal to finish the LTTE?
There is no doubt that a terrorist organization like the LTTE deserves no sympathy. In fact, reports show that they are using the civilians as human shields and are forcing children into fighting. The helpless people who are virtually being held hostage are caught between the devil that is the Lankan army and the deep sea that is the LTTE. Unfortunately, the sad plight of these innocent civilians caught in the crossfire is being politicized across the Palk Strait, here in India. Politicians of all hues are shamelessly milking this human tragedy for the sake of votes. I am distraught with the fact that while western countries like UK and France have been sending their foreign ministers to visit the relief camps, India has shown no action on this. Surely, the general elections cannot be an excuse. This latest battle has been raging for many months now. Cannot Mr. Mukherjee visit the Tamil civilians in the relief camps and reassure them of India's support? Doesn't India have even this little responsibility? Is our country so diplomatically weak that it cannot even exert mild pressure on a small neighbor like Lanka to halt the fighting and rescue the civilians. And we claim to be a future superpower! Who are we kidding here?!
This leads to the natural inference that one of the reasons why Lanka has been able to continue with its offensive non-stop is that it enjoys tacit support from the Indian government. This is a classic case of running with the rabbits and hunting with the hounds! New Delhi has been one of the biggest suppliers of heavy weapons to Colombo. These are the same weapons that are being used against the Tamils now. India, the country that once supported the LTTE, is now playing a dangerous double game in the Indian Ocean. New Delhi has its own economic and geo-political interests in Lanka. It wants to keep the Sinhalese government in good humor so that they don't go into the waiting arms of China. But it has sacrificed the innocent Tamil civilians in its strategic game. The only thing we can see is lip service from the central leaders, political slogans from the state leaders and token aid sent via ships from Chennai.
Surely, New Delhi has considerably more clout in the region than all these. Take the Mukti Bahini example of Bangladesh. India helped the oppressed Bengali people carve their own nation out of Pakistan. Here, the demand of a majority of Tamils is not for a separate Tamil Eelam to be carved out of Lanka. In the short term, it is to bring about an end to this bloodbath. In the long term, it is to ensure that Tamils in Lanka enjoy equal rights as the Sinhalese. One possible solution is a semi-federal set up, similar to India's. But that is a decision to be left to the people of Lanka itself, including the Tamils.
Shame on you India! As a respected democratic power, you were expected to take leadership in this region. Instead you have miserably failed in your responsibility. I am a patriotic Indian, but on this occasion, I feel ashamed that the land of Gandhi has lost its moral high ground. I have felt the same way once before, when India supported the military dictatorship in Myanmar against a popular uprising, which was brutally suppressed. But in Lanka, the problem is still on. Since India has failed in its moral duty to try to prevent the death of innocent civilians, it is tantamount to New Delhi being party to the war crimes being committed in Lanka. That is why I think India has the blood of innocent Lankan Tamils on its hands. To protest against the cheap politicking by all political parties over this crucial issue, I am going to choose Rule 49-O in tomorrow's polls here in my constituency. Anyways, it is not as if any of the major candidates are eminent.
PS: After a discussion with my friends, I realized that 49-O in its current form is toothless. Thus, instead of that, I voted against all the political parties out there who shamelessly sought to extract electoral mileage out of human suffering.
2 comments:
It is true that India's attitude to the plight of Srilankan tamils can at best be described 'indifferent'.
But at the same time,I feel it would be unfair to blame the Indian government in such harsh terms. You mentioned that one of the reasons why Lanka has been able to go on non stop offensive is tacit support and arms supply from Indian government. But apparently more than India, China is the country which has given Srilanka this new found confidence. It has blocked many attempts to raise this issue at the security council and is emerging as one of the most important contributor of arms/financial assistance to Srilanka.
India I guess is wary of getting involved in this issue- may be due to past experiences(IPKF etc), fear of being accused of double standards if they support any freedom movement in Srilanka(some groups in Kashmir and many other places would be waiting to seize any such opportunity though I understand that the issue you are raising here is humanitarian and not any freedom movement as such).
But agree with you- It is unfortunate that the issue is just used for political gains . India could or rather should play a much more constructive and meaningful role in settling the Srilankan issue and should not remain a mute spectator.
@Arvind, thanks for your comment. Yes, you rightly pointed out that China has been supporting Lanka openly. Along with Russia, it asserts that the civil war is Lanka's internal matter. But no one expected illiberal quasi-dictatorships like China and Russia to unequivocally condemn state sponsored violence against its citizens. After all, Beijing did massacre hundreds of its own students in Tiananmen Square. But India is not such a state. We are an open liberal democracy and we should strive to support, if not advocate, human liberty and equality everywhere.
As you said, my criticism of New Delhi's Lankan policy is focused primarily on the humanitarian aspect. True, India cannot afford to demand self-determination rights for Lankan Tamils, keeping in mind its own sensitivities on Kashmir (which I think does have a legitimate right to self-determination as per a UN resolution). But India can help the Lankan Tamils defend their human rights. Unfortunately, India doesn't have the diplomatic maturity (and/or the will) to promote such values in the region. As I mentioned, why does India not speak a word against the brutal military rule in Myanmar, which is firmly backed by China?
But of course, the reality is that, like most nations, even India adopts a shameful diplomacy of convenience, a hallmark of chameleonic nations like the United States.
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