India must vote against Sri Lanka in UNHRC resolution
By Kalyani Shankar
The UPA is under tremendous pressure from its important ally the DMK to vote against the resolution on Sri Lanka for violation of human rights at the UNHRC meeting in Geneva later this month. The DMK and other Tamil Nadu political parties want further toughening of stand against Lanka. This was echoed on the Parliamentary debates last week when not only the Tamil parties but also the main opposition BJP speaking for the Tamils in Lanka. The BJP leader Yashwant Sinha made a strong plea to take a strong line in view of the fact that the Sri Lankan government had not done anything to address the concerns of the Tamils despite four years of pressure.
There is still time until March 22, when the resolution is scheduled to come up for voting, but the pressure continues. Last year, India voted with the US for a resolution asking Sri Lanka to investigate abuses by its military during the final phase of war with the LTTE in 2009. The Rajapakse government was upset with New Delhi but the UPA government had to send a signal that Delhi would like to find a settlement of the Tamil issue sooner. But even after one year, there is no evidence from the Lankan government. This cavalier attitude of Rajapakse is frustrating the Tamil Nadu political parties and also New Delhi. The UPA is not taking a strong line because the relationship with Lanka has changed over the years with other issues like trade and commerce also playing an important part. Tamil issue alone cannot be the sole criterion of the Indo-Sri Lanka relationship, a section in the government feels. Rajapakse, on the other hand, has consolidated his hold on the Sinhalese by his refusal to address the Tamil concerns and has been facing international criticism for long.
The competitive politics played by the various political parties in Tamil Nadu is making it difficult for Delhi to take a view on the sensitive issue. Even the Congress party was forced to attend a meeting organized by TESO recently in Delhi. The two Dravidian parties — the ruling AIADMK and the DMK are almost on the same page regarding the Sri Lankan Tamils, now that the LTTE has been wiped out. The other Tamil parties like the MDMK, PMK and others are also voicing sympathy for the plight of their Tamil brethren. MDMK chief Vaiko has been consistently supporting the Tamil cause. They had to show sympathy for their local political reasons. The Tamil Nadu parties don’t equate Sri Lankan Tamils with LTTE, which the Rajapakse is still trying to do, and hence have strong fraternal emotions.
The Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa has used this opportunity to hit out at the centre asking Delhi to take a stand against the war crimes committed by Rajapakse. Jaya had been raising the issue since 2009 and after becoming the chief minister in 2011 she also got a resolution passed in the state assembly seeking economic sanctions against the island nation. The other Tamil Nadu parties have also been urging the centre to work with the US and the UN HRC. Jaya knows that Sri Lankan Tamil issue, as well as the evidence of the country’s war crimes, have enormous political value. She has plans to make it one of the top issues for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, as she wants to be a key stakeholder in Delhi after the 2014 polls.
At her level, Jaya has already not allowed the Sri Lankan athletes to set foot in the state last month. Last September, she did not allow the Sri Lankan students to play a friendly football match in Chennai. These are her ways of expressing her indignation. She was also opposed to the centre training Sri Lankan military officers in Ooty and Avadi without informing the state government.
The simmering anger against the Sri Lankan government has risen after the British television’s Channel 4 had shown a ghastly video about the killing of the 12 year- old son of LTTE chief Prabhakaran recently. The footage had shown summary executions and killing of innocent civilians, which was hitherto unseen by the public at large even as successive UN reports had blamed the Sri Lankan government.
The Tamil Nadu parties are concerned about the expanding Sinhalese settlement in the Tamil areas. They fear that the expansion of the armed forces and establishment of cantonments in the Tamil areas may further reduce the Tamil population in that region. Rajapakse, who has finished the LTTE and almost all the Tamil groups, is not in a hurry to find a political settlement even though it was promised that the 13th amendment would be the basis of a political solution. He delayed it using the Fourth Eelam War as an excuse, but no political solution is in sight even after the UNHRC resolution last year.
Things have now come to a pause that New Delhi will have to take into account the domestic concerns in the Indo-Sri Lankan policy. With Rajapakse snubbing New Delhi by ignoring its concerns, New Delhi cannot dilute the issue now. Although the Prime Minister was not categorical about India’s stand in the UNHRC later this month, all indications suggest that it will be a vote against. There are at least three reasons why New Delhi should do so. The first is that the Congress cannot afford to annoy the DMK. The second is that New Delhi realises that it does not have the same clout with the island nation, which it had in the eighties or nineties and has to bring back the balance.
The third is that New Delhi has to prove to the world that it has not yielded its place to China in the neighborhood. (IPA Service)