“Our hands are tainted with blood”, admitted professor V. Suryanarayan, a member of India’s national security advisory panel during Vanni war, in a conference organised by International Tamil Centre, Chennai, on Monday. He also implied the connivance of the Tamil Nadu government when he said in this context that “during the last two three years New Delhi will not take any action without consulting Tamil Nadu”. However, Tamil circles found his criticism of India’s Sri Lanka policy leading nowhere to justice but was harping only on Indian aid conditioning Sri Lanka so that “a Tamil can be a Tamil but at the same time a loyal Sri Lankan”.
A diplomatic failure of India according to Suryanarayan was that the fear that India can intervene has been removed.
“And the consequence of it took place in the human rights council when we were in the illustrious company of Pakistan and China. As an Indian I feel ashamed the voting behaviour of New Delhi. We should have abstained from voting”, he said.
In the opinion of international observers it was India that orchestrated votes in favour of Sri Lanka in the human rights council.
Many viewed it as an academic post mortem when Suryanarayan said, “I also express my feeling with a great sense of sorrow that there is no transparency in India’s policy towards Sri Lanka”. For many years now, people outside of India have been pointing out the handling of India’s Sri Lanka policy by a few, biased, extra parliamentary elements.
Coming hard on Sri Lanka, Suryanarayan said, “Sri Lanka has the unique distinction of one of those countries, which bombs its own citizens. Not just bombing but savage bombing”.
“And the bell tolls not only for Mahinda Rajapaksa, the bell tolls for all those who directly or indirectly helped in the most atrocious deeds that were happening in Sri Lanka for the last three months”, Suryanarayan said.
A few days ago in an interview to The Week Magazine, Mahinda Rajapaksa said that he had fought ‘India’s war’.
While observing that the military dimension of the conflict is over, Suryanarayan was harping on India using aid as leverage for the devolution of powers to Tamil areas. He criticized M K Narayanan and Shiv Shankar Menon offering 500 crores to Sri Lanka without conditions. The 20-member committee appointed by Colombo to spend the money has 19 Sinhalese, one Muslim and no Tamil, he pointed out.
Suryanarayan also condemned further militarization of Sri Lanka and Tamil lands being brought under the control of the armed forces.
What disappointed the Tamil circles was the professor with many years of Sri Lanka-watching still pinning hopes on the inclusiveness of the Sri Lankan state.
Sincere implementation of 13th Amendment can lead to ethnic reconciliation and substantial devolution of powers, he said.
However, later he expressed his own doubt about its implementation and said Sri Lanka should be asked to consider the constitutional proposals of 2000.
How does he expect acceptance from Eezham Tamils for blood stained hands imposing a hated identity and further subjugation, asked a former Tamil militant.
Meanwhile, Francis Boyle, an American expert on international law, addressing the same conference on Monday, asked India not to oppose the statehood claim of Tamils in Sri Lanka.
It was a false assumption that if Tamils in Sri Lanka exercise their right to self-determination, including the right to establish a separate state, Tamils in India would also follow suit, he said.
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