Fall out of Indian visit and the BJP factor


“The first decision was to strengthen the Tamil people against the operations carried out by the Sri Lankan security forces to destroy the Tamil people in the north. The next decision was to support a solution based on a federal structure that goes beyond the 13th Amendment.”
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(July 06, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The hushed up details behind the visit of the three high-powered Indian officials to Sri Lanka that came out in the open have caused a huge controversy with its impact felt worldwide.

A greater part of the details of the hush-hush meetings held between the Indian and the Sri Lankan officials were revealed to the people by The Sunday Leader and its sister paper Irudina.

President Mahinda Rajapakse, who during the tenure of President J.R. Jayewardene insulted the Indian Peace Keeping Force that landed in the island to fight against the LTTE, was now working to bring Indian forces to no lesser place than Colombo and the surrounding seas for the SAARC Summit.

The Rajapakses in the recent past have acted in a manner which has made the present government unable to face not only the Indians, but the rest of the world.

Agreed to all

When the Indian government officials arrived in the island and placed conditions before the President with regard to the forthcoming SAARC Summit, Rajapakse agreed to all of them like a kitten. However Rajapakse wanted to teach a lesson to the Indian delegation for imposing such harsh conditions to attend the summit which would compromise him politically, given the campaign launched by the JVP in particular.

The President who understood the controversies in the Indian political arena decided to use it to his benefit. For that he used the cabinet meeting. What made the President unleash a soft attack on the Indians was due to an agreement reached between the Indian and Sri Lankan officials during the discussions to keep the contents a secret and away from the media.

However, the Indian delegation broke the agreement by revealing some of the details to the Indian media. The President's Indian coordinators also informed him that the Indian Foreign Ministry had released certain details that were positive for the Indian government to the media.

Taking all this into consideration Rajapakse gave a brief note to cabinet on the discussions between the Sri Lankan and Indian officials during the visit.

Indian help

The President said that the Indian government was extending help in the fight carried out by the Sri Lankan security forces against the LTTE. Rajapakse wanted the news to be published in the Indian media with the help of an Indian public relations company. Accordingly, the news was published in the Indian media that New Delhi had agreed to help the Sri Lankan government destroy the LTTE. The news managed to explode a bomb that was ticking for some time in Indian politics.

There were endless protests directed at the New Delhi government by the political heads in South India. The pressure reached such heights that the leader of the Indian delegation that visited Sri Lanka, Defence Advisor M.K. Narayanan was forced to make a special statement to the media saying that the Indian government had in no way agreed to provide any military assistance to the Sri Lankan government. He also said that there has been no change in the government's decision not to provide any weapons to the Sri Lankan government.

The Indian government used Narayanan's statement as a response to Rajapakse. The Indians recognised Rajapakse's act as one that was against the Indian government.

Warnings

The problems in India over the particular issue were so great that the South Indian intelligence unit of the Bharathiya Janatha Party (BJP), which is expected to win the next election, was quickly called for a meeting in Chennai. They discussed at length the sad plight of the Sri Lankan Tamils. Finally, the BJP intelligence unit arrived at two final decisions.

The first decision was to strengthen the Tamil people against the operations carried out by the Sri Lankan security forces to destroy the Tamil people in the north. The next decision was to support a solution based on a federal structure that goes beyond the 13th Amendment.

The two decisions are significant warnings to the Sri Lankan government, as they have come at a time the present government is about to be voted out of power by the BJP.

The sole responsibility for the present situation lies with the Lankan government which made the unwise decision to release some of the details of the discussion that took place between the Indian delegation and the Sri Lankan officials.

It is a well-accepted norm that when the main opposition party in India decides to act against the Sri Lankan security forces and works to strengthen the Tamil people, the government in power as well as other Tamil parties are also forced to adopt such a stance.

Amidst all this controversy, India made another move.

That was to secretly land two aircraft of the Indian airforce in the island. The aircraft have now landed in Katunayake on the grounds that they would be used for the transportation of VIPs during the SAARC Summit.

The Indian government also sent another strong message to Sri Lanka. That is that during the summit period none of the aircraft of the Sri Lanka Air Force would be permitted to take off and it would only be the aircraft belonging to the Indian Air Force that would do all the flying .

The Sri Lanka Air Force however has denied that any such request was made
- Sri Lanka Guardian