The Hindu : Goodwill at any cost?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 11, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

Goodwill at any cost?

GIVEN THE TRAUMATIC experience this country has had with the LTTE, India would have to adopt a proactive strategy of pressing Sri Lanka to extradite the terrorist leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Velupillai Prabakaran the main accused in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. However, New Delhi is clearly hesitant to emphasise India's own national interest in this regard for the fear of losing the goodwill of a neighbour like Sri Lanka. Regrettably, there is nothing in the latest briefings by top Indian officials to indicate that the new External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, will forcefully demand Mr. Prabakaran's extradition at this point. Mr. Sinha's goodwill visit to Colombo, beginning today, seems designed, instead, to sustain the momentum that the bilateral exchanges gained in recent months. The Indo-Sri Lankan interactions remain on a positive trajectory but entirely without any definitive political underpinning. The danger, therefore, is that New Delhi might be unwittingly paving the way for good neighbourliness at any cost as regards Sri Lanka. Undeniably important in this context is the political and economic impetus that should be imparted to India's friendship with Sri Lanka. Yet, what cannot simply be missed is the stark calculus of the adversarial relationship which New Delhi has drawn up for its dealings with Pakistan. Significantly, this contrast is derived from New Delhi's double standard as regards different aspects of anti-India terrorism that have emanated, unrelated to one another, from the territories of two proximate neighbours — Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Overall, New Delhi does seem oblivious to or unconcerned about this harsh ground reality. New Delhi's persistent hesitancy over the Prabakaran issue, whatever be the considerations, will deeply undermine the credibility of India's diplomatic campaign that Pakistan should extradite 20 identified terrorists and criminals.

It hardly requires to be underlined that Mr. Prabakaran, a proclaimed offender in the case relating to the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, cannot also be allowed to stay free from the long arm of the law on any political account, however weighty that might appear to be in misguided calculations. It is a different matter, though, that Colombo, which at long last seems able to track the separatist LTTE leader, is eager to domesticate him and draw him into a political settlement under Norway's auspices as an accredited "facilitator" and a virtual mediator. On a separate but related plane, Norway too is willing to confer a certain degree of political legitimacy on Mr. Prabakaran, although the diplomatic reasons that guide Oslo in this connection have remained far from fully explained. Given New Delhi's present attitude, it is Mr. Prabakaran who must be laughing up his sleeve. Politically inexplicable is the aberrant convergence of the LTTE-soft policies by Colombo as also Oslo and New Delhi at present.

Mr. Sinha will be wasting a diplomatic opportunity in Colombo if he were to simply reassure Sri Lanka about India's current determination to stay politically neutral in respect of the ongoing "peace process" in the island-republic. It is morally reprehensible that New Delhi should unthinkingly endorse Colombo's bid to strike a peace deal with a proven terrorist leader. Although Colombo has set its heart on a negotiating process (as distinct from a military solution) to deal with the legitimate grievances of Sri Lanka's minority population of Tamils, the process itself does not provide for ways to bring the LTTE leader to justice for his heinous crimes inside Sri Lanka and also in India. It is appalling in these circumstances that an Indian politician, Vaiko, should have sung the LTTE's praise. By adopting an ambivalent stand on his infraction of India's new anti-terror law, New Delhi has only compounded the contradictions in its Sri Lanka policy. Given the LTTE's terrorist record in both India and Sri Lanka, New Delhi should not only review its political neutrality concerning Colombo's current "peace process" but also take a bold stand, rooted in principles, on the moral and legal implications of any support for the LTTE from any quarter within India itself.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Opinion

Stories in this Section

Goodwill at any cost?

Conflicting political signals

Discrimination at work

The border confrontation

Time for a reality check

Sukh Ram judgment

Nation's last hope

Cartelisation

Birds of same feather