The Hindu : When friends responded to a distress call

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 21, 2003

International

International

When friends responded to a distress call

By V.S. Sambandan

Photo: Sriyantha Walpola

The Sri Lankan Governor of the Southern Province, Kingsley Wickremeratne, receiving INS-Shardha at the Galle Habour on Tuesday.

GALLE May 20. "Good morning, sir, we are here as friends", these words by Shyam Kumar, the Commanding Officer of the INS Shardha, over a mobile telephone to a Sri Lankan Minister, summed up a rare instance of an overseas flood relief operation by the Indian Navy, and the first by the Indian-build Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV), which docked into this historic southern port this morning.

Havoc caused by floods in at least three rivers in southern Sri Lanka, prompted the island's authorities to call for Indian support and as the OPV closest to the island, INS Shardha, was pressed into service.

The surveillance vessel, which escorted U.S. military assets across the Malacca Straits in the aftermath of September 11, now has a different call of duty — as a crucial and visible component of India's support for Sri Lanka's latest natural disaster.

According to Government estimates at least 230 persons have been killed and 1.77 lakhs displaced in the floods caused by overflowing rivers in interior south-central Sri Lanka.

While the destruction to public property is not yet estimated, tens of thousands have been affected by food and drug shortage.

At 7.00 p.m. on the Sunday evening of May 18, when most of its crew and officers were heading home after a stint at sea, the Shardha was commanded into action.

Three hours later, with medical supplies, divers, doctors and tonnes of ration, it set sail for Galle, displaying its "rapid deployment and quick reaction ability", Cdr. Kumar said.

The Governor of the Southern Province, Kingsley Wickremeratne, who welcomed the relief ship, was appreciative of the immediate Indian response. "We are on standby for any assistance", the ship's officers said.

Initial reports had it that another OPV, INS Sujata, will be on relief duty, but as it was deployed elsewhere, the INS Shardha was put into action.

The OPV is not alone in performing a different call of duty. Its Captain, Cdr. Kumar, is an old Sri Lanka hand as well. As a naval aviator, he was deployed in northern and eastern Sri Lanka as part of the Indian Peacekeeping Force (IPKF) and was involved in `Operation Pawan'. However, the call of duty this time is humanitarian in nature.

With over 180 crew and 20 officers, the OPV will be docked in

Galle till required by the Sri Lankan authorities.

In addition to the INS Shardha, an IL-76 aircraft landed at the Katunayake airport today carrying a load of relief supplies.

For bilateral relations, marked by deep suspicion and military deployment in the past, the latest Sri Lankan call and the Indian response could well

mark the start of a more substantial phase.

Since the 1990s, bilateral ties, directed previously by personal political equations, has steadily given way to a more tangible footing.

However, in these moments of redefining bilateral ties, the emotional charges of the past — over the aerial food dropping, deployment of soldiers, berthing of warships outside

Colombo — are pointers to the sensitivities in this island-nation to moves by "Big Brother" India.

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