EDITORIAL : THE DAILY MIRROR, SRILANKA

No blind backing


India’s National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon during his visit to Colombo has made it crystal clear that there wouldn’t be blind backing by India at Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Sri Lanka’s human rights record at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in November.

 The long and short of it is that until the Sri Lankan top brass get their act together and show some substantial progress in their reconciliation efforts, India will not sit on the same bench with Sri Lanka. Perhaps, New Delhi has its own reasons to show its unquestioning allegiance to USA in such manner.

The resolution was passed, but the rest is not history.



With Menon’s warning comes the explanation as to why Sri Lanka was deprived of the big brother’s support in the UNHRC sessions in March this year. Sadly, his vehement denying that Tamil Nadu politicians did not play a role in the so-called betrayal was not convincing enough.  Perhaps, he should have explained the stance of New Delhi on Karunanidhi’s wild desire to establish a Tamil Eelam in the North and East.  

True enough, India carries the guilt of breeding and nurturing the Tigers, who dragged the island nation to a war, which was both unnecessary and hated by all other than the separatists. When it comes to war, to the West it was only news on television, whereas India was a victim of it. The betrayal, though however much justifiable, is still hard to gulp down.

At least this time, there comes the warning before the bang that the Sri Lankan top brass can either fast forward the reconciliation process or prepare for the worst in November. Whatever the path the government chooses to take to Geneva there lies a hard trek given the degree of enthusiasm it exhibits in remedying the concerns of the war-ravaged citizenry of the North.

When it comes to taking initiatives, the government has always been the epitome of enthusiasm. Yet, the high heads who crowd such ceremonies or symposiums will not think that its their responsibility to monitor the continuity of such efforts. The committee reports are made to sleep on files, and the committees themselves become powerless once their suggestions end up on the high-heads’ tables.

After all, New Delhi alone is not responsible for our downfall. Both India and Sri Lanka have on different occasions, broken their pledges in the history of their bi-lateral relations.  The contest is not for choosing the lesser reliable of the two. It is about India’s justness and Sri Lanka’s resilience.