My congratulations on your two editorials on Friday and Saturday, to describe them as being brilliant would be an understatement. Yes the Indian government is being pressured nay being held hostage and asked to save the killer of no less a person than Rajiv Gandhi. That is indeed the bottom line. The support of Tamil Nadu’s members of Parliament may be invaluable for the Congress to stay in office but to intervene again in Sri Lanka to ensure that the war is stopped and to let the murderer of Rajiv Gandhi, President Premadasa, Ministers Kadirgamar, Gamini Dissanayake, Lalith Athulathmudali, CV Gooneratne, Generals Algama, Janaka Perera Admiral Clancy Fernando to name but a few off the hook is to make an absolute enemy of India’s most friendly neighbour with whom we have blood ties, for ever. No the people of this country will not suffer interference in what is a domestic insurgency; our effort is to save our country from being dismembered; India no doubt is a hundred times more powerful in every way but it would be a horrendous mistake to seek to stop the ending of this insurgency. Yes India would make an enemy of this country forever.

We for our part should reach out to our Tamil brethren in particular and make them feel that they are as equal citizens as the rest of us and have a right to live as such in dignity and have a stake in deciding on their own destiny and in the destiny of this country as a whole.

Your editorial last Friday refers to a statement by Col Hariharan that during their operation here when hundreds of Indian soldiers were being killed by the LTTE, the LTTE not only had "unprecedented freedom to operate with impunity in Tamil Nadu" but that the IPKF were not assisted by the Tamil Nadu authorities by sharing Intelligence on the LTTE at this crucial time. Obviously Indian soldiers (not from Tamil Nadu of course) paid with their lives because of this.

We cannot be made pawns in a game of Political Chess being played by political parties in Tamil Nadu. They are seeking to hold the Congress government to intervene in a foreign country, which is fighting a separatist insurgency merely because of shared ethnicity. The excuse being held out is the plight of internally displaced persons, who are being held in LTTE areas as hostages to create a situation where civilian casualties would necessitate international intervention. As has been pointed out by India’s own Ambassador to the UN, referring to the situation in Afghanistan, the ultimate responsibility for civilian casualties rests with terrorists. In our case too it is no different. India has to concede that we are seeking to put down a brutal terrorist organisation which has threatened to dismember this country. There is little doubt that any form of ‘victory’ for the LTTE would spur Tamil nationalism in India and that would be a threat to India’s own territorial integrity.

There are many nascent separatist insurgencies in India and the establishment of a separate Tamil State in Sri Lanka would most definitely see a revival of the Tamil Nadu independence movement. If that, most unfortunately does happen, no tears would be shed by Pakistan, Bangladesh or Sri Lanka. India’s nuclear weapons or its strategic relationship with the US, would not save India from progressive dismemberment. The process would no doubt be aided from within by the Islamic fifth column considering the fact that India has over one hundred million Muslim who have in recent months shown what hey are capable of and most definitely from without.

Many have asked me the question "would India intervene militarily"? I doubt that very much but the Indian Navy and Coast guard may look aside if ships arrive with new weapons for the LTTE, they may even make available shoulder fired rocket launchers or Missiles to shoot down our planes and neutralise the advantage we presently have in the air —- though that would be a very transparent act, the world may believe India’s denial for India is certainly more important to the world than our country. We as a sovereign country may have to seek the assistance of a regional power or another emerging super power to patrol our territorial waters (we could also consider giving them rights to our Exclusive Economic Zone. There is no question that this country’s security comes first. We are no doubt mindful of India’s concerns but if she is not mindful of the fact that the preservation of our territorial integrity of paramount importance to us, we would then be compelled to safeguard our national interest even if that means creating a regional Cold War. That would indeed be tragic.

What should we do to prevent India from interfering overtly or covertly which they are more than capable of as we saw in the period leading up to the signing of the Indo-Lanka Agreement. Some of us have, not for months but years, pleaded for amendments to the 13th Amendment to make a reality of the devolution that was intended, but the political will to devolve has been totally absent whoever was in power, whether it was JRJ, or President Premadasa or Kumaratunge. In any event the possibility of obtaining a two third majority to carry through amendments seems remote at the present time. So what should be done seems obvious does it not? Let us implement the 13h Amendment to the furthest possible degree, there are many inconsistencies but let us immediately implement what can be implemented, namely devolve power and give a solemn undertaking that the Central Government will NOT invoke the Concurrent list. We MUST de-centralise the Budget and transfer resources and make a reality of devolution, LET US STOP PLAYING GAMES. Let us start with the Eastern Province and make that the model. Today despite the establishment of Provincial Councils is power not centralised in Colombo? As a friend with whom I discussed this issue pointed out this would require a new mindset, are we capable of changing mindset? This is a huge issue. The President if he accepts this must give real leadership. If he does decentralise the budget and vote funds for the Eastern Province and give the Provincial Council real authority and power to effectively implement programmes initiated by the PC without interference from the centre—the centre could retain Police powers (above the level of an SP) and power relating to land alienation and development, but transfer all else to the PC and make a reality of devolution then the government would have achieved credibility on its commitment to devolve power. The government would then be answering its critics that it is not surviving on empty promises. These empty promises re the proposals from the APRC that have been in the making for almost three years, have become a huge joke; the APRC process has lost all credibility, in any case it seems most unlikely that any constitutional proposals would be able to obtain the two third majority necessary to become law. So one cannot blame those who say that this whole exercise is a hoax.