As could have been predicted, the DMK-led agitation in Tamil Nadu for Indian central government intervention to end Sri Lanka’s military operations in the North and for alleviating hardships seen as being borne by the Northern populace in general, has triggered concern among some in Southern Sri Lanka. The principal fear among the latter sections seems to be that the Sri Lankan government would be prevailed upon by the Indian centre to shelve the military operations and that the Lankan government would tamely oblige the Indian authorities.

These knee-jerk reactions by sections in Southern Sri Lanka are understandable to a degree, given the infamous stormy episodes in Indo-Lanka relations in the mid and late eighties, but as matters stand, there are no indications from the Indian centre that it intends queering the pitch in bilateral relations by bringing pressure on Sri Lanka to end military operations. Nor has the Indian centre, as of now, betrayed any signs of conducting itself in an overbearing fashion on other issues touching on Indo-Lanka relations. Accordingly, pressing panic buttons on an impending, heavy-handed Indian intervention would be one of the worst things that could happen, right now, in Indo-Lanka ties.

Nevertheless, the Lankan government has, to date, conducted itself in this context, with a great deal of rationality. Issues have been taken-up at a diplomatic level with the Lankan government by the Indian centre and as far as we could gather, these exchanges have been cordial and characterized with a considerable degree of diplomatic finesse. Right now, therefore, we could state with conviction that there is no cause for alarm.

This does not mean that Sri Lanka should relate to India simple-mindedly. There is no disputing that India is the foremost power in this part of the world and would by virtue of this fact conduct itself in the fashion of a major political, military and economic player in the world system. Blinding ourselves to this reality could prove very costly. But it is highly unlikely that India would conduct itself in the manner of an overbearing ‘Big Brother’ in its relations with its neighbours over issues which could be ironed-out diplomatically or by ‘peaceful means’. We need to concede that the current issues facing India and Sri Lanka could be resolved diplomatically and, therefore, neither party need ‘spoil for a fight’.

Certainly, the Lankan government is not showing signs of even readying for a slanging match with its big neighbour. However, the same could not be said of some volatile sections in Southern Sri Lanka who wax lyrical about Sri Lanka’s fraternal closeness to India at the drop of a hat and lambaste her for what they see as her overbearing posture in relating to her smaller neighbours, in the same breath.

It is beyond the scope of this comment to deal with this chronic ambivalence in the way India is viewed by some of our ‘compatriots’, but suffice it to know that it’s the good neighbourliness principle that ushers regional peace and stability. All in all, it needs to be pointed out that India’s neighbours should respect the sensitivities and concerns of India, inasmuch as India must act out of deference to the vital concerns of her neighbours.

‘The troubles’ in the Indo-Lanka equation in the mid and latter half of the eighties were a result of both India and Sri Lanka cavalierly disregarding the above principles and it is highly unlikely that India would have swept these lessons from the past under the carpet, so to speak.

One of the best pieces of evidence that India has ‘learnt the lessons of history’ took the form recently in Colombo of an interactive session between a high-powered experts’ panel on Indo-Lanka relations from India and the local and foreign media. Elsewhere in this newspaper, we report the proceedings of this session which was organized by the Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process. The Indian experts were not prominent representatives of the Indian government but reflected a vital cross-section of informed and influential Indian opinion whose views are likely to impact positively and closely on the decision-making process in India at the highest political levels. Accordingly, the experts could be said to have given us a ‘feel’ of how issues relating to Sri Lanka are viewed by influential sections in India.

As a perusal of our report would reveal, India is not for dealing ‘obtrusively’ with Sri Lanka. Nor would she be caving in to pressure from sections in Tamil Nadu to intervene in Lankan affairs and bring pressure to end the military operations in the North. In fact, the point was made emphatically by one of the panelists that India is for ‘tackling terror head-on’. The point was also made that a ‘broad consensus’ exists in India on not caving in to DMK demands and those of others of the same ilk.

Therefore, very many of the fears which have taken root in some sections of Southern Sri Lanka, in relation to India, apparently, have no basis. One of the problems bedeviling the psyche of India- bashers in this country is that they cannot differentiate between Indian opinion as such and that of the fire-breathing communalists of Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu is not India and as one of the panelists reminded us, the DMK is one of the smallest parties in India’s ruling coalition. Accordingly, the influence wielded by parties, such as the DMK, may not be as vast as imagined in some quarters in Sri Lanka. These Lankan sections, perhaps, cannot even visualize the geographical vastness of India. India’s geographical proportions are so great that some denizens of even Northern India may in all probability not be aware of what the Southern states of India are like. So, vast and variegated is India.

Therefore, there is much more than meets the eye in these questions in Indo-Lanka relations. We believe that the efforts made by some of Sri Lanka’s state agencies to increase interaction between opinion-making groups in India and Sri Lanka, are steps in the correct direction. Obviously, mutual understanding is a crying need.