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Within ten days of stick-handling India’s first formal diplomatic talks with Pakistan since the 2008 Mumbai attacks, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao is on a three-day visit to Sri Lanka, reportedly on the invitation of the Sri Lankan government. According to Indian media reports, she will "push for a political settlement of the vexed ethnic issue between the Sinhalese and Tamils". Observers have also noted that Rao’s visit comes in the backdrop of External Affairs Minister, S.M. Krishna, noting in the Rajya Sabha that India had stressed to the Sri Lankan government ``the necessity" of reaching a political settlement acceptable to all the communities including the Tamils.
After the high-profile and high-stakes diplomatic encounter with Pakistan, Nirupama Rao may be treating her Sri Lankan visit as a well earned sojourn. No one will begrudge her sense of entitlement in that regard. Colombo and Sri Lanka have been Ms Rao’s diplomatic home away from home beginning from the 1980s. She was India’s High Commissioner for India in Colombo during the eventful years of 2004-2006, when governments changed and the pretence of a peace process mindlessly morphed into a full-blooded war.
The war is over but the search for a political settlement continues. This was emphasized by Mr. Krishna in his reply to a written question in the Indian Upper House: "The government (of India) is of the view that the conclusion of the military operations in Sri Lanka provides an opportunity to make a new beginning and pursue a lasting political settlement in Sri Lanka." He went on to add that "the necessity of reaching a political settlement has been stressed to the Sri Lankan government."
Ms. Rao will need to do more than stressing in Colombo. Political critics like this writer have not spared anything in taking the Sri Lankan government to task for its unwillingness to shift from war-mode to political-mode. There might be more than unwillingness involved here, for even if the government were to suddenly become willing to make that transition, it may not quite know what to do next. The present Sri Lankan government needs all the help to get out of a situation that would be daunting even to a very willing government. No one else is better located to offer that help than New Delhi.
To say this is not to grovel for India’s help, but to emphasize the objective circumstances in which the two countries find themselves in. Sri Lanka cannot do anything politically constructive on its own, and India cannot afford to let Sri Lanka slip into permanent atrophy. One would only hope that Ms. Rao’s visit will mark the beginning of a new engagement between the countries that is more consistent and purposive than it has been in the recent past.
No need to be modest
"Our aims were modest" Indian Foreign Secretary Rao said after concluding her discussions with the Pakistan Foreign Secretary. In Colombo, her aims need not be modest. She knows Colombo’s politics well, and Sri Lankan politicians will be taking their numbers in the line-up for an audience with her. Outside the government retinue, Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe will lead the pack. What would he do if he were to do politics without seeing diplomats? There would of course be the Tamil politicians and candidates who are all gearing up for the April vote. The closer they are seen with Ms. Rao, the better will be their vote prospects – or so they will figure.
According to Indian reports, Ms Rao is expected to urge for the early resettlement of the Tamils displaced in the 26-year-long war between government troops and the Tigers which ended in May, 2009. I would urge that the question of resettlement is treated as more than a matter of numbers. Resettlement should be the logical starting point for institutional rebuilding in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. In the Eastern Province, there is ‘a’ Provincial Council, but none in the Northern Province. The government should be advised to engage, in the resettlement programs, the parliamentary representatives whom the people in the two provinces will elect in April.
It would be counterproductive and undemocratic for the government to by-pass them and implement resettlement programs through government agencies. Already, the agencies that are tasked with resettlement have little or no Tamil presence, and they are still controlled by military officials and not civilian personnel. Changing this status quo, and making resettlement Tamil-participatory at all levels, requires no special effort or constitutional changes: only presidential willingness and administrative follow-through. The worst of all actions will be to prematurely precipitate a Provincial Council election in the North before the people are resettled.
There is another matter, a growing social problem in Jaffna, which the Indian visitor should admonish Colombo officials about. The end of the war has turned Jaffna into an object of curiosity. Large numbers of people from the south have been visiting Jaffna, partly to visit temples but mostly to see what Jaffna looks like post-LTTE. In the absence of proper facilities to accommodate them, the southern tourists are turning the town’s few public spaces into makeshift tourist camps. Their curious eyes apparently do not spare even the privacy of homes. Young girls riding bikes are helpless targets of vulgar whistling and eve-teasing by male tourists. There could be a backlash if these indiscretions go unchecked, and people will get hurt. Jaffna has gone through enough. It can at least be spared new insults while it struggles to recover from old injuries.
