Passage to India

President Mahinda Rajapakse begins a three-day State visit to India today and without being accused of hyperbole we can say that this visit will be of historic significance. This is not merely because this is the President's first overseas visit since assuming office and not even because India is our closest neighbour bound by a thousand spiritual, religious and cultural ties.

We would rather suggest that the real significance of President Rajapakse's passage to India lies in the fact that he more than any other Head of State in recent times has emphasised the pivotal role of India in Sri Lanka's affairs.

Consistently since assuming office he has urged India to play a greater role in Sri Lanka's peace process even suggesting that it should become one of the co-Chairs of the donor group.

This attitude towards India on the part of the new President is no ritual propitiatory gesture to a large neighbour. It is a recognition of India's standing in the region, its moral integrity as a nation and India's stake in peace and stability in the Indian Ocean region. In this sense to President Rajapakse has revealed himself to be a supreme pragmatist, a quality he is fast gaining a reputation for.

It is fashionable on ritual occasions to salute India as our friendly neighbour, the home of Buddhism from where that great healing doctrine was brought to Sri Lanka and the fount of our common civilisation.

But it is no secret that since independence influential sections of the ruling elite have been plagued by what can only be called an Indophobia. Particulary the immediate post-Independence leadership tended to look at India as a Big Brother who had designs on the defenceless fledgling state. In a reflex action they began gravitating into the western orbit and it was only the victory of Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike's MEP Government in 1956 which restored the balance and created the conditions for a healthy relationship between the two countries.

Recent Indo-Sri Lankan developments which have had their spectacular ups and downs, themselves stemming from the unconcealed hostility with which UNP Governments since 1977 have treated India, are too close to the bone to need recollection here but it is a matter for satisfaction that once again Indo-Sri Lanka relations are back on the high road with the advent of the Rajapakse regime.

In his policy statement following the swearing in President Rajapakse used the phrase 'We are Asian people '(Api Asiyawe Minissu) and this is symptomatic of the new Government's closeness to the region in contrast to the contrived and unreal globalisation fashionable among some quarters or the homage to the West equally widespread among some circles of the elite.

The cornerstone of this Asianism is obviously India which is not only an ancient civilisation, the womb so to speak of our own culture and civilisation, but also a fast developing industrial and commercial power from whom Sri Lanka can learn much.

While we do not wish to anticipate the President's discussions in New Delhi with Indian leaders it is safe to assume that he will fully brief them about the present state of the peace process and will seek India's participation in moving the process forward.

India has been naturally wary about overt participation in the process since its unfortunate experience with the Indian Peace Keeping Force but it will be desirable all round if India agrees to exert its considerable moral authority in Sri Lanka's quest for peace. For above all else it is this moral dimension which gives India its unique status among nations of the world where too often politics has been reduced to a grubby game in the dust for political power at any cost.

The President's visit to India will also be important in defining the new foreign policy stances of the new Government.

As we have already observed the President has opened the country's windows to the fresh winds blowing in from Asia and while naturally Sri Lanka will continue to have friendly relations with all countries of the world it is welcome and proper that the new administration should elect to have warmer ties with particular countries of its choice.

In that sense too the President's sojourn in New Delhi can be the happy percurser of closer ties with countries of the region.