The best of friends

It is eminently appropriate that Indo-Lanka ties have come to be evaluated on the 20th anniversary of the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord which marked a watershed in Sri Lanka's political history.

India's leading publication the Hindustan Times in an article dwelling on the Accord notes that 'Colombo is the probably the only neighbouring country capital with which New Delhi shares least discord".

Such sentiments would have been unthinkable just 17 years ago when Indo-Lanka relations were at their nadir. Harking back to those turbulent days it is hard to believe the sea change that has occurred both in attitude and spirit towards our giant neighbour not to mention bilateral relations replete with a Free Trade Agreement and economic partnerships that have cemented Indo-Lanka ties as never before.

Time was when the country developed a xenophobia towards India and not without reason. LTTE training camps existed in India in the terror organisation's formative years.

The infamous food drop at the height of a military campaign in the North was another factor. Later, tables were turned on the LTTE with the arrival of the IPKF. Just as the LTTE was running out of Oxygen, the then administration urged India to pull out its troops, in the backdrop of an agitational campaign by extremists on both sides that saw a bloodbath around the country.

However, anyone with even a nodding acquaintance with geo-politics know that it was the Sri Lanka's leaning towards the West that provoked India's ire and soured the good relations and foreign policy between the two countries that was promoted and nurtured during the Bandaranaike regimes.

The Hindustan Times article also quotes the late Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar as stating that relations between his country and neighbour India has reached a point of "irreversible excellence".

The thawing of relations could also be assessed by the comments of G. Parthasarathy a key player in the Indo Lanka Accord that 'Sri Lanka has turned out to be our friendliest neighbour'.

Seizing on this fund of goodwill what the Government should strive to do is obtain India's active participation towards working out a solution to the country's ethnic problem.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa of course has shown keenness for engaging India towards this end from his frequent sentiments on the need for India's goodwill and cooperation to resolve this most protracted affair that has brought misery to all communities in Sri Lanka. It is axiomatic that no solution to the problem can succeed without India's blessings.

On the other hand India's help is very much needed to combat LTTE operations on Indian soil where the Tigers still maintain elaborate networks and Sri Lanka has called for joint patrolling of the Palk Strait by both Navies.

In this regard the Government of Sri Lanka should be thankful to India for redoubling its initiatives to dismantle LTTE rings and other measures by the Indian Navy to thwart the outfit's weapons smuggling operations.

This no doubt signifies the sea change undergone by the India in its perspectives vis-a-vis the LTTE supported by statements by all Indian leaders that they would not permit a division of Sri Lanka. The future can thus lead only to an even more fruitful relationship between the two neighbours.