India happy over President’s victory

Subhadeep Bhattacharjee

The results of the Sri Lankan Presidential polls will come as a good news to India. The Government seems to be quietly happy over the victory of incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

New Delhi believes Rajapaksa understands India’s worries and concerns and will lead to political stability in the island nation, which still divided on ethnic lines.

Besides this, the Indian Government is also happy over the fact that it doesn’t need to deal with a new occupant in the Presidential Palace after showing signs of favouritism over Rajapaksa.

India and Sri Lanka have shared close political ties since independence but over the past two decades the relationship between the two nations was strained after India’s military blunder with the IPKF (Indian Peace Keeping Force) and subsequent assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by the LTTE in 1991.

These incidents made sure that India always made a measured approach in its foreign policy when it came to Sri Lanka.

Certain political organizations regularly voicing the propaganda of the LTTE did not help the cause between the two countries either.

India which had burnt its fingers with the IPKF in the 1980s did not want to militarily get involved with the Lankan issue.

From India’s perspective Rajapaksa’s win was very important not only for the betterment of relationship between the two countries but also for India’s unchallenged influence over the Indian Ocean region.

New Delhi has now approached Colombo for the settlement of the Tamil displaced who have been torn apart by three decades of the civil war where they suffered both at the hands of the terrorists and the Government.

The Indian Government has expressed its wish to open a Consulate in Jaffna in Northern Sri Lanka once a stronghold of the LTTE.

Sri Lanka in return will open a mission in Kolkata. Hope these ties go a long way for paving warm relationship between the two countries.

One India website