Indo-Lanka relations in a post war context:

New avenues for economic growth

Speech made by Indian Express Editor-In-Chief Shekhar Gupta at the inauguration ceremony of the courses in international relations held at the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies (BCIS) on September 18, 2010

Journalists quite often have stories from the past. Stories of their future are often made by other people, which are recorded. Stories of the past are often remembered. Many eventful things happened on my first visit to Sri Lanka in 1985, which was not the case during subsequent visits, which have been at least 20.

The most important event that took place on my maiden visit was meeting Lakshman Jayakody, the first Sri Lankan politician that I came to know. The fact that I came to know of his death at this point is also a poor reflection of how well informed we are about Sri Lanka. It must be destiny that brought me here to this function as Jayakody was closely associated with BCIS and was also the first Sri Lankan politician that I became familiar with. I was prompted to meet him by an Indian businessman on the plane who told me that it was important to know the situation in Sri Lanka from the perspective of the Opposition, and that is how my acquaintance with Lakshman Jayakody began.

I remember him clad in something akin to a Veshti, and seated on a big chair in a very informal manner, and we spent the day drinking a lot of tea and eating an equally enormous amount of papaya. Jayakody was never short of a good line, because journalists are quite often filled with two ideas that may need a bit of adhesive which is generally a good quote, which he was never lacking.

Divine element

Many subsequent visits afforded me the privilege of meeting him and benefiting from his hospitality. It must be some divine element to be in Sri Lanka on a day when I am informed of the passing away of the first Sri Lankan public figure I came to be acquainted with when I was only a junior in the field with no access to Presidents and Ministers. Soon after though I made many acquaintances in Sri Lankan politics, who are also unfortunately no more and many of them including Lalith Athulathmudali, Gamini Dissanyake, Vijaya Kumaratunge, and my good friend Neelan Thiruchelvam, whose house I considered my own, are no longer alive. I have often come to Colombo as a reporter and end up at Neelan’s house in the evening for a meal.

I remember the day we were to meet for breakfast at 10 in the morning at Hotel Renuka along Galle Road, and being a very punctual person Neelan was unusually late that day. Subsequently I was told that it was while heading for our breakfast meeting that a suicide bomber had thrown himself at Neelan’s car killing him.

Controversial circumstances

The day Neelan died I wrote an article in which I stated that if I were to look back on my first Sri Lankan notebook, which I had filled around Chennai in 1983, when the famous stories about Sri Lankan Tamil separatists running training camps in India were circulating, of the 25 names in that notebook, with the demise of Neelan, nearly 20 or 21 had already died, and subsequently the remaining four also died. I remember great Tamil MPs like Thomas, and Yogeswaran, whose homes I had visited in Batticaloa, were eventually eliminated.

Many memories came back as I was driven from the hotel. My first visit to Sri Lanka in 1985 was on more than controversial circumstances, as the expose on LTTE training camps on Indian soil in the India Today magazine had caused quite a furor. S Haider, a distinguished Foreign Service officer, who subsequently became Foreign Secretary, was the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry at that time and he was furious with me. He accused me of hurting India’s cause. I in return inquired how exposing militancy could serve India’s cause. Although I was quite new to New Delhi at that point, I had exposed events in other parts of India including the insurgency in the North-East and hence intuitively knew that rebellions like these do not help anybody at the end, as they turn out to be monsters and have to be slain with a balance of military might and democracy, an important combination, because defeating a violent insurgency cannot be done with either of these in isolation. Mrs Gandhi herself was upset following my expose. In fact at a press conference when a reporter from India Today had asked her a question her rejoinder had been that she does not answer questions posed by reporters working for anti-national magazines.

People advised me not to visit Sri Lanka as I was controversial at that time; they advised me that given my reputation if I were to write something at that point it would be misconstrued, and they advised in good faith to at least avoid travelling to Tamil areas. But reporters are not designed to be docile; they are by nature danger junkies and the most genetically unlawful people in the world. I was trained to be a sports journalist for India Today during India’s emergency, because political journalists at that time in India were either sitting in their offices doing nothing or in jail. So I told my editor that since the Indian cricket team was touring Sri Lanka and the Sri Lankan cricket team was getting better at the game, I should cover the cricket series. Hence my first visit to Sri Lanka was intended to cover the series of cricket matches between India and Sri Lanka.

Remarkable personalities

As I came I got to know Jayakody and subsequently the government of Sri Lanka got wind of my arrival, and knowing my peculiar history concerning the country, arranged a meeting with Minister Lalith Athulathmudali that started a long friendship that endured till he lasted. He was one of the most remarkable personalities that I had come across in my journalistic career and wish I could have spent more time with him, being inspired by him and learning from him. He deduced that I was in Sri Lanka not to just write about cricket. I admitted that I was there for something more than cricket.

He told me to feel free in Sri Lanka, and extended his help if I needed and to call him if I were in trouble, but most importantly advised me to steer clear of trouble. I went to see the cricket match and that was the first Test match that India lost and Sri Lanka won against India in 1985 in Colombo. It caused a great deal of surprise and consternation in India as it was led by Kapil Dev and included great players like Sunil Gavaskar.

There was a great deal of celebration in Colombo. The next Test match was to be in Kandy, and it was during the same time that the local press was reporting about a great deal of trouble going on in Trincomalee; some of the fighting that was going on was around a resort area called Nilavali. I wanted to investigate the situation, but did not want anybody to know about my impending trip. I even met Sunil Gavaskar and told him that I will see him at the next match.

I met Lalith for the second time on this visit and he took me to his second home, which was like a farmhouse and do recall his penchant for cognac and obviously he drank more than me. He casually asked me what I was planning to do the next day and I told him that I was heading to Kandy to watch more cricket matches. Lalith lightheartedly commented whether I was still interested in more matches having already lost one match and I replied in the affirmative. True enough the next day I boarded a train to Trincomalee where there was a great deal of news making events brewing.

Foreign spies

Along with two British journalists I walked in an area where there was a lot of disorder and rioting and came upon a Hindu Temple on fire. The three of us stood taking photographs when the Police and the Army came along and captured us. They accused us of being foreign spies trying to create trouble and threatened to shoot us. We were locked up in a Police station and knew we were in trouble. I begged and pleaded and finally got to meet the OIC of the Police station.

To be continued