On keeping things in the neighbourhood in South Asia
Nirupama Rao, India’s soon-to-retire Foreign Secretary, when asked
about the Channel 4 video purporting to comment on the last days of the
LTTE’s military, is reported to have said that Sri Lanka should look at
the video carefully. Well, that’s already been done. Channel 4’s
mal-intent, unprofessionalism and scandalous lack of integrity have been
adequately exposed. The good lady probably knows this.
On the other hand, she adds a comment: ‘As per the video, there were
human right violations during the last few days of the war they were
fighting. It cannot be justified any way. But it was a war zone. It
should also be taken into consideration that there were tragedies in Sri
Lanka.’
Long-standing grievances
Rao doesn’t mention (dare we say ‘she doesn’t dare mention’?) that
the only established violation so far are those perpetrated by the LTTE
and include hostage taking, shooting dead fleeing civilians and sending
children with bombs trapped to their persons to the centres established
to receive Tamils entering the government-controlled areas and blowing
them up to deter would-be escapees. Rao doesn’t mention either that
India has a long and continuing ‘tradition’ of violating human rights,
for example in Kashmir. Someone needs to tell her, ‘it cannot be
justified in any way’.
Rajiv Gandhi |
Nirupama Rao |
That’s ok. ‘Par for the course’ from an Indian diplomat, I would say,
even one on her way out. What interested me more was an observation or
perhaps a wish that things in the neighbourhood should be kept in the
neighbourhood: ‘We must take care of it and have to avoid jumping into
conclusions on any third party’s involvement’.
The logic can be extended. Sri Lanka can keep things within Sri
Lanka. Tamils and Sinhalese can sort their problems among themselves.
India can negotiate and resolve long-standing grievances of ethnic,
religious and linguistic minorities with the aggrieved. Sri Lanka leaves
Pakistan alone, Pakistan doesn’t bother Bangladesh, India stops messing
with Nepal and Nepal will not interfere with India.
The point is, India played ‘Third Party’ in Sri Lanka, jumping to
conclusions and playing a major role in turning a pussy cat into a
people-eating Tiger who not only consumed her Prime Minister (Rajiv
Gandhi) but slaughtered thousands upon thousands of Sri Lankans, in
particular Tamils, leading to the inevitable denouement we saw on May
19, 2009.
Still, this neighbourhood watch proposal deserves exploration. We can
be good neighbours with India and indeed the whole region of South Asia
can be more fraternal than it has.
Mutual suspicions
Why should we open ourselves to ‘third party involvement’ in our
affairs and in particular the terrorist and terrorizing West led by the
USA and UK? They’ve not done us any favours and even as we speak are
killing innocent civilians in Afghanistan not so much to combat
terrorism as to maintain a presence in the region to oversee resource
extraction of the US $ one-three trillion worth of unexplored mineral
wealth across the Hindu Kush, in particular uranium, lithium, copper and
iron ore. And that’s a treasure trove that India is keenly aware of and
has already moved in to paw with greedy hands.
There’s a need for South Asian countries to cooperate. It is the
mutual suspicions we have about one another that have paved the way for
rogue nations like the USA and Britain to massacre our brethren in the
name of protecting them. Much of these suspicions are not without
foundation.
India did give refuge to, arm, train and fund separatist LTTE
terrorists in order to destabilize Sri Lanka. India continues to renege
on UN Resolutions and the Terms of Partition with respect to Kashmir.
Pakistan is accused by India or funding and training the insurgency
in that troubled region. There are realities.
So when Rao says ‘let’s be good neighbours’ or ‘let’s sort out things
among ourselves’ one wonders if she means ‘let India be the ultimate
arbiter; let the UN and USA go fly a kite!’ She ought to have spelled it
out without leaving room for conjecture. In the absence of elaboration,
one has to revert to history and that doesn’t paint a happy picture of
regional solidarity. Indeed it conjured the image of a regional thug.
Fraternal entities
It is not easy for the powerful to show humility or even to
acknowledge that all is not well at home. India has her own problems.
Political and economic both. India is not a Sadhu state and Rao hardly a
diplomatic Mother Theresa.
South Asia is a region of squabbles and squabbling nations. Petty
animosities and meaningless one-upmanship efforts have opened the door
to outsiders. We are so busy fighting one another or being wary of one
another that we don’t have the eyes nor the energy to stop the robber
barons.
No one wants to belittle India, but we can be a decent neighbourhood
only if all households have equal say, treat one another as partners and
fraternal entities.
There cannot be big brothers in a neighbourhood watch programmes.
There can’t be ‘godfathers’ here. South Asia cannot be a mafia made of a
mafia boss and a bunch of minions dependent on him for security and
tidbits. I am sure Nirupama Rao knows all this.
We are ready to take her opinion at face value and work towards
working out its full potential. Let’s hope Delhi is ready too.
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