RAM’S VISION FOR A RAJAPAKSA SRI LANKA

N. Ram. The name says it all -- well, almost. Ram, the former editor of The Hindu, is by far the most respected newspaper editor of the South Asian region.

The Hindu became not only the authoritative newspaper of Tamil Nadu, but the entirety of India under his editorship. So, when N. Ram says that the Mahinda Rajapaksa government is the strongest that Sri Lanka has ever had, his statement has the decisive finality of a papal diktat.

But the fact that the Rajapaksa government is the strongest in the history of this democracy, is probably so universally accepted that with or without N. Ram’s nod, this would have been acknowledged by one and all.

What is significant about N. Ram’s recent applause for the Rajapaksa administration, is that it comes tied to some of the best advice that any Indian of his stature could give the Tamil politicians of this country.

Ram tells the Tamil National Alliance, (the party that he quite rightly says, followed the murderous LTTE while it was in existence), that it should now change course and work together with the regime for the betterment of the Tamil population of this country.

All that can be said is -- listen up the Tamil diaspora, and listen up India, (and the stress would be on the latter part of that sentence.) Yes, India should give the strongest possible credence to a considered statement by one of her most illustrious sons.

When N. Ram says “work with the Mahinda Rajapaksa government,’’ he means the Mahinda Rajapaksa government and all that administration plans for the future of the Sinhala majority and the Tamil minority of this country. These plans may not have the most enthusiastic supporters in certain sections of the Tamil community, in the diaspora, or in India, in point in Tamil Nadu.

But, the fact remains that the strong government of Mahinda Rajapaksa has the ability to follow through and deliver on whatever plans that it has for the country, and this includes any arrangement -- be it 13 plus, 13 minus or without 13 altogether.

That should be the essence of N Ram’s message, as this is certainly one person who knows what he is talking about.

It is a pity that such an authoritative commentator, however, is not taken more seriously by the general intellectual and policy-making community in India, as well as the Tamil diaspora and political elements both in Sri Lanka and abroad. Ram has shown that preconceived notions and plain prejudices about the current Sri Lankan government should be left by the doorstep, because the Rajapaksa government has devices that other less stronger governments could not deliver on, in Sri Lanka, in the past.

The interesting sub-text of Mr. Ram’s message is also that the Tamil people who were under the jackboot of the fascist LTTE and the fascist Prabhakaran, should look for new possibilities in the Rajapaksa administration, though the conventional Tamil wisdom may be suggesting otherwise.

He has said that the people of Tamil Nadu are of the view that “there should be a political solution in Sri Lanka,’’ but has also inferred that he is not suggesting any kind of Referendum mooted in some other political quarters in India.

Cynics will look at the Sri Lankan Tamil question the old fashioned way, but the optimists would be emboldened by the vision of a ‘brave new world’ seen by Ram -- if only the opportunities offered by the strong Sri Lankan government are grabbed by all comers.

To come back to the earlier point made about India, it is time that India reposed complete faith in the Rajapaksa administration to deliver on the Tamil question, and that is at bottom what the former Hindu editor is suggesting.

Ram’s statement should form a basis for a fresh perspective from among the Tamil political parties, and the TNA should wipe that political slate clean and come forward for dialogue with the Rajapaksa administration and be part of the Select Committee process, to embark into the brave new world that the Sri Lankan Tamils can be part of, if they repose faith in Mahinda Rajapaksa.