“The Tamil chief minister is now openly calling for Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka. This should rightly be in Tamil Nadu and India should openly invite Tamils to live there if they are truly unhappy in Sri Lanka and do not wish to live in a multicultural society. After all, the state is already named Tamil Nadu, its official language is Tamil, and it is ruled by Tamils! Only it lacks full autonomy as yet.” – Shenali Waduge
Let us take his recommendations first:
1] Sinha urged Sri Lanka to withdraw its army from the North; the war ended four years ago and Lanka should already have had law and order established; let them not run the north on a daily basis.
Our Response:
Sri Lanka is a sovereign nation and India cannot ask Sri Lanka where to move or remove its forces. We don’t urge India to withdraw its army from Kashmir! More pertinently, Sri Lanka would first urge India to remove all factors that continue to carry the LTTE slogans locally, overseas and in India in order to remove the “risk” factor that these elements will again start fresh insurgencies in the island nation. India may recall how it transported school dropouts, including Prabhakaran, and trained them in India. We can’t allow a similar situation to be repeated.
2] Sinha said Colombo should sincerely implement the recommendations of the LLRC
Our Response:
LLRC is an internal set of recommendations which the Government is not duty bound to implement in toto just because a foreign nation requests Sri Lanka to do so. Moreover, LLRC cannot be implemented if it violates any clauses of the constitution of the country.
3] Sinha said that Sri Lanka should implement the provisions of the 13th Amendment as promised in its discussions.
Our Response:
The 13th amendment to the Constitution along with the Provincial Council system was forced upon Sri Lanka by India and does not have the consent of the People of Sri Lanka. Hence the elected President is mandated to seek approval of the People of Sri Lanka.
The Provincial Council system should be abolished completely given that it provides no relief or services to the people of the provinces, of which the large scale of crimes committed by provincial councilors is proof. A better idea is district level governance where it is easier to devolve day to day administrative needs.
4] Sinha demanded that an impartial inquiry be held into charges of genocide of civilian Tamils by Lankan forces during the Eelam war, by people outside Sri Lanka.
Our Response:
We agree wholeheartedly. The world needs to know the “crimes” and the crimes cannot cover a selected period only because a crime is a crime and the guilty must be exposed. A Presidential Commission of Inquiry is thus recommended. International inquiry members should comprise a representative from China, Russia and Pakistan – nations that have openly shown solidarity to Sri Lanka without succumbing to Western pressure. Nations that Sri Lanka can rely on. And a Presidential CoI should rightfully cover the entire conflict from the very first crime committed as those victims cannot be overlooked in violation of Sri Lanka’s constitution giving “equality” before the law. This inquiry cannot include India in the international observer team as India is a key player in the conflict, having trained LTTE and other school dropouts and turned them into professional killers, giving arms and financial support for the purpose of destabilizing Sri Lanka. These criminal acts are tantamount to India’s role as a state sponsoring terror and must also be officially acknowledged. The world must officially know what India did to its “friend” Sri Lanka.
5] Sinha demanded a clear commitment on the part of the Sri Lanka government to punish the guilt after the inquiry.
Our Response:
This is a tricky issue as India’s guilt is not something Sri Lanka can punish unless the West agrees to take action against India. Instead, the Sri Lankan people will accept an apology by India and acknowledgement of its role in training the LTTE and helping them and other militant groups financially and with weapons.
6] Sinha urged India to not merely vote in UNHRC but take a lead in drafting the language of the resolution in UNHRC
Our Response:
It is India’s prerogative whether it takes a leading role or plays a role behind the scenes as India is normally used to doing. Given India’s past record, we are not surprised at being stabbed in the back. Hence, the language used has little relevance for us as the UN and the UNHRC is just a puppet of the West.
7] Sinha concluded that India must convey in no uncertain terms to the other nations in our neighborhood and the world at large any undue inference with Sri Lanka will not be tolerated.
Our Response:
This looks like a threat to other nations that are engaging Sri Lanka. We should engage with these nations and also build greater ties with the States of India in the likelihood that these States could end up “autonomous”. There are no permanent friends in politics, only permanent interests. Hence, Sri Lanka’s new foreign policy strategy should be to first realign with our natural historical allies and to next align with the geopolitical realities.
Sinha’s party, the BJP, ruled India from 1996 to 2004, taking over from P V Narasimha Rao who ruled from 1991 to 1996. In 1991, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on Indian soil, in Tamil Nadu, by the very organization his mother created to destabilize Sri Lanka, exactly a decade after India trained that very group in India. The Jain Commission found the LTTE guilty of Rajiv’s murder, Prabhakaran and Pottu Amman were incriminated for the crime and the Commission also named a former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister as having links with the LTTE.
Yet justice for Rajiv Gandhi meant that India did nothing against the LTTE, nothing against the Tamil Nadu leader, nothing against Tamil Nadu-LTTE ties. The greater damage was filing action in the Supreme Court to demand the Jain Commission expunge the period 1981-1987 because it revealed India’s role in training LTTE and many other Sri Lankan militant groups in India by Indian army and Indian intelligence. The Indian Government also sought to remove reference to the LTTE for the crime. These actions post-Rajiv’s death indicated that his murder was insignificant for a greater Indian objective. We see that continue as his widow bows down to every demand made by the very State where Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated, which has been planning to break away from India since the early 1930s.
This reinforces a belief that Eelam is a Christian political strategy. Sri Lanka’s separatist agenda started with Christian import Chelvanayakam and not Christian-turned Prabhakaran. The Sri Lankan Hindus have been sidelined by the Church which acts as a self-appointed spokesman for the Tamil people. The LTTE-Diaspora is led by Father Emmanuel which further strengthens this notion.
The BJP [1996 to 2004] was part of the 2002 Cease Fire Agreement managed and supervised by Vajpayee’s Advisor Brajesh Mishra. The Agreement all but ceded territory and power to the LTTE and is regarded by Sri Lanka as one of the most treacherous agreements the country signed. We hold all politicians and public officials inclusive of the present foreign minister accountable for betraying the nation and the armed forces. The CFA was unilaterally withdrawn in January 2008.
So when Sinha says “the tragedy of the Sri Lankan Tamils is one of the greatest tragedies of our times”, we demand to know in what ways he is qualified to claim so. Yes, the Sri Lankan armed forces have been in the North for four years now. What is the genocide that has taken place? How many Tamils have been shot dead since 2009 to the present?
Possibly Sinha has not seen LTTE crimes over 30 years. If he has not seen pictures or videos of the LTTE crimes upon babies, children, pregnant mothers, the old, and scores of other civilians asleep or in their homes, someone from Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry should send him a copy of the last 30 years of LTTE crimes.
Sinha used his allocated time in Parliament to speak of a “young child, eating a biscuit and next found lying on the ground” to come to the conclusion that the Sri Lankan armed forces murdered him [Balachandran, Prabhakaran’s son] when there was not a speck of blood found on the body! Nor is there any evidence that the Sri Lankan army shot him.
The reference to the IPKF is noteworthy as for the first time we are told that Indian military casualties in the IPKF operation stood at 2900 and not 1200. Sinha laments in 2013 that the IPKF soldiers have no memorial in India; why didn’t BJP erect a memorial given that it ruled from 1996 to 2004 and IPKF left Sri Lanka in March 1990?
Perhaps it would be a good idea for the families of the jawans and officers to take legal action against the Indian Government for arming the LTTE that ended up killing the IPKF soldiers because there is evidence to prove that India supplied arms to the LTTE whilst IPKF was in Sri Lanka!
We would like to know what “untold atrocities” were committed by the Sri Lankan armed forces, with instances, dates and names of victims. All we get are preposterous figures that get inflated at every international event. Where are the families of the victims, where did they live? Sri Lanka has every right to feel “triumphalism” – we suffered 30 years of terror for which India is also culpable in training the LTTE. India cannot clean its blood-soaked hands from this fact. Didn’t the Americans celebrate when the US President announced that Osama bin Laden was killed? Osama’s role in 9/11 is yet to be even proven. LTTE crimes lasted 30 years and they have accepted their atrocities.
Sinha claimed that the center piece of India’s policy is “no military solution to a conflict”. Still, India cannot grudge Sri Lanka for adopting a Just War solution after having weathered countless ceasefires, peace negotiations and agreements which failed, but gave VIP treatment to terrorists and allowed them to fly overseas to forge wider associations and purchase weapons. The CoI should reveal all these sins and the names of the people associated with that failure, even if it leads to the exposure of public officials currently holding portfolios.
If the President of Sri Lanka organized a “troika” to keep India informed of all that was happening during Sri Lanka’s Just War, the primary reason was that in 1987 when Prabhakaran was cornered in Vadaramachchi and would have been caught, India not only intervened but threatened to invade Sri Lanka! To save a terrorist India had trained.
The Tamil chief minister is now openly calling for Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka. This should rightly be in Tamil Nadu and India should openly invite Tamils to live there if they are truly unhappy in Sri Lanka and do not wish to live in a multicultural society. After all, the state is already named Tamil Nadu, its official language is Tamil, and it is ruled by Tamils! Only it lacks full autonomy as yet.
A Presidential Commission of Inquiry with participation of China, Russia and Pakistan investigating all crimes committed since the inception of terror in Sri Lanka will enable real reconciliation in Sri Lanka. India’s role in Sri Lanka’s terrorism cannot be suppressed or kept hidden any longer. “Facts of history are facts of history” and cannot be denied – we agree with these words of Yashwant Sinha. – Vijayvaani, 8 April 2013
» Shenali Waduge is a keen observer of contemporary affairs and a Sri Lanka national.
Speech by Yashwant Sinha to the members of the Lok Sabha
See also
Filed under: india, sri lanka | Tagged: AIADMK, catholic bishops' conference of india, christian terrorism, church support for LTTE, civil war, communalism, DMK, dravidian, ethics, geopolitics, government of tamil nadu, history, india, indian army, indian politicians, indian politics, jaffna, LTTE, nation-state, nationalism, politics, protestant church, psychological warfare, religion, roman catholic church, sessionism, sri lanka, sri lankan tamils, tamil eelam, tamil nadu, tamil tigers, tamils, UPA-2, war |
BHARATA BHARATI 
Yes, appears to be. See this article on Acta Indica at http://apostlethomasindia.wordpress.com/about-us/who-controls-the-indian-media-gautam-sen/. There are video with this post.
Sushma Swaraj allowed FDI into the Indian media when she was a minister in the last BJP government. Certainly this is one of the more stupid–or should I say criminal–actions of the BJP when in power.
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http://www.onlanka.com/news/who-really-owns-indian-media.html
iS THIS TRUE ? WHO OWNS THE INDIAN MEDIA BY SHENAL WADUGE
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First plz understand one thing, srilankan is not an issue which happening between LTTE & Srilankan government…
The actual issue is only between Tamil hindus & srilankan govt. Ltte only came in the scene after 1980s, but the conflict between tamil hindu & sri govt starts soon after its freedom…
I too accept that LTTE must be crushed, because its too killed innocent Tamils & Tamil leaders… I only see ltte as a 2nd srilankan govt which targets tamils for their selfish power gaining plan…
UNO also clearly states these crimes which committed by ltte.
Not only ltte, lanka govt also does the same thing to tamils since its freedom.
Govt openly destroyed many ancient hindu temples. It trying to erradicate the tamil hindu roots from srilanka.
srilankan issue is more similar to pak & b’desh issues who are also trying to uproot hindus from those lands.
so dont confusee the srilankan issue with ltte or to the selfish tamil politicians..
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Now, You don’t want to listen to India but when you are in trouble, you want India’s help. Why Srilanka forced Rajiv Gandhi to send Indian army to kill the ‘Tamils’. Why didn’t Srilanka asked Chinese army and Pakistan army to help them in the war. Why you want India’s help and black-mail India using China card. India helped you earlier in the war against Tamils & hence they have all the rights to ask Srilanka to protect its innocent Tamil citizens & not to send SL military men everyday to North SL & terrify the local ppl living there.
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Recruited by RAW, trained by Army: LTTE – V.K. Shashikumar, CNN-IBN – July 07, 2006
New Delhi: The relationship between India and the Sri Lankan rebel army – the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) – has always been shrouded in secrecy.
On May 21, 1991 Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a suicide bomber from LTTE’s Black Tiger suicide unit to avenge the Indian Peace Keeping Force’s intervention in Sri Lanka.
LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran is still wanted in India for the assassination.
However, CNN-IBN Special Investigation Team reveals that the Tamil Tigers, including Prabhakaran, were trained by the Indian Army.
A rare photograph, available with CNN-IBN shows LTTE guerillas training at Kalathur in Tamil Nadu in 1984-85.
Senior LTTE leaders told have also CNN-IBN that they were recruited by Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) – India’s external intelligence wing – and trained by the Indian Army.
“In 1984, I was in Uttar Pradesh. They were training many Tamil groups there. I went in for training with many others. They gave us military training,” the head of Tamil Eelam Judicial Services, E Pararajasingham, says.
“My days in Madras are unforgettable. We had many friends at diplomatic, political and bureaucratic level. We had very good relationship at various levels and I wish we can get back to those days,” chief of Tamil Eelam Police B Nadesan says.
“We used to friends’ houses. India is a multi-cultural country and we used to go to our friends’ houses who were in Andhra and Delhi. I would move with them,” Nadesan adds.
A book written by LTTE ideologue, Anton Balasingham, available with with CNN-IBN, describes the entire chain of events.
In October 1983, Prabhakaran arrived in India and stayed at a secret location in Pondicherry.
The book says that RAW offered to train 200 LTTE cadres in Dehradun.
Tamizh Kavi, a well known voice on LTTE’s radio station, is also candid about the rebel army’s Indian connection.
“Indian Army gave us training when Indira Gandhi was the prime minister. She and M.G. Ramachandran extended full support to us and helped our organisation’s growth,” Kavi says.
The Indian Peace Keeping Force was initially welcomed by Tamils in Sri Lanka, but years of alleged atrocities later, it’s only the memories of brutality that remain.
“When IPKF landed in our homeland we were young, less than 10 years. But even now we can feel the pain and fear of the Indian army’s brutalities. It’s a nightmare that won’t go away. Even now we feel that we have an umbilical link with India,” a Sri Lankan Tamil, Aruna, says.
“You know the IPKF was sometimes worse than the Sri Lankan army. People suffered a lot. First they did not know the language, secondly they do not understand these people. I talked to some Majors and some higher ranked officers in Vanni and Jaffna and they didn’t understand why they are in a war here,” chairman of North East Secretariat of Human Rights, Tamil Eelam, Father Karunaratnam says.
A lady who fled Jaffna to escape the IPKF also has some terrible memories.
“I have been a witness to a brutal rape of a girl called Rani. We were helpless and could not protect her and after the IPKF people left, we rushed her to nearby hospital. We are completely shaken up this atrocity,” she says.
Pastor Emmanuel, a close associate of Prabhakaran, ran the Jaffna seminary during the IPKF intervention and recalls how his students were marched off to an IPKF camp.
“I could see that they had striped the boys naked and had pumped water on them and electrocuted them. This incidence shook and shattered the trust of the Tamil community towards India,” former rector of Jaffna seminary Pastor S.J. Emmanuel says.
The pastor feels it was these atrocities that led to Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination.
“There were soldiers from north India who did not know the language, did not appreciate the fact that we had a common civilisation with India. They did not know why and for what they were fighting for, they had no idea of history. Ignorance was at the root of India’s misadventure in Sri Lanka. And along with the people we disliked them. I do not justify the killing of Rajiv Gandhi, but you can see how it started building up,” Emmanuel adds.
For many Sri Lankan Tamils, India’s policies at the time have remained a mystery.
“That’s why when I met Dixit, Ram and Narayanan, who was then the Indian intelligence chief, at a conference in Switzerland, along with the Sri Lankan team and Tamils, I told them openly of what had happened. The Indian form of assistance which started as protection and then turned against us was completely incomprehensible. India is after all has been a mother to us always. Sri Lankan Sinhalese have a recent relationship with India. Whether you kick us or want us to go away, India will always be Mother India. It’s in our blood,” Emmanuel adds.
As the situation in Sri Lanka takes a turn for the worse yet again, it is yet to be seen if lessons have been learnt from the shared bloody past.
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