By SEEMA SENGUPTA
India's decision to vote in favor of a United States sponsored UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution censuring the Sri Lankan government for alleged Human Rights aberration during the ethnic conflict has raised several eyebrows. The sudden eagerness on the part of New Delhi to dump the stated policy of abstaining on country specific strictures in international forum is attributed to the Indian government’s coalition exigencies. After all it is a fairly open secret that the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime’s diplomatic maneuver on the Tamil issue has all along been orchestrated by New Delhi despite a standing Sri Lankan foreign policy objective of creating and exploiting a wedge between the administration in New Delhi, dominated mostly by upper caste Brahmins and the Dravidians residing in the southern tip of the sub-continent. Colombo has for long perceived its connection with Southern India as the primary source of a perennial concern to Sri Lanka’s territorial integrity. As gentle persuasion led to nothing but exasperation three years down the line post civil war, the astute Rajapaksa wasted no time in exploring possibilities in the massive victory that the Sri Lankan Armed Forces gained over the dreaded Liberation Tigers for Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Encashing the Sinhala sentiment, he got himself re-elected for a second term and even tinkered with the Constitution to get rid of the bar that prevents him from contesting future presidential polls. As the Indian government continued lending crucial diplomatic support to the ruling dispensation in Colombo, the president seemed disinclined to grant the Tamil minorities any elbow space to function as equal citizens in a country split vertically on racial line. Some insignificant progress based on the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission recommendation thus remain an untenable excuse for any Indian prime minister to allow a free flow of aid and assistance running into billions of dollar.
