Keeping The Tamils In Line: Response To Mr. N.D. Jayaweera
By S. Sivathasan -November 5, 2013
S.Sivathasan
As always, the unconventional and the non-fashionable have been brought forth with the same sparkle of brilliance, elegance and clarity. In response tohis thoughts, I am pleased to write this note to a personage I met 48 years ago as CAS probationer in Jaffna. Nine months later, I worked with him in my first appointment when he was GA Trincomalee. On values and attitudes, I had met my alter ego. I am happy that he remains as trim and articulate now as he was then.
Very candidly Mr. Jayaweera has said in his critique, “Clearly, the 13th Amendment does not do that, (“delegating to the Tamils…power to order their own affairs”) because that was not its purpose and it was not driven by an ideological commitment to sharing power. Rather, it was drafted primarily as a mechanism to keep the Tamils in line and to that end it reinforces control rather than share power”. Nothing can be truer or more exact. The operative word is control, which has been chosen judiciously.
Wresting power from the centre and vesting a due share in the North East was far from India’s scheme of things. Vitalising the North East was none of her concern. Then why did India intervene? The personality of the ‘Iron Lady’, Indira Gandhi needs to be understood. Gone were the times and the harmonious relations of Nehru – SWRD, Nehru – Srimavo and Indira Gandhi – Srimavo. What followed was a tenuous relationship of IG – JR, which lumbered reluctantly along and collapsed at the first rupture, when 1983 provided the occasion and ample justification as well. What IG was unable to accomplish, Rajiv Gandhi executed three years after her demise, more as ‘sustained release’, than with a sense of mission or with verve.
The act itself lacked meaningful direction. India’s supremacy was purported to be established after the expedition. Oil farm at Trincomalee was part appropriated by her. In reciprocity, India’s gift was to insulate the South from the JVP and the North from the LTTE. To JR the prospect and the discomfort of war on two fronts were avoided. It was wished that Sri Lanka was made safe for democracy. India’s action yielded no results for the Tamils as the operation was not oriented to resolving the Tamil issues. They were only befuddled.
