Can The Establishment Win Over Modi

By R.M.B Senanayake -May 21, 2014

R.M.B. Senanayake

Deception and Intrigue have been traditional instruments of foreign policy in the Kautilya tradition which have been used by our rulers in the past. It was successfully used to oust the Portuguese. It was also used against the Dutch to dampen their enthusiasm for conquest. It was used less successfully against the British who  after their early experiences with the Sinhala Establishment did not trust anybody. In the 1980s, President J.R Jayewardene played on the inherent prejudices of the Nehru family, the Delhi bureaucratic establishment committed to the unity of India and the Brahmin lobby in the South, to dampen India’s championship of the Tamils. The LTTE leader Prabakaran was not enamoured of the sentiments of the Nehru family and looked with disfavor upon their efforts to browbeat them.  So he did not trust the Indian ruling Brahmin regime. President Premadasa continued the deceptive policies, paying lip service to the need to remedy Tamil grievances while deceptively undermining the devolution of power under the 13h Amendment. President CBK was perhaps less deceptive but she too was not really committed to resolving the Tamil grievances except where she could also enhance her own self interest.               Read More