#dnaEdit: Healing touch politics in Sri Lanka

The Tamil-majority Hindu northern part of Sri Lanka is a distant place from the Sinhala-majority Buddhist south. It was not surprising then that the inauguration of the Duraiappah Stadium in Jaffna, renovated by India at a cost Rs 7 crore, jointly by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena was not the lead news in the Sri Lankan media. Most of the reports carried in the island media are from Indian newspapers and news agencies. The bigger news was European Union lifting the ban on the export of Sri Lankan fish exports. 

The plan for the renovation of the stadium goes back to 2009 and it was initiated by Basil Rajapakse, advisor to then President Mahinda Rajapakse. Sirisena has however been trying to take the peace and reconciliation process forward and the next Sri Lankan national games are to be held in the renovated stadium. 

India has been extending financial assistance to projects connected with the rehabilitation of Jaffna Tamils, and it appears that the Tamil province is seen as falling in India’s sphere of influence, which generates silent resentment among majority Sinhalas, and more so among the influential Buddhist clergy in Sri Lanka.

There is little doubt however that Modi’s assurance that India would want to see the development of the entire island-nation would be seen as diplomatic-speak that India’s interest in Sri Lanka is not confined to the northern part of the country. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was confident that the bilateral economic and technological agreement with India will greatly help the economy in Sri Lanka. The agreement is expected to be signed before the end of the year. 

India continues to exhort the Sinhala leaders to accept the pluralist polity of the country and recognise the aspirations of the Sri Lankan Tamils. After the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009, there was a hue and cry in civil society circles in Sri Lanka and in Tamil Nadu that innocent Tamil civilians became cannon fodder in the ruthless final offensive against the Tamil guerrilla organisation. 

There is then quite a bit of misunderstanding and misinterpretation on both sides, and Sirisena had referred to it during his speech at the inauguration of the stadium. He said that Sri Lanka-India relations will remain unaffected by the misinterpretation.

But apprehensions remain. Strategy experts in New Delhi are quite wary of Colombo moving closer to China in economic and political terms. It is an old dilemma with all the south Asian neighbours of India. They are looking to another big country to counter the overwhelming presence of India in the neighbourhood. Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka have turned to China over the years. 

Interestingly, Sri Lankan minister of state for foreign affairs Mangala Samaraweera had said that Sri Lanka sees itself as an Indian Ocean country, and not just as a part of south Asia, and that Sri Lanka connects Australia and Africa, at the Gateway India Dialogue in Mumbai on June 13. It is an interesting redefinition of the Sri Lankan position, and India cannot choose to ignore it.  

But Sri Lankan leadership cannot overlook the Tamil issue. Sri Lankan leaders will have to reach out to the Tamils in the island and create a common political legacy for the country. But it seems that the country’s leadership would like to keep India involved in dealing with the Tamil north. India may need to step back and let Colombo know that Sri Lankan Tamil question is its own and India cannot take responsibility of handling the issue.