New Delhi’s indifference towards Lanka

The world is not flat, nor is it connected. If there is any flatness, it must be in terms of its conscience — because only a dead soul can remain unaffected as a monumental human tragedy unfolds around it. Moreover if the world were truly connected, the news of this horror should have provoked a reaction somewhere, some small part of the world’s 24/7 media should have given the slightest bit of coverage to what is happening in Sri Lanka.

More precisely, it should have paid attention to what is happening in a tiny part of Sri Lanka — a part shrinking in size every day as the Sri Lankan army brutalises its way forward.

That shrinking sliver of earth once contained the glimmer of an autonomous hope for young Tamils. Now, it contains old men, women and the newborn.

The young have perished, taking the dream of their homeland with them to the other world. The chances are that they may find the gods easier to connect with. Here in this world, the material gods remain deaf and mute.

The US, the daily arbiter of global destiny, is far too busy appeasing Pakistan to bother. Ordinarily, even the unconfirmed report of a human-rights violation anywhere triggers a forceful denunciation. Its media picks up the cue quickly, and tonnes of newsprint are devoted to real and imagined accounts of human rights abuses. Then the offending party is hauled over the coals at some international forum or the other, till it submits to an arrangement dictated by the US. All this happens even if just one life has been lost, or one case of abuse is reported.

But why did the US pretend to see nothing and hear nothing of the daily atrocities in Sri Lanka? What prompted it to keep silent all these days? Perhaps that disinterest accounted for inaction on the part of the United Nations, too. It is true that the UN stirs itself into action when the US so signals.

Once it receives the nod, international civil servants become hyperactive.

They do not achieve much, but visits to the offending land and constant visits send a message at least.

This high level international attention, and the consequent media gaze, becomes a deterrent of sorts, checking the perpetrators and the intensity of human rights abuses begins to taper down somewhat.

But none of that happened in Sri Lanka. This seeming lack of concern obviously emboldened that government further. Sri Lankan Tamil civilians were left to fend for themselves. Constant bombardment, lack of medical facilities, unhygienic living conditions and daily deaths by the dozen became the norm. The old, and the newborn alike would be right in wondering if there is a caste system in the world’s classification of abuses. Why, for example, was the world stirred into warlike action over Bosnia and Kosovo? Why did it bomb Serbia into obedience? Is white blood more response-worthy than Tamil blood? Why were cries for help by Sri Lankan Tamils not heeded by the international community? What about India? Don’t we have a responsibility? Geography, history, ethnicity, language, religion and civilisational links all dictate it. Yet our response has been a lack of reaction. We confused Prabhakaran with the entire Tamil population, and allowed the Sri Lankan Saddam Hussein to carry on while we kept our blinkers on.

Occasionally a minister made a halfhearted attempt and issued an appeal for restraint, which Colombo quickly dismissed as of little consequence.

Some of our observers have been taking the vengeful view that Prabhakaran deserved this end. Perhaps there is weight in this argument, and not just against Prabhakaran, but also against many others in the LTTE. No one holds any brief for them. But even in their case a recent parallel comes to mind.

Why is Kasab given the elaborate facility of a trial when his crimes and carnage were seen by millions on TV? He and his band challenged the very economic foundation of India and coldbloodedly killed 180 people. Yet he gets to play to the gallery and dance circles round the prosecution. But even if we had decided to leave Prabhakaran and his cadres to their fate, what about the defenceless old men, women and children? Didn’t we have any responsibility towards them? Some argue brazenly that they are not our concern, and add that the Indian Tamils, with whom we had a filial link, were repatriated to India many years ago. The rest are Sri Lankan Tamils and, being largely terrorists, an internal affair of Sri Lanka.

Sadly, such people are living proof that the world is neither flat nor connected.

They are evidence that ours is an unfeeling world, with a selective value system. But ours remains a historic link, one which makes us responsible in multiple ways. It was in fulfilment of one such responsibility that Sri Ram crossed over to Sri Lanka.

Unfortunately, India has often remained unmoved by the suffering of its own. Had it been otherwise, we would have come to the aid of our people when they were trampled upon by Idi Amin in Uganda. We should have also reached out to the Indians in Fiji. And we ought to raise a firm voice against the frequent maltreatment of the people of Indian origin that takes place periodically in the Caribbean.

As in their case, we left Sri Lankan Tamils to their fate in our backyard.

And there they would have remained but for the elections. Suddenly, political parties are vying with each other in issuing jingoistic statements. In turn, New Delhi is quick to claim that its efforts over the last few days have borne fruit; Sri Lanka has agreed to suspend heavy military operations. But this is naïve. The only reason it has scaled down operations somewhat is that a reduced Tamil territory makes heavy weapons unnecessary.

If we are to be honest, we should be asking why, if the government’s claim that its pressure has worked on Sri Lanka is true, did it wait so long? Why let thousands of civilians be slaughtered, maimed, widowed and orphaned? The truth is that New Delhi followed a policy that can only be termed as inertia compounded by indifference.

Meanwhile, our neighbours continue to be fleet-footed. China and Pakistan have both sensed a strategic opening and moved in to position themselves well in Sri Lanka. Eventually we may find ourselves left out in the cold in Sri Lanka; we were unable to hunt with the hound and remained unwilling to run in sympathy with the hare.

Rajiv Dogra

(The writer is a former Ambassador)

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