Time to act

The Government must take steps to stop attacks on Sri Lankans in southern India. Such an emphatic statement is borne out by the chain links of incidents that have taken place, not just in the past few days, but stretching into months and years.

People hardly had time to absorb shocking photos of a Sri Lankan Buddhist priest being attacked in broad daylight before media were screaming of a second attack on a monk. The news, complete with video footage, streaked across Sri Lanka’s news websites, but failed to provoke an adequate response from the Government, which was immersed in Mattala festivities.

Sixteen tourists who had alighted innocently from the Tamil Nadu express in Chennai were also attacked, but managed to escape injuries. They were the latest in a long list of casualties that has been growing as the crucial vote on the US resolution nears in Geneva.

Thousands of students have threatened to march in southern India as a show of solidarity with their Sri Lankan Tamil counterparts and to pressure the Central Government to back the US. Vociferous Tamil Nadu politicians are also heightening the heat on New Delhi, which is unable to maintain its support for Colombo in the absence of genuine progress on crucial human rights matters.

Unfortunately the Government’s failures in implementing crucial points in the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) report, which include demilitarising the north, holding credible investigations into allegations of war crimes, starting impartial probes into disappearances and abductions, and holding elections in the north, as well as a host of other measures, have soured the Tamil Nadu people’s image of the country, which was already shadowy.

The Government’s steadfast refusal to understand this gap and work with the emotive south has resulted in a complete breakdown of relations. Earlier the exasperated Tamil Nadu people reserved their contempt for Government representatives as was demonstrated in 2010, when Speaker W.J.M. Lokubandara, who visited Vaitheeswarankoil, faced protests. A few months later, slippers were hurled at Neomal Perera, the then Deputy Minister of Fisheries, at Karaikal when he was proceeding to Vailankanni. Even President Rajapaksa’s visits to India had to be conducted under a force field of security whenever he came near the southern region.

This trend then took a disturbing turn in September 2012 when 178 Sri Lankan pilgrims returned on a special flight after being attacked. Then the Bank of Ceylon branch was attacked in Chennai. The front page news prompted the Sri Lankan Government to seek assurances of heightened security for Sri Lankan businesses. Yet days later the Mihin Lanka office was attacked, with the Government still unable to give concrete assurances for the safety of their business concerns across the Palk Strait. It is obvious now that everyone and everything of Sri Lankan origin is being seen as an avatar of the Sri Lankan Government, resulting in indiscriminate attacks.

Last month Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in a characteristically aggressive move cancelled the 20th Asian Athletics Championships because they would include a team from Sri Lanka. Hours later news trickled in of United National Party (UNP) MP Karu Jayasuriya, who was on a pilgrimage to the temple town of Thirukkadaiyur in Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu, having to return after activists of various political parties, including pro-Eelam outfits, staged a demonstration in that town. The list goes on.

It is eminently clear that ignoring Tamil Nadu is literally injuring the people of Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan Government cannot simply palm off the blame on pro-LTTE elements and take a backseat with a sanctimonious attitude. It is time to act, not in a show of force, but by providing genuine solutions to the grievances of Tamil people so that their peace of mind will resonate across the sea and bring peace to all.