‘India did PR for Rajapaksa govt’

Noted Indian journalist Satya Sivaraman said his country became just a public relations manager for the Sri Lanka’s Mahinda Rajapaksa government in their war against the LTTE.

Delivering a speech at a function on “What next in Sri Lanka”, he said instead of trying for a democratic solution for the ethnic crisis, India was protecting the Lankan government from the international community by whitewashing all the war crimes committed by that country.

He said India was directly involved in helping the Sri Lankan army along with nations such as Israel, Pakistan, and China.

“But the Indian involvement were very secretive and would never come out,” he said.

The noted political commentator said India was trying to play up the China’s involvement “just to justify their action” in the island nation.

He said Indian government did not favour a separate Tamil Eelam in that country as “it feared that would have encouraged the sub-national groups demanding separate states in the country”.

Sivaraman said the political parties which were ruling at the Centre and the State were playing football game in the Sri Lankan ethnic issue, in which “the football was Lankan Tamils”.

K Balagopal, Human Rights Forum, Hyderabad, said the Rajapaksa government was taking it easy on the rehabilitation of the displaced Tamils. “They are in no hurry for it as they are in a victorious mode.

And they know well that there is nobody to put pressure on them,” he said.

Balagopal said there are serious doubts raised by the international community about the resettlement.

“Nobody is sure that whether they are going to be rehabilitated in their original habitats because most of the areas are given to International firms,” he said.

He said that the need of the hour was the democratisation of polity and not just the devolution of powers.

“Steps should be taken to ensure the ethnic communities, Tamils and Muslims, live with dignity, free of fear and with equal rights.”

Meanwhile, the central Indian government said Sri Lanka has not done enough to rehabilitate displaced Tamils and asked Colombo to allow the Red Cross to take up relief and give media access to refugee camps in the strife-torn areas.

India had allocated Rs 500 crore for rehabilitating Lankan Tamils, but the rehabilitation plan was not ready in Sri Lanka, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said on Monday June 29.

"We regret this," he told mediapersons at Karaikudi in his constituency, Sivaganga.

He said Sri Lankan Tamil refugees would not be forced to go back. "The government will however make all arrangements for them to return if they voluntarily want to go back."

Denying that India had not done enough to safeguard Lankan Tamils, he said, "We spoke both to LTTE and the Sri Lankan government. But they did not listen."

Lankan officials had told him recently that steps were being taken to hold elections in Tamil areas under the 13th Amendment of the Constitution on devolution provisions under the Indo-Lanka accord.

Referring to reports that China was helping Lanka build a Naval base at Katchatheevu, an islet ceded by India to Lanka, he said, "It is only an unconfirmed report. It is not so."

He also said that government was taking steps to prevent Indian fishermen from being attacked by Lankan Navalmen in mid-sea.

Noting that there was a request for more patrolling vessels, he said, "They (Tamil Nadu's Coast Security Group and Coast Guard) had asked for 10 boats. Each boat costs some crores. The government will give them the facility one by one."