India's policy towards Sri Lanka: A colossal failure of India's policy-makers

India's policy towards Sri Lanka: A colossal failure of India's policy-makers

The battle for the Indian ocean

As financial and military power continues to grow in both India and China (China is still miles ahead of India, certainly), South Asia is becoming a soft battleground where the subtle spheres of influence of both the Asian giants continue to clash on a routinely basis. China's policy of 'encirclement' continues to become more and more successful, while increasing ties with Japan and other countries of the Pacific seem a distant future for India. And the four neighbours of India, Pakistan in the west, Bangladesh in the east, Nepal in the north and Sri Lanka in the south continue to benefit from this tug-of-war between the dragon and the land of Indra.

It becomes especially more evident after witnessing the recent trend of development of ties between the seemingly generous China and the ambitious South Asian island-nation of Sri Lanka. The dragon knows it very well, that controlling the Indian ocean is one thing India is (thanks to earth's geography) miles ahead. Through successful navy positions and seat of power being setup across the Indian ocean, China is trying to gain a stronghold here, and a stranglehold on India. The 'energy line' that is crucial for China's economy, and also for fuelling its ambitious military expansion plans still continues to be primarily through the Indian ocean, and close proximity to Indian naval bases, especially because of increasingly evident momentum gained by the Indian navy there, proves to be a major challenge for the Chinese policy-makers. And as usual, the dragon has come looking for potential allies in this area. And which other nation can serve its interest better than Sri Lanka, for holding off the growing Indian activity over the Indian ocean? Being tactically positioned both politically and geographically, Sri Lanka provides China with a marvellous opportunity to grab a portion of the ocean, securing its own trade and energy line while at the same time getting India 'boxed up'.

"Further evidence came from the report of a UN
expert panel in December 2011. It documented the
killing of nearly 40,000 Tamil civilians by
the Sri Lankan Army"

Already China is the all-weather ally, friend, philosopher, guide, and 'Guru' of the gloriously unsuccessful and proudly idiotic Pakistan. Africa is seeing an increased presence of China every single day, through direct and indirect investments, 'aids' and grants to 'help' poor African nations, etc. From its positions of power in Pakistan, and more so from its future naval bases in east Africa, China shouldn't seem to be very far away from achieving its objective. However, thankfully and fortunately, India and Indians have awakened from our long years of inactivity. Increased modernization of the navy, improved relations with western and eastern nations alike, India continues to counter China more successfully than ever not only within the boundaries of the Indian ocean, but even beyond that. While weak governance and poor policy-making continues to haunt India's dreams, the overall degree of progress India has seen has alarmed China. Armed with an increasingly modern navy, army, airforce and nuclear arsenal, India can practically do tremendous damage to China in case of a future war between the two. And China is already getting more and more polarized in the world theatre because of its clearly visible ambitious 'expansion' (or should I say 'territory grabbing'?) projects.

Teenager raped by the Sri Lankan army

And here enters Sri Lanka, the clever nation that knows how to keep both these Asian giants anxieous and continue with its roleplay. Today's newspaper reports an alltime increase in China's aid to Sri Lanka. As per the report you can read HERE, the dragon is using its financial power to buy off Sri Lanka successfully. To quote from the report,

"China stepped up its efforts to win over another South Asian country, Sri Lanka, with its state-owned bank extending $580 million in loans days ahead of president Mahinda Rajapaksa's visit to Beijing on May 27-30"

It is thus very evident how Sri Lanka is gaining from this battle of supremacy between the rising powers. To highlight and quote another portion of the report:

"In 2012, China gave Sri Lanka assistance worth $1.05 billion. India had extended assistance of $700 million" 

So, the clever island-nation has grabbed a superb amount of money from both the nations. And now this alm the beggar of the Indian ocean is receiving will force Indian authorities to react with a similar amount of grant to it. Happy time, eh Sri Lankans?

Bravo, Sri Lankans! You've shown the world how mighty
you guys are, by imprisoning these 'mighty' enemies! 

And just by thinking about it, this is the nation that has butchered the lives of thousands of innocent Tamils, continues to do so and will not stop no matter what happens. This is the country, where a soldier tries to assassinate Rajib Gandhi in broad daylight. This is the country whose military has meted our such a degree of genocidal torture on the prisoners that perhaps could only be compared to that exercised by Hitler's Nazis on the Jews during World War II, or the Pakistanis 'army' on innocent Bangladeshis (especially Hindus) in 1971. If you wish to read about the 'bravery' of the 'glorious' Sri Lankan army, just have a look HERE.

And here in THIS link, we see how India continues to increase its aid to the island-nation in spite of growing agitation among the residents of Tamil Nadu.

I don't believe the Ramayana literally, but I guess about one thing the famous epic is right. Sri Lanka, or Lanka as it is called there, is the land of monsters. Sadly, those monsters wear helmets and carry guns nowadays. And modern Sri Lankans have indeed demonized themselves right through their actions against the Tamils.

The story of the beggar, that Sri Lanka really seems to be

Let me share with you all a Bengali story, written most possibly by Rajsekhar Bose (an esteemed Bengali writer), titled 'Harihar'. The story is about two doctors, Harinath and Haranath, who are intense rivals. Every Harinath wishes to see Haranath dead, while Haranath prays for an earthquake to squash Harinath and his dispensary every other day. Now, one day both the doctors are seen walking to their respective clinics. They are walking on the opposite sides of the same road, occasionally throwing angry glances at one another. Now suddendly, a beggar comes and asks Harinath for help. Harinath pays him a pice. Haranath immediately decides that he should beat his rival by proving himself more generous, and thus being more popular. So, he tries to find a similar beggar on his side of the road, and finding none in the immediate proximity, Haranath rushes to the previously mentioned beggar and pays him 2 pice, twice the amount Harinath had paid him. Harinath sees the incident and immediately gives the man 4 pice. Haranath replies with 8 pice. This goes on increasing till both of them run out of all money in their pockets.

India and Japan holding a joint naval exercise

This is just  a funny story, wittily written by Bose, but it is analogically similar to the situation mentioned above. India and China are like the two doctors, arch-rivals, eager to curb each other's influence. And Sri Lanka is that beggar. India and China are like two wild animals battling, like a tiger versus a lion, and Sri Lanka the fox and Pakistan the dog continue to lick the blood gushing out of the wounded bodies of India and China.

How Sri Lankans behave with us Indians

Let me say it again, I am not against Sri Lanka. Nor am I a Sri Lanka hater anyway. But the attitude meted out by some  (not all, to be honest) Sri Lankas towards Indians is terrible. The nation continues to arrest our fishermen, while feasting at the same time on our resources. I remember a particular experience I had had with a Sri Lankan. The guy had written an article on mathematical modelling, one of my favourite topics, and I wanted to borrow some of the examples he had mentioned therein, for writing one post of my own. So, as a sign of goodwill, I sent him a message on Facebook (his account was linked to his blog anyway) asking him most politely whether he would be kind enough to allow me the honour of borrowing his examples (and I did say that I'd definitely mention his post while I write mine). And seeing that I am from India, he didn't care to reply. I messaged him multiple times, but the same thing occurred again and again. And no, his account wasn't inactive. He continued to interact with his non-Indian bloggers, while willingly ignoring, often banning, Indians. This is the type of people we're dealing with.

In another case, I discovered a Sri Lankan joining Robert Lindsay, a racist idiot famous for his anti-Indian sentiments, and calling Indians 'black, dirty, niggers'. Fellow Sri Lankans, have you even looked at yourselves? Your are blacker than us on average, so stop bitching about it.

So, the next time any person asks you to pick an option, whether to help Sri Lanka or not, just recall the what Sri Lanka does to Tamils just for fun.

The projection of India's naval might  has shown us what
 we can do if we want to.  We should switch to an
offensive strategy rather than holding ourselves back. 

I know, that 26 years of war had devastated Sri Lanka, but that gives them no reason to go on massacring just every Tamil they can find! Raping, marauding, murdering army of Sri Lanka continues to ravage not only the poor Tamil minorities, but also innocent Indian fishermen folk! These are rightly to be taken care of while helping Sri Lanka with more and more aids and grants. A very tiny fraction of fundamentalist Islams in India continue to plot against our nation, but that doesn't give me any reason to go and butcher my Muslim neighbhor! That is plain idiotic. One should refrain from over-generalising. That's the problem with Sri Lankas. Most of these guys are just eager to wipe out all the Tamils from earth. And in this 'battle' between the Tamils and Sri Lankans, I'd rather side up with my Tamil brothers and sisters, because every Indian, be he a Tamil, a Bihari, a Mahathi, a Bengalee or a Manipuri or anything else, is my ally, and I am his/her.

So, instead of aiding Sri Lanka, I belive our ministers should focus on handing the sum to our army, navy and airforce instead. Before going to aid anti-Indians, let us first aid our own people. A stronger India needs no assistant from Sri Lanka, and we already have a large number of countries (each of which are far better and more developed that Sri Lanka anyway) willing to be our allies in this struggle against Chinese aggression, such as Japan, Taiwan, South Korea (well, North Korea and Pakistan both are the pet dogs of China anyway. Thus we share a common enemy), Indonesia and Vietnam. Pouring more notes into that bottomless well called Sri Lanka won't help anyone except the beggar island-nation itself.

It has been echoed in the Indian national anthem, that we Indians all know and sing, that 'Dravida' is an integral part of India. And if I, as a north-Indian, am to choose between the interests of my Dravidian brothers and those of the people of a foreign land, I'd rather team up with the former people. The time has come for us Indians to stand united against this thing.

I wish Indian policy-makers realize this soon.

India increaes its power even more, and
that's the only way of protecting our interests. 

Some interesting articles to read about this topic can be found below: 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11753549 (Sri Lanka gains from Indo-Chinese supremacy battle), a report by the BBC.

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/war-crimes-from-the-killings-of-lankan-tamils-to-a-teens-torture/380009-2.html (War crimes: From the killings of Lankan Tamils to a teen's torture)

NOTE TO SRI LANKANS, IF ANY CARE TO VISIT: This is written by an Indian, for other Indians to read, comment on and discuss. Whatever I've said about Sri Lanka is backed by evidence. If you're a Sri Lankan patriot, please leave, or else accept the bitter truth as it is. I know it is hard, but it is the way. Insult India or Indians, and you'll be banned immediately. Stop abusing the little power that you have and come to us like a friend, and you'll receive friendship and assiatance in return. And come to us like a fiend, you'll meet your maker before firing your first shot.