Sri Lanka has indicated to India that if it panders to Tamil nationalists demands for a Tamil Eelam in the island nation, it could have a domino effect and encourage separatist sentiments in India too.
The Lankan warning comes in the wake of India’s vote in May against Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Though India’s anti-Lanka vote was expected, what annoyed Colombo further was New Delhi’s push for amendments to the US-sponsored resolution to make it “stronger” on the insistence of Tamil political parties here.
Lanka stands accused of war crimes and the large-scale genocide of Tamils during the final months of its military campaign in 2009 to defeat the LTTE. India too has been unhappy with the pace and progress of devolution of powers to the Tamil-dominated districts by the Lankan government after the end of the civil war in the island nation.
However, worried about the anti-Lanka stir in Tamil Nadu (TN), Sri Lankan government sources said those “propagating Tamil nationalism in the guise of promoting Tamil rights in Sri Lanka could prove dangerous to the stability of the Indian Union too since the demand for a separate state may be raked up as was done in the 1960s in Tamil Nadu.”
Incidentally, Lanka rejected the continuing demand for a Tamil Eelam as recently as April 8 when Colombo said: “ There is no room for demands for ethno-nationalism in Sri Lanka.....Efforts by interested parties to create communal discord will not succeed....”. The sources also voiced fears about the revival of the LTTE given the support “ethno-nationalists” are expressing for a Tamil Eelam. Further, they said both the withdrawal of security forces from the Tamil-dominated northern province and the holding of provincial council elections there could be delayed if agitations such as the ones in TN continue.
The extremely vociferous support for Sri Lankan Tamils by political parties from Tamil Nadu like the DMK, AIADMK and MDMK has become a cause for worry for both Colombo and New Delhi. These parties, as well as certain ministers from TN in the UPA regime forced the government to seek amendments to the UNHRC resolution.
The DMK, for instance, wanted the word “genocide” included in the UNHRC resolution. The amendments, however, could not be pushed through by India as they came at the 11th hour. The DMK also withdrew from the UPA despite the government having succumbed to pressure to make the resolution tougher. The TN Assembly, in fact, recently passed a resolution seeking a separate Eelam for Sri Lankan Tamils.