Sir,

I am thankful to you for the article “Crisis in Sri Lanka: No solution through military force’’ published in PV of January 16-31, 2009. The article rhetorically asks `What kind of a government can use bombs and other forms of mass warfare against its own people, and then crow about ‘victory’?’. In the meantime, it is clear that there has been a total  media blackout on what is actually going on.  The Sri Lankan armed forces are  even said to have used cluster bombs in the campaign, hospitals have been  bombed and hundreds have been killed.  Independent observers feel that Mr. Gotabaya Rajapakse, Defence Secretary and brother of the  President Mahinda Rajapakse, and Gen. Sarath Fonseka should face charges of genocide, war crimes and torture.

Of significance is the fact that the so-called international community has done nothing to stop the Rajapakse Government from carrying on as it likes.  By whipping up chauvinism and giving

a free hand to its armed forces, it claims to have reunited the island and defeated the LTTE.  The Indian Government too had deliberately played its hand duplicitously by pretending that the issue in Sri Lanka is merely the LTTE and that there is no deep-seated national question there.

The logical conclusion of this is that the Sri Lankan Government is justified in its military campaign, and that massive civilian casualties are nothing but a regrettable collateral damage.  Several Members of Parliament from Tamil Nadu, however, have raised the issue and stalled proceedings in the Lok Sabha as the replies of the Government are totally inadequate and unacceptable.

The people of India must realize that they have a shared heritage and bond with the people of Sri Lanka with similar histories and colonial pasts. Indeed, many of today’s problems faced by the peoples of both the countries are also rooted in these. The people of India must realize that there cannot be any military solution to the problems that are in fact historical and political.  The problems of the North-East of India and Kashmir are also rooted in questions of polity.  The same MPs who have stalled proceedings in Lok Sabha over Sri Lanka should militate over analogous questions in India.  They should demand an end to military occupation in vasts tracts of India.  Let the people of India demand that their representatives play a principled role in all problems in India as well as in other countries. In particular, Communists should be at the forefront of the elaboration of a modern framework for settling the national question in Sri Lanka, indeed as in India.

Sincerely,
A. Narayan,Bangalore