Proloy Bagchi’s piece characterizes Delhi’s UNHRC vote against Sri Lanka’ as most muddled. The rumour mill in Colombo has it, though Delhi prefers to remains mute and did not anticipate that China would act this speedily on India’s Northern borders to support Colombo and restraint Delhi over implementing the UNHRC resolutions that India voted for in March.
A commenter in ‘South Block (Liam Fox like) scribes …(strive) to save Sonia/Rajapakses from UNHRC genocide crimes’ also in Ground Report 6, April 2013, incisively examines the mindset of scribes who grieve over the Rajapakse/Sonia South Block partners facing UNHRC proceedings for the genocide crimes on the Tamils. Bagchi’s grief is more over the TN interfering with the money making IPL machine overlooking as he does the grief amongst Tamils for the massacres of forty thousand plus Tamil civilians by the Rajapakses.
An aggrieved international community moved resolutions in the UNHRC to hold the Rajapakses (and indirectly the anti-Tamil South Block M K Narayanan, S S Menon and others) accountable for their active role in heinous massacres of Tamils (the anti-Tamil Sonia led South Block in the Centre were illicitly complicit in the Rajapakse crimes) and how this crowd strives to frustrate the efforts of the international community including the UNHRC on delivering justice to the Tamils.
Unlike the South Block Delhi, the patriotic TN state banned IPL players from SL from playing in Chennai. Bagchi criticizes the Centre for failing to assert itself and override TN pressure and voting on UNHRC resolutions and displease the Rajapakses.
India’s vote on this occasion despite Colombo flaunting the China card according to Bagchi was the result of Delhi’s muddled policy. Delhi opted to go along with Nateri Adigal’s caution discussed in ‘Tamil Nadu being forced to go the Eelam way – a revisit’ – ground report 27 October 2010. Nateri Adigal bemoaned as early as 2008 the ominous drift in Delhi’s foreign policy hurting India’s standing, regional and worldwide, the unity of India itself, bringing the China threat closest ever to India’s security. This was the handiwork of the South Block in the UPA2 period. India had to vote for the US resolution not on humanitarian grounds but not to totally isolate itself from the world community.
However South Block Delhi’s platitude of SL being its friendliest neighbour and its support to crush the Tamil resistance did not prevent Colombo seeking China’s Ladakh incursions to counter balance the support the Tamils enjoy for their cause. Delhi’s platitudes of SL is supplemented with Delhi’s cynical betrayal of TN Tamils angering Tamils in TN. SL was not impressed with Delhi’s platitudes and the China’s sudden incursions into Latakh is evidence of Delhi’s dismal diplomacy. Accordingly Nateri Adigal’s views that the China’s presence in SL the gravest proximal threat to India’s southern front. Delhi’s record of being unmindful of the China threat to TN should compel TN to factor in this threat in extracting terms from Delhi that would assure its own security and not rely on Delhi’s dismal diplomacy.