India bullies small Sri Lanka and cringes before giant China
*Fri, 2007-06-01 04:47
H. L. D. Mahindapala*
The statement made by A. K. Narayanan, India’s National Security Advisor, on Thursday (May 31) warning Sri Lanka not to go to Pakistan or China to seek weapons smack of India resuming its hegemonistic stance in bullying a small nation essentially to keep the weak Congress Party in power.
This statement was issued after Narayanan met Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi who props up the Manmohan Singh’s Coalition government with his DMK votes in Delhi.
Narayanan told the media: “We are a big power in the region. We don’t want the Sri Lankan government to go to Pakistan or China.
Whatever may be their requirement, the Sri Lankan government should come to us.” Obviously, the statement was made to keep Karunanidhi’s votes safely in Manmohan Singh’s pocket.
If India claims to be a big power then there are responsibilities that go with the big power status. One of them is not behave like a brutal street criminal tormenting and intimidating a little boy in the neighbourhood. Not surprisingly, India, like all big bullies, backs off deferentially, bending into two, when confronted by giants like China. India is still licking the wounds it got from the 1962 border war with China. To this day China relentlessly pursues claims to Indian territory. Despite all its friendly talks and joint military operations in the offing China still is in possession of 2000 sq km of Arunachai Pradesh in the north-east of India.
This week MPs from this state Arunachai Pradesh blasted India for virtually surrendering territory to China. Arunachai MP Kiren Rijju told the media: “India must show the guts to give a befitting reply to China on the issue of Arunachai.” He added: “The (Indian) Government appears to be committing the mistake which Nehru did then (1962 war with China) by surrendering a major chunk of Indian territory to China.”
So what kind of a big power is India? It crawls on its belly before China and poses as the almighty “big power” to small Sri Lanka. The Indians are surrendering vast expanses of its land to China and tells Sri Lanka not to go to China to buy goods. Statements like this by Indian leaders bring shame on all Indians. It makes all Indians look like mentally retarded drongos.
On top of all this Narayanan states: “India will not provide weapons with offensive capabilities to Sri Lanka”. It had no qualms in providing massive “offensive capabilities” (including arms, training and finance) to the Tamil terrorists. After arming the terrorists now it is refusing to let the democratically elected government of Sri Lanka buy arms to solve the problem created by India. Not only are the Indian panjandrums not letting Sri Lanka buy arms from elsewhere it is also refusing to sell Indian arms to Sri Lanka.
In other words, India is telling Sri Lanka to toe the Indian line. It is this imperious attitude that makes the Indian look like the despicable marauder of SAARC politics. SAARC region is stagnating because India had destabilized the region for its own gain. Besides, the tone and the import of Narayanan are bound to provoke Sri Lankans and affect Indo-Lanka relations, just at the time Sri Lanka thought that India had a benign role to play in solving its problems in Sri Lanka. It will bring India’s image down to that of a savage gorilla disemboweling a baby in the cot. If India expects gratitude from Sri Lanka after this the Indians should think again, if it has the brains.
India was severely mauled when it tried to dictate terms last time with the Indian High Commissioner Dixit acting as the imperious Viceroy in Colombo. Sri Lankans took it lying down for some time but gave it back with interest to the Indians who came with the fourth largest army in the world. Once again it looks as if Indian idiocy knows no limits. India should know by now that imperialism, particularly of the Indian kind, has only a short span of life. No self-respecting nation is going to tolerate such arrogant bullying displayed by insensitive Indian imbeciles who should be paid only for collecting the droppings of dodos in Jurassic Park and not for advising the prime minister in Delhi.
India’s attempt to humiliate Sri Lanka lends no credit to its status as a big power in the region. Is it for this that the Sri Lankans are asked to pay pooja to India? Isn’t it time that all the states surrounding India, and have suffered at the hands of India, formed a new alliance leaving India out? A joint force off all the states surrounding India will not make India that big as she imagines it to be. It might even tempt some Indian states to break away from India and join the new anti-Indian alliance.
This was unthinkable in the heady days when India gave moral leadership to the emerging nations of the region. Their collective political ideals were enunciated in noble terms of Panchaseela wrapped in Gandhi-Nehruvian phrases. But the Gandhi-Nehruvian doctrines have given way to a new set of imperialist masters whose brains have been addled by drinking too much cow urine. Of all the known leaders in history only the Indian leaders (not the good Indian people) believe that cow urine is good for their brawn and brains. No wonder their talk now smells like the grass that comes out at the other end of cow.
Pathetic!
