SL should live up to India’s gratitude
India's Janatha Party Leader Dr. Subramanian Swamy said on Friday that the people of India recognise defeating the LTTE as a contribution to their national security. He also said the war victory of the Lankan armed forces should be commended with the highest national award.
Awards are for happy times. Post-war Sri Lanka has a lengthy list of things that need to be put right before it calls itself an absolutely free nation. It is indeed a relief to know that India thinks big of Sri Lanka's achievement. The South Asian giant that paid the price for feeding and breeding the Tigers with the life of a prime minister should make sure that the political ideologies of certain parties do not lead to the re-emergence of the terror outfit.
If India wants to show gratitude, there are a hundred other ways of doing it besides the awards. The least it can do is to curb all the Tiger activities, taking place right under its nose and discourage the politicians who wave the Tiger flag to woo the voters.
No doubt, this probably is the most welcoming statement made by an Indian high head on the annihilation of the terror outfit from the Lankan soil. His speech at the Defence Seminar admits that the DMK politicians have resorted to selling the Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka on the election podiums. Clearly, the DMK needs to find new campaign material with more punch than the worn-out Tiger flags. On the same vein, Dr. Swamy invited Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to visit Sri Lanka and support the reconciliation between the Sinhala and Tamil communities. Whether she will take the invitation seriously is another matter, for this is not the first of its kind that was thrown her way. Meanwhile, there was an outcry against the Tamil Eelam Supporters Conference (TESO), sponsored by the DMK which was later denied permission by the Tamil Nadu government.
The turn of events assures Sri Lanka that India will fight alongside with the island nation in its post-war attempts to crush further the remnants of the LTTE. On the other hand, Sri Lanka, should make sure that the reconciliation process is sped up and no one is left out or segregated in the course. Only then will it be able to keep its head above the water. There is a citizenry that was bruised and battered by the vicious currents of terrorism that awaits justice. There are twenty-two million people anticipating the epilogue of the war victory with the granting of equal-citizen status for everyone irrespective of one's ethnicity and religion.
Hence, it is time that India converts its gratitude into action, and Sri Lanka lives up to the praise.