25 years of India-Sri Lanka Agreement: Questions & Answers

By Col R Hariharan

[Extracts of my answers to questions raised by media on the India-Sri Lanka Agreement 1987 in the last two days are given below.]

The Rajiv Gandhi-Jayawardane Accord completes 25 years on July 29, 1987. Many now feel it represents a total diplomatic failure of India. As one who was present in Sri Lanka when Indian forces were operating from 1987 to 90, what are your comments?

Not all, but some of the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora consider it as India’s diplomatic failure. The Agreement represented a strategic rather than a mere diplomatic initiative. The Agreement was signed after India arm-twisted Sri Lanka President JR Jayawardane to sign it. He had little option but to do so as no external help was forthcoming particularly after India carried out Operation Poomalai when Indian air force planes dropped much needed food supplies to a beleaguered Jaffna. This showed India would not hesitate to use force if Sri Lanka ignored Indian concerns. 

A tale of two interventions

R. Hariharan

A quarter century on, India’s military involvement in Sri Lanka remains relevant as a lesson in poor leadership in contrast to the 1971 war to liberate East Pakistan

The India-Sri Lanka Agreement 1987, also known as the Rajiv-Jayawardene Accord, completes 25 years on July 29. As a soldier who actively participated in India’s military intervention in both Sri Lanka (1987-90) and East Pakistan in 1971 (that created Bangladesh), I cannot help comparing the two exercises in the assertion of India’s power.

The two theatres, and the environment in India at the time of the two operations, were totally different. In Bangladesh, it was conventional war against the well trained Pakistan army. India went into it after much military planning and preparation. In contrast, in Sri Lanka, the army got embroiled in counter-insurgency combat with Tamil insurgents, for which it was unprepared. Force levels in Bangladesh were much higher. The air force and navy formed part of the overall offensive plan. In Sri Lanka it was essentially a decentralised infantry operation against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Forgetting Kargil

July 26, 2012 was Kargil Day. It went past practically unnoticed except for the Defence Minister and the chiefs of three services laying down wreaths at the India Gate. This is not surprising as the nation and most of the media continue to wallow in trivialities of political shenanigans or film stars peccadilloes. Are we waiting for another Kargil to happen to pay the price for ignoring the warning Kargil sent us? It seems so. 

This is what I understood when I read General VP Malik's article in Times of India yesterday. He was the army chief at the time of Kargil war, and a warning from him sends a strong message to the nation. 

Book Review: The Eelam Struggle Saga

By R Hariharan

The Prabhakaran Saga 
Author: S Murari
Publisher: Sage, Rs 350

The book, besides outlining the history of Lanka’s Tamil problem, provides a few lessons on how to handle insurgencies and their aftermath, says R Hariharan

The history of Sri Lanka’s Tamil insurgency and its bloody end after 25 years of struggle at the hands of the Sri Lankan Army is a complex one. Veteran journalist S Murari’s The Prabhakaran Saga covers the Tamil Eelam armed struggle and Sri Lanka’s response in their multiple dimensions. The chronological coverage of mélange of conspiracies and assassinations, politics and perfidy, and the tragedy of mindless violence enables the reader to understand the complexities of the war and its root causes.

Sri Lanka: Gotabhaya’s larger than life role

Col R Hariharan

Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s brother, is perhaps the most controversial personality in Sri Lanka. He is interviewer’s delight because of his forthright, no-holds barred comments are sure to be a hit. At the same time, he is media man’s nightmare because Gotabhaya does not allow critical comments go unchallenged and makes no bones about it (pun not intended). 

None can deny Sri Lanka benefited from the veteran’s return from the U.S. in 2005. He took upon the most thankless job at that time - manning the defence ministry when war looked imminent.  His hands on operational experience enabled him to provide seamless connectivity between national leadership and military that had eluded his predecessors in earlier episodes of Eelam war.

Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu: Trampling upon each other’s toes

By Col R Hariharan

Sri Lanka air force personnel who had completed part of their technical training at Air Force Station, Tambaram, Chennai were taken off the course and sent to Bangalore after Ms Jayalalitha, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, raised a hue and cry over their presence in Tamil Nadu. The irrepressible chief minister will no doubt count this as a small victory in her ongoing political confrontation with her bête noir M Karunanidhi of the Dravida Munnetrda Kazagham, a favoured partner of the ruling coalition in New Delhi.

This is not the first time the Tamil Nadu chief minister has used the Tamil issue in Sri Lanka to settle scores with the Congress and DMK. (Knowing the mood in Tamil Nadu, I don’t know why Ministry of Defence continues to get entangled in avoidable controversies over such an issue repeatedly.)  Nor it is going to be the last time because the Sri Lanka Tamil issue which was on the sidelines of Tamil Nadu politics has now been brought to centre stage. With political patronage it is taking strong anti Sri Lanka overtones.

Sri Lanka Perspectives - June 2012

By Col R Hariharan

Highlights

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•  Indian National Security Advisor Shiv Shankara Menon’s one-day visit triggered media speculation as it came after President Mahinda Rajapaksa met with Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on the sidelines at the Rio+20 summit in Brazil in the third week of the month.

• Political confrontation between ruling coalition and opposition was triggered after ten goons armed with T-56 rifles, riding motorcycles carried out brazen daylight attack on a JVP meeting in Southern Sri Lanka killing two persons.

• Provincial councils of Eastern, North Central and Sabaragamuwa provinces have been dissolved preparatory to the elections to be held for them in September 2012. The election commission has called for filing of nominations from July 12 to 19; the elections will be held on a Saturday falling on 1st, 8th or 15th September 2012. Opposition parties have castigated the government for not announcing the Northern Provincial Council elections, which are long overdue.