24 March 2013, 06:07 AM IST
Diplomacy,
it has been said, essentially involves lying for your country . By that logic,
there is likely to be widespread sympathy for the complete loss of face for
India's representative to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Just
about a week ago, India's envoy was busy engaging with the US and other
countries on the draft of a resolution which, while paying token obeisance to
Tamil victimhood, would not trigger a ferocious xenophobic reaction in the rest
of Sri Lanka. The objective was laudable: to soften the blow on Colombo while
accommodating some of India's domestic concerns.
When
he returned to Geneva for last Thursday's crucial session, he was armed with a
new bri ef: to impress upon the DMK and the global Tamil diaspora that India's
sympathies lay with those who have trying unceasingly to secure the partition
of Sri Lanka.
It
is fortunate that procedures prevented India from rehabilitating the LTTE
before the international community. Yet, this cynical grandstanding, aimed
exclusively at preventing Congress stalwarts from losing their Lok Sabha seats
at the next election , made India a laughing stock in the region. The ire of
Colombo will not be directed at the US which sponsored the resolution.
Washington is too powerful and too remote for Sri Lanka to even attempt any
meaningful retribution. The blow will fall on India which, ironically, was more
than happy when the fanatical Tigers were militarily decimated in 2009. India's
economic and strategic interests in Sri Lanka will suffer and the beneficiary
will be China. More to the point, India's foreign policy will be perceived as
wildly erratic and susceptible to sectional pressures , even of the
disreputable variety.
It
is mildly reassuring that this self-defeating misadventure in Geneva wasn't
accompanied by a resolution in Parliament pillorying Sri Lanka for "human
rights abuses" and "genocide" . Mercifully there were enough MPs
who prevented this needless bullying of a small country with which India has a
deep civilizational relationship.
Nor
are these links confined to the Jaffna Tamils and Tamil Nadu. The Sinhala
people too look up to India as a pilgrimage centre for the land of the Buddha.
And, to stretch the point further, the Sinhala people also trace their ancestry
to Orissa and Bengal, the home of the legendary Vijaya who established the
first Sinhala kingdom around 543 BC. Sri Lanka's India connection is clearly
not confined to Tamil Nadu.
And,
if civilizational links determine diplomatic posturing, would the Government
have dared contemplate a resolution attacking China for its assault on Tibetan
identity? Why did Parliament contemptuously repudiate the Pakistan National
Assembly's gratuitous resolution on Afzal Guru? Consistency may be the virtue
of small minds but wildly erratic conduct doesn't behove a country that has
pretensions of emerging as a global player.
There
are times when it is politically rewarding to rise above sectional pressures
and do what is in the larger national interest. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
did precisely that in 2008 when he called the Left's bluff over the Indo-US
nuclear agreement. It was his resolute stand for a larger purpose that gained
the UPA considerable goodwill and was a factor in its re-election in 2009.
That
the UPA leadership chose to unsuccessfully placate the DMK which used the Sri
Lankan Tamil issue as a ruse to sever an alliance that had otherwise become a
liability is revealing. It suggests that there already weak central command
structure of the Government has become almost non-existent . The Government
gives the appearance of being a replica of the later-Moghul Empire where a
nominal badshah in Delhi lacked authority and was buffeted by different
regional pressures - a situation deftly exploited by the East India Company.
This incoherence has, quite predictably, affected India's foreign policy - a
field that is the sole responsibility of the Centre. Our think-tanks can
pontificate endlessly over a foreign policy 'doctrine' and dissect the nuances
and calibrations but the reality is cruel. India has lost its capacity to be a
meaningful global player. Today, national security merely implies a game of
transfers and postings.
Elections
may be a year away but more than ever India needs a government with a mandate.
And, if possible, a Prime Minister with clout.
