Meeting of High Commissioner of India with Venerable Senior Monks of the Mahasangha

The High Commissioner of India has held meetings with Venerable Senior Monks of the Maha Sangha, to address their concerns about the two recent unfortunate incidents involving assaults on Sri Lankan Buddhist monks in Tamil Nadu state of India. He has underlined that these were isolated incidents and did not reflect the strong people-to-people bonds that have been an integral part of the close historical, cultural and civilizational ties between the two countries. In this context, he recalled the statement of the Official Spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs of India on 19th March 2013, expressing concern and reiterating that the state government of Tamil Nadu had taken immediate action to identify and prosecute the miscreants responsible for these incidents. The Government of India, in consultation with the concerned state governments, has taken and will continue to take all possible measures to ensure the safety, security and well-being of Sri Lankan visitors to India, including to Tamil Nadu. 
The meeting at India House on 23 March 2013 was attended by Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha Thero; Ven. Banagala Upatissa Nayaka Thero; Ven. Kirima Wimalajoti Nayaka Thero; Ven. Muruththettuwe Ananda Thero; Ven. Thiniyawala Palitha Thero; Ven. H. Kondangna Thero; Ven. Galagoda Attha Gnanasara Thero and Mr. Vasantha De Silva, Secretary Mahabodhi Society. Ven. Banagala Upatissa Nayaka Thero, the Chief Incumbent of the Mahabodhi Society of Sri Lanka, briefed the gathering and expressed appreciation towards the extensive arrangements made by the Tamil Nadu police in recent days, to provide security for Sri Lankan pilgrims. The Venerable Senior Monks underlined the need for a closer dialogue between civil society and religious leaders on the two sides, to avoid such incidents. A proposal to initiate such a dialogue would be pursued in the coming days and months. 

During another meeting on 20 March 2013, attended by Ven. Prof. Bellanwilla Wimalaratna Anunayake Thero; Ven. Dr. Itapana Damalankara Anunayake Thero; Ven. Dr. Brahmanawathe Sivalee Thero; Ven. Dr. Akuretiye Nanda Thero; Ven. Dr. Nagoda Amarawansa Thero; and Ven. Muruththettuwe Ananda Thero, there was a useful exchange of views on the need to enhance security for Sri Lankan pilgrims and to maintain the centuries-old cultural and civilizational links. It was agreed that the High Commission would hold consultations with the Ministry of Buddhasasana Affairs on any additional measures required in this regard. The Deputy High Commissioner had accordingly met Mr. M.K.B. Dissanayake, Secretary, Buddhasana Affairs, on 21 March, to follow up on this suggestion. 

The High Commissioner noted that the cultural interaction between India and Sri Lanka had been intense, resulting in constant cross-fertilization in the spheres of art, literature, culture and philosophy. The journey of the Holy Tree from India to Sri Lanka and back, nurtured by the soil of both lands and sustained through the caring hands of Indians and Sri Lankans, symbolized this exchange of ethos. In keeping with this spirit, it had been our joint endeavor to further enrich this heritage, which we continued to cherish. The successful organization of an exposition of Sacred Kapilavastu Relics in Sri Lanka last year after a gap of 34 years, the visit of H.E. the President of Sri Lanka to India in September 2012 to inaugurate the University of Buddhist and Indic Studies at Sanchi and a series of events organized by our two countries to jointly commemorate the 2600th anniversary of the Attainment of Enlightenment by Lord Buddha (Sambuddhatva Jayanthi), stood testimony to this fact. People-to-people contacts constitute one of the fundamental pillars on which the edifice of the bilateral relationship rests. It is noteworthy that nearly 250,000 Sri Lankan nationals visited India and over 175,000 Indian nationals visited Sri Lanka in 2012. Sri Lanka´s bonds with India, including the state of Tamil Nadu, are historic and go back many centuries. A substantial number of the Sri Lankan nationals visiting India travel through Chennai, be it for purposes of tourism, pilgrimage or shopping. Of the 128 flights connecting Indian and Sri Lankan cities, 76 involve destinations in Tamil Nadu. In order to get a true perspective, the isolated incidents of attacks on Sri Lankan nationals should be seen against these important facts.

http://www.hcicolombo.org/index.php?option=com_news&task=detail&id=3354871

‘India far better than Lanka in peace parleys’

By Express News Service - CHENNAI

24th March 2013 07:57 AM

The accords signed by India with ethnic groups to usher in peace may not have satisfied all of them but the country is far better than its South Asian neighbours, including Sri Lanka, in facilitating peace, according to experts.

Addressing a event to discuss “Governing systems and internal conflicts”, which was organised by the Centre for Security Analysis, Dr P Sahadevan, professor of South Asian Studies, School of International Studies Jawaharlal Nehru University said that the process of signing the accord may be democratic in India but the peace does not satisfy all the ethnic groups. Warning of using violence as means of coercion against ethnic force, Sahadevan said that it could create peace but not reconciliation. India, he said, was far better than Sri Lanka in this regard, since it uses coercion but never renounces political settlement, unlike Sri Lanka.

“India is not a illiberal democracy like Sri Lanka. It is accountable to people and is questioned for its actions unlike Sri Lanka,” he added. Sahadevan also highlighted that all internal conflicts in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Myanmar may have external backing, but when it comes to signing the accord the role of external factor is missing. This is because the nations think peace process is more of internalised matter.

Independent researcher Sudha Ramachandran highlighted how Indian democracy was far better than the three countries.

She said India recognises linguistic diversity and never imposes any one language on its population unlike Sri Lanka or even the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE), which excluded the Tamil Muslims from the struggle.

“Coercive hegemony has negative impact on the nation building exercise,” she added.

While the ethnic groups fight against the State seeking rights, a closer look at them suggests that they are illiberal. Sudha said that various outfits like the LTTE and Naga rebels, while fighting for their rights, could never tolerate dissent in their ranks.

http://newindianexpress.com/states/tamil_nadu/article1514589.ece

PIL seeking closure of Indian high commission in Colombo dismissed

TNN Mar 24, 2013, 04.57AM IST

MADURAI: The Madurai bench of the Madras high court dismissed the public interest litigation (PIL) seeking closure of the high commission of India in Sri Lanka.

The petitioner M Solaikannan, the Madurai district president of Hindu People Party, had filed a PIL seeking directions to the respondents, namely, the Union cabinet secretary, the national security advisor to the Prime Minister and the foreign secretary, to consider his representation dated January 21 and pass orders.

The petition was heard by the division bench of justices A Selvam and M Sathyanarayanan.

Pointing out the reason for dismissal, the court said that the petitioner's prayer may be granted if he establishes that he is having a specific legal right. and the respondents are also under the statutory obligation to carry out their duties and in the event of their failure to do so, to consider and pass orders on the representation seeking closure of Indian high commission.

The petitioner's counsel W Peter Ramesh Kumar had had made a passionate plea citing alleged human rights violations by Sri Lanka against Tamilians in the island country. The counsel had further contended that there was a large-scale demolition of Hindu temples and the people of Tamil origin are displaced and in that place Sinhalas are settled. Though, the Government of India is aware of these, it has not taken any step to address or mitigate the sufferings undergone by the Sri Lankan Tamils.

The counsel had also submitted that since the high commission of India in Colombo is not taking any action to mitigate the sufferings of the minority Tamils in Sri Lanka, there is no point in having it there and it has to be closed down.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-03-24/madurai/37980865_1_high-commission-madurai-bench-pil

Burning Lanka doesn't always work out well

Swapan Dasgupta

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.

http://author.toiblogs.com/right-and-wrong/entry/burning_lanka_doesn_t_always_work_out_well