By P.K. Balachandran, IANS
Colombo : India should avoid the mistakes of the past while Sri Lanka should accommodate New Delhi’s security concerns in the spirit of “true friendship” between the two neighbours, the leader of Sri Lanka’s radical Marxist party Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) has said.
Saying the 1980s were a tumultuous time when India “promoted” Tamil militancy in Sri Lanka, Somawansa Amarasinghe said, “What India did was terrible, and should not be repeated.
“In fact, it was India which started cross-border terrorism in South Asia. This was a strategic mistake, not a mere tactical mistake, for India itself began experiencing separatist terrorism,” Amarasinghe told IANS in an interview.
The JVP had warned India about the consequences of its actions, but to no avail, he recalled.
“We met the then Indian high commissioner and told him that India should abandon this path and tackle president J.R. Jayewardene (of Sri Lanka) in a different way. But our appeals were not heeded,” Amarasinghe said.
But now, the JVP wants to let bygones be bygones and build a new relationship with India.
“We in the JVP do not want to live in the past. We need friendship with India because India is not only a neighbour but is our only neighbour,” he said.
The JVP was wary of Western designs on Sri Lanka and preferred to build bridges with Asian countries, he stated.
“In this context, I welcome the coming together of the two Asian giants, India and China, especially the visit of (Congress president) Sonia Gandhi to China,” Amarasinghe said.
The seniormost leader and ideologue of the JVP, which is a power to reckon with in the Sri Lankan parliament, said India should extend “kalyana mittata” or “true friendship” to Sri Lanka.
Amarasinghe recalled that when Prince Mahinda, the son of legendary Emperor Ashoka, brought Buddhism from India to Sri Lanka, it was avowedly on the basis of benevolence.
“I do not want to use the term benevolence in the current context, but we need to see India assisting Sri Lanka on the basis of kalyana mittata. It will create a situation where the two countries can harness their full potential for mutual benefit,” he said.
“For its part, Sri Lanka should recognise and accommodate India’s security concerns,” he proposed.
When asked if the JVP was opposed to Indian investments and trade in services, Amarasinghe said, “We are not opposed to foreign investment but we insist that they should be of mutual benefit.
“We opposed the grant of petrol stations to the Indian Oil Corporation because we believed that the distribution of a strategic resource like fuel should be in the hands of Sri Lankans.”
He said relations between his country and India should be based on the Panchsheel treaty of peaceful coexistence.
“Panchsheel obviates cold war,” Amarasinghe told IANS in an interview here.
Propounded by India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and then Chinese premier Zhou-Enlai in 1954, the five principles of Panchsheel envisage respect for each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence.
On the ongoing efforts to work out a devolution package for the Tamil minority, the JVP leader said that priority should be given to defeating the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) militarily, not changing the constitution.
Constitutional changes could be made after democracy is restored in the Tamil-speaking areas of the country’s northeast where the Tigers had throttled democracy, he added.
Asked about the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) set up by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to draft a new devolution package, Amarasinghe said it was neither “all-party” nor vested with a mandate to do what it was doing.
“The United National Party, which is the country’s main opposition party and the JVP, are not there. We withdrew from the committee because we felt that it was going to dilute the unitary structure of the constitution against the popular mandate Rajapaksa had got in the 2005 presidential elections,” Amarasinghe explained.
On how the JVP proposed to solve the Tamil question if it was opposed to federalism – a long standing demand of all Tamils – Amarasinghe said the solution did not lie in dividing Sri Lanka into ethnic enclaves.
“Once the LTTE is finished, the military should come out of the north and east. Free speech must be restored among the Tamils there, and elections should be held. The Tamils must be given all opportunities that other citizens of Sri Lanka get. In fact, they should be given special concessions to make up for the lack of opportunities under LTTE control.
“Once free speech is restored in the northeast, we can discuss constitutional matters with the Tamils,” the JVP chief said.