He wants India to boycott Colombo CHOGM
The Union Government must dismiss outright the DMK chief's injudicious appeal to the Prime Minister to humiliate Sri lanka again, this time by boycotting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet to be held in Colombo later this year. By earlier succumbing to the tantrums of Mr M Karunanidhi, whose party until the other day was a powerful ally of the ruling coalition at the Centre, a supine New Delhi has already inflicted enough damage upon India's relationship with Sri lanka. In March, the Congress-led UPA regime voted at the UN Security Council in favour of a US-sponsored resolution against Sri lanka, for war crimes allegedly committed by the latter during the final phase of its campaign against the terrorist group, the liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Much like its stand on the UN resolution passed in 2012, this decision too deviated from New Delhi’s well-established foreign policy principle that prohibits meddling in the sovereign affairs of another country. By voting in favour of both resolutions, India willfully participated in the West’s campaign to humiliate Sri lanka. Of course, it was all done under the garb of protecting that country’s Tamil minority, supposedly marginalised by Colombo in the post-lTTE years. But given that the UN resolutions were entirely symbolic, they have had no real impact on the ground apart from alienating President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Mr Karunanidhi’s harebrained suggestion too could end with a whimper in terms of impact.
The campaign by vested groups here against Colombo is not driven by concerns for that country's Tamils but by parochial political interests of the kind furthered by the likes of the DMK supremo. let us not forget that between 2008 and 2009, when the Sri lankan Government was fighting a bloody war to decimate the lTTE, the DMK patriarch had maintained a studied silence on the issue. Even though he was the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, he did nothing to ameliorate the plight of the Tamils who, he now claims, were being butchered by Government forces. In fact, it was only after he lost the State Assembly election in 2011 that the DMK chief suddenly developed a bleeding heart for Sri lanka's minority population, even as he resurrected his worn-out agenda for a Tamil eelam. That Mr Karunanidhi's present demands have little to do with either holding the Sri lankan Government responsible for its actions or ‘liberating' that country's Tamil population — and instead have everything to do with electoral politics — is clear to all. Will the Union Government also be driven by the same petty political concernsIJ Already on its last legs, the UPA regime has little to lose by dismissing the DMK chief’s demand. It should allow the country one last saving grace and refrain from yet another policy blunder that will cost India dear.