Integrity Score 270
No Records Found
No Records Found
The Accords continues.....
The Indo–Sri Lankan Agreement was the result of a bold initiative by
Rajiv Gandhi. It is easy to criticize this initiative if one is not involved
personally in the process. This process was long and arduous. The nature
of the ethnic crisis did not permit a linear solution.
Fulfilling the legitimate
aspirations of the Tamils who were relegated to the position of second-
class citizens in their own country and at the same time preventing the
island nation from breaking up and keeping the meddlesome external
powers out of the region were the main planks of India’s strategy. India’s
perspective on the ethnic crisis was shaped by Rajiv Gandhi, and the strategy
devised by him was fundamentally sound. It must be remembered that if
India had not guaranteed the implementation of the agreement, no
agreement would have been possible. Similarly, it is an undeniable fact
that India’s timely intervention saved the lives of ordinary Tamils of Sri
Lanka who were subjected to a well-planned military campaign by their
own Government. So, non-intervention was not an option. But India did
not go over the line and its overall objective in Sri Lanka had the acceptance
of the international community.
The political changes that took place in Sri Lanka in 1989 subsequently
made the agreement a non-starter. After the departure of the IPKF, the
LTTE reoccupied Jaffna and restarted its violent campaign. Sri Lanka was
back to square one.
Many years later, in a well-planned and well-executed army campaign,
Prabhakaran was killed and his comrades were wiped out. Civilians in the
Tamil areas suffered grievously at the hands of the security forces. Militancy
did not achieve anything. It only brought untold miseries to the Tamils in
Sri Lanka. The events that unfolded in Sri Lanka in the next two decades
unmistakably proved that the Indo–Sri Lankan Agreement would have
provided a rational basis for finding an honourable and durable solution
to the ethnic crisis in Sri Lanka.
To be continued....