UPA shouldn’t succumb to pressure
| by Raj Chengappa
( March 20, 2013, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) THE DMK's withdrawal of support may have jolted the UPA but government stability may not be in danger primarily because not many parties are ready for a general election yet. The BJP has ruled out an immediate no-confidence motion. However, the government survival on its fickle allies, the Samajwadi Party and the BSP, will have its own repercussions. Controversial reforms may not happen. Governance may suffer.
Tamil Nadu has been on the boil for a week due to student protests demanding an international inquiry into human rights violations in Sri Lanka. The UN has estimated that 40,000 civilians died in five months before the Lankan army's all-out war against the LTTE ended in May 2009 with the killing of rebel leader V. Prabhakaran. Last year the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution asking the Sri Lankan government to implement the recommendations of its own body, the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission. Now again the UN Council's meeting is under way in Geneva and the US, France and Norway have moved a resolution condemning the atrocities in Sri Lanka.
DMK leader M. Karunanidhi wanted that India should support a strongly worded UN resolution censuring the "genocide" in Sri Lanka, something the UPA leadership was reluctant to do. He wanted a similar resolution passed by Indian Parliament. There was no way the UPA could give in to DMK pressure. A harder approach means pushing the Rajapaksa government closer to China. New Delhi has ignored human rights abuses in Myanmar and improved trade ties with that country. By similarly engaging with the Lankan government, New Delhi could push for devolution of more powers to Sri Lanka's Tamils. Besides, if New Delhi actively backs the UN resolution on Sri Lanka, fingers could be pointed towards its own track record in Kashmir, Gujarat and the North-East. The UPA could not have allowed itself to be arm-twisted by a coalition partner to follow a particular line in foreign policy that serves a regional interest. The UPA has to work for the over-all national interest, the uncertainty about its own future notwithstanding.
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