The
ongoing survival crisis of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government
after the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) withdrew support from the government on
the issue of alleged Sri Lankan war crimes on Tamil population of the island
nation with yet another Channel 4 documentary revealing more dirty secrets of
the human rights abuse by the Sri Lankan government in the civil war was yet
another test-point for the Indian foreign policy.
Going
not just by the humanitarian aspect, but also by the requirements of the
internal politics, SOLIDARITY with the Sri Lankan Tamil community is a must as
Tamils are an integral part of India,
but sensitivities of the foreign policy cannot be decided by a community
concern alone.
The
matter becomes even more serious when we see it in the context of the
increasing Chinese collaboration and presence in countries neighboring India, be it Pakistan,
Myanmar, Maldives or Sri Lanka. China, always a belligerent country with
historically proven anti-India stand, is encircling India
effectively and India
needs to find its solution soon.
India, on its part, has
been doing enough for the rehabilitation of the Sri Lankan Tamils in the post
civil war era and that should have been the policy to be followed further,
realizing the fact that India
is not in a dominating position like the China
or the USA
when it comes to the foreign policy matters. And much of it has to do with a poorly
thought foreign policy management.
What
happened in case of the UNHCR resolution on Sri Lankan war crimes only
reinforces the predicament of the Indian foreign policy when the internal
political interests shadowed the demand of the external geopolitical stakes. India decided to vote against Sri Lanka when the need was to
oppose it.
When,
India as a country, cannot exercise effective control over small nations like
Maldives and Sri Lanka, it needs to respect the games of the international
geopolitics and that says go where the national interests lie and here it called
for India to desist going with the US sponsored Human Rights violation
resolution against Sri Lanka because it will enable China to access the
strategically important Sri Lankan territory even more deeply.
And the
Rahul Gandhi led Congress party had this golden chance to begin the process of
undoing the rot, that the grand old party of India, has again, so willingly,
missed.