The way
the national events and the international developments, directly affecting the
internal politics of the country, are happening tell us the Congress party has
not even given a thought to the prospect that it is the time to change, to
follow the politics of principles, that ‘enough is enough’, that no more
unethical compromises to cling to the seat of power.
Abuse
of power by the democratically elected governments in India has
become a norm and the Congress party leads the pack, for it has ruled the
country for the maximum number of years.
NOW
could have been the time to walk the talk when, once again, Rahul Gandhi, the
future prime-ministerial candidate and the party’s recently crowned vice-president,
is talking not only to change the way the Congress party functions, but is also
speaking about making the Indian politics free of undemocratic values like the
dynasty politics.
Rahul
has not been able to walk the talk in the past and has not been able to leave
any strong political imprint yet but given his brief career in politics and so
a less-exploited stock of ideation from the pool of thoughts, due weightage can
be given to see if he intends to walk the talk this time.
Vote on
the US sponsored UNHCR resolution against the human rights violations in Sri
Lanka was such an opportunity when India needed to think from the perspective
of ‘country first’ and not from the lure of clinging to the ‘power first’. That
would have been a direct reflection of what Rahul Gandhi is talking about.
But!
Alas!
Allegedly,
the slain LTTE chief’s minor son was killed by the Sri Lankan troops in cold
blood after he was captured during the civil war. Overall, there has been a
global outcry on how the island nation crushed the LTTE war, greatly
compromising the human rights of its Tamil population.
Post
the civil war, efforts are on to the rebuild the nation and here, the
international community including India can do much to ensure that
the Tamils get what they lost during the war phase, by extending assistance and
supervising the process effectively under some United Nations mandated body. If
the international community could not interfere during the civil war phase, it
has no right to make a point out of the civil war dangerous enough to derail
the rebuilding process.
The
compulsions of the foreign policy said India
needed either to abstain or vote against the resolution moved by the US.
Sri Lanka is strategically
important for India
due to its location. Any deeper access to the anti-India powers like China or
Pakistan in Sri Lanka is something India would never like to think of, for it
would provide the these countries strategic outreach to India. But that has
been happening in Sri Lanka
for quite sometime now. China
is developing projects in Sri
Lanka, latest being launching the island
nation’s communication satellite in the space.
India needs to be alarmed
at the rate such events are happening in its neighbourhood. China is making good inroads in Myanmar, Nepal,
Maldives and Sri Lanka.
India, a country that is
not in a position to armtwist its neighbours, should adopt a policy to go along
where its national interests demand to go.
In case
of the UNHCR resolution, India
needed to follow a path that would not allow China
deeper access in Sri Lanka.
But India
didn’t do that because it needed to placate political allies like the DMK in
order to save its government that is surviving on volatile support of
not-to-be-trusted political parties like SP or BSP who can pull the plug on any
given day after the DMK withdrew the support.
But!
Alas!
There
was no walk the talk moment. The government chose to play safe in order to save
its days in the office, even if it was at the cost of a potential foreign
policy risk that can give India
security nightmares in future.
The
Congress party led government could have set a precedent by sending out a tough
message that it was not ready to compromise with the national interests anymore
by not supporting the Sri
Lanka resolution during its vote.
But
that didn’t happen.
It was
never enough just to have a resolution diluted that is what many see as India’s doing.
As of now, the DMK has criticised the government for failing to introduce tougher
words in the resolution and has said would not join back the government. But
who knows what happens tomorrow.
The way
the top leadership of the Congress party went into panic on CBI’s raid at M K
Stalin’s residence last morning tells us the government still believes it can
bring the DMK back on the table.
The India vote against Sri Lanka on the UNHCR resolution was,
indeed, yet another let-down by the Congress party.
And
this is not the standalone event diluting the Rahul Gandhi hard-talk about the
politics of probity.