do Indian High Commissioners dread to come to SL?

India’s High Commissioner (HC) to Sri Lanka (SL) , Alok Prasad had to leave SL  even before his official  term was over. It is reported that India’s Foreign Ministry is placed in a deep quandary, for  there is no one to take over as the Indian HC to SL after Alok Prasad. The reason for this is,  many of them who were nominated to take over the post have expressed reluctance to come to SL.

SL figures in the front row among the countries which are considered by India as of importance  when selecting suitable candidates for posts of High Commissioners. It is only after a thorough screening of the candidates that the  Indian High Commissioner to SL is appointed. It is the cream after the screening who are named. When he is nominated for the post of Indian HC to SL , he is considered as having reached  the top echelons of the Indian Diplomatic circle.. It is virtually tantamount to a promotion.. If the past history is reviewed , most of  the Indian High Commissioners to SL were from the frontline of  the Indian Diplomatic circles. On this account, there was a stiff competition in the Indian Diplomatic service to secure this appointment. According to  some sources, the Indian Diplomatic Service reckons this appointment as highly prestigious. But, since of late this appointment to the post of Indian High Commission to SL is looked upon with grave apprehension in the Indian Diplomatic service. This  stems from the fear of potential failure following the assignment as Indian High Commissioner to SL. This fear arose during the tenure of office of the present Indian HC., Alok Prasad. It is also  during this period in the history of Indo Lanka relationship, that  Indian  diplomacy foundered. Alok Prasad could not accomplish anything in the interests of India : first ,was the political solution. The present HC demeaned and diminished the political solution to the lesser important 13th Amendment to the Constitution .  Even there, when it came to the implementation of the 13th Amendment , he was unsuccessful. Next, he was entrusted with the task of securing the approval of the SL Govt. for the ‘CEPA’ Indo Lanka economic agreement. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited SL for the SAARC conference with a view to signing this agreement. But, that too did not  materialize. Alok Prasad’s task of performing the role of  minimizing the relationship of SL with Pakistan and China also  missed the mark.

Previously, the Indian High Commissioners  came to SL as though they were  Emperors .The best illustration was the  Indian High Commissioner ,Dixit who became a controversial figure due to his atrocious and assertive  nature. Those High Commissioners who came to SL after him however did not emulate his ways and  only fitted themselves into the role of merely  giving orders  to the SL Govt. This situation was best exemplified during the period when Nirupam Sen was the Indian HC in SL. At that time when the Palaly Air Base rehabilitation, out of Indian funds, was in progress there existed a close  agreement between India and SL. After establishing the close ties, India’s Defense Attache  Gopinath made a visit to SL and met SL’s Defense Secretary , Austin Fernando. He discussed three  Security concerns of India relating to the Palaly Air Base rehabilitation. The concerns cited were , some as conditions and some as requests .The first request was : Indians were interested in further work on the runway and wished that any such work be entrusted to  India ,as the first option before considering any other Government. The second request was that no third country should be permitted to carry out any military operation from Palaly runway. The next condition was for Sri Lanka  to permit India to use the runway when requested.

The then Defense Secretary, Austin Fernando’s perturbation over these terms and conditions was expressed  in his book entitled ‘My Belly is White’ . He stated thus : “Notwithstanding my hidden concerns , I mentioned to my Minister that I had no problem in agreeing to the first proposition of handing over further work to Indians. I explained to him my concerns on the second and third proposals and my reservations and the need to have political decisions on them.. On the advice of the Minister , I discussed the matter with Nirupam Sen on the telephone, that revealed his concerns on the second proposition on the grounds of the regional geopolitical situation. He stated that giving permission  to use the runway to a third party would indirectly affect India’s interest, which may be caused even by an ‘innocent accident’. I agreed with him as this it was a true situation that could emerge as eccentricities could happen.

He had an alternate for this request. He said he had no objection to the conduct of military operations by SL with a third country, provided such an option for joint co-operation was offered to India first. A decision on this conditionality was beyond my level of decision making. I did not know how the Govt. would react to such a suggestion taking the geopolitical concerns and foreign relations. As much as Indians were concerned on such concerns that might have affected India, I was concerned how such a demand being agreed to would affect our geopolitical stances. Since these issues are not within my reckoning I had to only forward the problems to the Minister , with a proposition that the Prime Minister should discuss this issue with  the Indian High Commissioner.

I submitted this file and had to wait for a few days to receive it back on to my table. I was surprised when I saw the minute made by Tilak Marapana. It said :

S/D

I have discussed the matter with the Hon. P.M.. He was of the opinion that should India insist that the rehabilitated Runway and the Palaly Airport should only be used by Sri Lanka, he would rather prefer the rehabilitation be done with  Sri Lankan funds. He will however, discuss this with the Indian PM in USA and we should await his return to take up with him later.

Tilak Marapana

21/09/2003

This in other words meant that the PM was not prepared to  give in to these types of conditions .Such use of domestic funds would have left the option of who should use the runway in the hands of Sri Lanka alone , but in a really bad situation this gentleness could disappear. Even after some time there was no feed back from the PM, and therefore in desperation I spoke with him, but there was no firm decision taken. My understanding from the discussion was that he felt the demand made by the Indian High Commissioner was too high a stake for a sovereign country to agree. Indirectly interpreted , the PM was not prepared to sell the sovereignty of Sri Lanka for five million dollars!

He rightly quoted an exchange of letters between PM Rajiv Gandhi and President J.R.Jayewardene that would settle this issue without all these complications. Immediately I checked and found the references quoted by him .

My belief was that these two letters have sorted out the problem for Nirupam Sen. Concerns (i) and (ii) were enough to satisfy the demands made by Nirupam Sen , I thought. Therefore , I considered that Ranil Wickremesinghe was right in depending on these letters to sort the problem. The letter sent by Rajiv Gandhi and the confirmation by J.R. Jayewardene were clear indications that Sri Lanka could not let down India by allowing anything to happen that was detrimental to Indian Security interests. The two countries had been great friends and hence in that background I could not understand the logic of including something for which Sri Lanka has already agreed at the highest level for a transaction , which was around US.$ 5 million. I prepared a Dossier and handed over to the PM for his use when he discussed this issue with the Indian PM.

On my repeated requests my Minister had spoken to the PM again , and he confirmed the stance of the latter , as follows :

S/D

I discussed the matter with the Hon. PM. He indicated that the Indian Govt. would be satisfied with what is included in the Treaty. Hon. Moragoda will speak to High Commissioner and finalize it.

Please await this discussion.

Tilak Marapana

28/10

I kept this file with this order and before anything positive could happen with Milinda Moragoda’s intervention or not, , Chandrika Kumaratunge grabbed the MOD on constitutional grounds and I was unemployed with immediate effect from 3rd November 2003. I do not say for a moment that this Indian intervention had any influence on the grabbing of the MOD. That ended the Palaly Air base rehabilitation with Indian assistance under Ranil Wickremesinghe Govt.”

Former Defence Secretary, Austin Fernando was right in his analysis. It was former Indian High Commissioner to SL ,Nirupam Sen who was behind the dissolution of Parliament and the withdrawal of Ministries of Ranil’s Govt. The Nation newspaper confirmed this in an article which related that the then President of SL , Chandrika Kumaratunge has told Mangala of how the Indian High Commissioner instructed her to dissolve Parliament. This is a clear demonstration of the power that was wielded by the Indian High Commissioner then ,whereby he could take decisions relating to the SL Govt. regardless of the approval of the Indian PM and his advisors.

This post of High Commissioner which was possessed of such monumental power then is reduced to a two penny halfpenny position now. It is difficult to ascertain whether this is the consequence of Alok  Prasad’s weakness or President Rajapaksa’s strength. No matter what , there is no doubt that India which  so long taught ‘Chanakya’s’ Diplomacy to SL is these days learning Rajapaksa Diplomacy.