India's Policy Options in Sri Lanka

The tenuous peace in Sri Lanka that has held for the last few years has broken down and a full fledged civil war is again underway.

India is once again under pressure from all sides to come out of its shell and put behind its hands off policy. While this may or may not happen, the question does arise as to what India's policy should be in case it does decide to play a more active role in Sri Lanka.

It is my opinion that India's policy should be work towards a single, consistent goal - that of preventing the emergence of an independent Tamil state on the island, or popular support thereof for a similar idea. The emergence of such a homeland will lead to strategic irritants for India in the long term.

In consonance with such a goal, it makes complete sense for India to call for and actively support the destruction of the LTTE. Prabakaran has made it clear by his actions in the recent past that nothing but a completely independent homeland with him as the permanent dictator would be acceptable to him.

A more subtle point is that India should also make it clear to Sri Lanka in no uncertain terms that a policy against LTTE does not include open season on the Tamil minorities. Recently the Sri Lankan army has not be very careful about avoiding civilian casualties. As the LTTE is able to inflict more and more damage on the Army, the Sri Lankan Army seems to be lashing out blindly upon the Tamil civilians, dozens of whom have lost their lives in recent weeks.

India being silent about these deaths only encourages Tamil sessionnist tendencies in Sri Lanka, something that goes against India's strategic goals. It also runs the risk of turning a blind eye to genuine sympathy that Sri Lankan Tamils (as opposed to the LTTE) enjoy in Tamil Nadu and elsewhere in India.

This battle may be cast by the Indian Government as "India vs Warmongers" or as "India vs Tamils". There is not much doubt as to which policy will pay our country greater dividends in the long term.

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