Conflict in Sri Lanka: Ground Realities - Tamil Nation & Beyond

The question that needs to be asked is how realistic is it for theIndian Government to persist with such a policy when groundrealities have changed significantly during the interveningperiod.Indian policy makers now need to pay heed not only to thespectre of Tamil nationalism but deal with the reality that Tamilsnow exercise physical control over substantial proportion of theirland, have acquired military parity in respect to the Sri LankanState and have established an effective mechanism to administerthe land under their control. The net result is that today, in theisland of Sri Lanka there are two-power centres- Colombo in theSouth and Kilinochchi in the North.India’s foreign policy must reflect these to ensure that both powercentres while accommodating each other do not undermineIndia’s interests in any way.The Sinhala polity:Back in 1988, Professor Wilson, author of Sri Lanka, “The Breakup of Sri Lanka” wrote “My considered view is that Ceylon hasalready split into two entities. At present this is a state of mind; forit to become a territorial reality is a matter of time” 8Seventeen years later, this prediction has come to pass. Today,the Island of Sri Lanka there exist two states - a de facto Tamilstate in the Northeast partly occupied by the Sri Lankan army andlargely controlled and administered by the LTTE and a SinhalaState in the South with a Government elected by the Sinhalese.If there is to be an enduring peace, the Sinhala polity too needsto come to terms with this truth. Instead, imprisoned by itschauvinistic mindset, the Sinhala polity has taken to denyingthe reality by believing the propaganda dished out by its ownmedia.This is nothing new. Throughout the last five decades, theSinhala polity’s behaviour has been one of dismissing the30