India playing double games with Tamils while turning Sri Lanka into an Indian colony

Posted on May 15, 2017 by ADMIN

Sri Lanka’s citizens must first realize that Sri Lanka is an independent and sovereign country in particular the Tamils, the Sri Lankan Government & especially the Foreign Minister & Ministry. If Tamils believe they are not Sri Lankan citizens, they are welcome to live in India where they originated from. However, let them remember that India does not even categorize Sri Lankan Tamils as Persons of Indian Origin (PIO). If so why should Indian PM fool the GOSL to attend the most revered Buddhist celebration of Vesak but make a detour to address Tamils whom India does not give legal place to in India? Are Tamils and Tamil leaders so foolish to fall for Indian stunts that are using the Tamil card as an excuse to turn Sri Lankan into an Indian colony?

India has the largest diaspora population in the world since colonial rulers transported them to all corners of the world as slave labor. That was how Tamils landed up in Sri Lanka too mainly to work on Colonial plantations. It was to these British transported Indians that as ‘Stateless Persons’ citizenship was granted by Sri Lanka.

Known as Indian Tamils (referred to as Malabars) during colonial rule it was only in 1911 that the name Ceylon Tamils was coined. Therefore, the history of Ceylon Tamils as per usage of term is only 106years old.

A Non-Resident Indian (NRI) are citizens of India, holding an Indian passport who have emigrated temporarily to another country.

A Person of Indian Origin (PIO) are persons of Indian origin who are not citizens of India but citizens of another country. Government of India considers anyone of Indian origin up to four generations removed to be a PIO. The Indian Government even gives an identity card. However,GOI does not give PIO status to Indians origins from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Nepal, Pakistan, or Sri Lanka.

REPEAT SRI LANKAN TAMILS are not given status as Persons of Indian Origin inspite of them being of Indian origin. Then why is PM Modi going all the way to the central plains to address them?

 Why is the GOSL giving lands to them claiming they are of Indian origin? We demand answers. http://www.dailymirror.lk/article/Modi-to-address-Tamils-of-Indian-Origin-128156.html Daily Mirror hints that India helped yahapalana government win by asking the central plain Indian Tamil vote base to vote for Sirisena & Ranil in 2015. Does that mean every election any aspiring political party has to woo the Indians and make promises for the Tamil bloc vote base?

 “I did not like to go to India. India is not ours. We belong to Sri Lanka” But India orders them to vote for whom India selects to be the next leader of Sri Lanka.  http://www.unhcr.org/news/latest/2004/10/416564cd4/feature-sri-lanka-makes-citizens-stateless-tea-pickers.html

And if Hill Country Tamils do not want to be called Indian Tamils – why is the Indian Prime Minister going to speak to them?

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/hillcountry-tamils-dont-want-to-be-called-indian-tamils/article8377795.ece

As per Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada & US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants

There are approximately 100,000 Sri Lankan Tamils refugees living in India (as of July 2009) living in over 100 camps in Tamil Nadu, while close to 30,000 live outside of the camps but registered with the police.

These Sri Lankan Tamils are granted asylum under ‘strategic, political & humanitarian grounds’ not because they originated from India.

 Sri Lankan Tamils are issued a family card which includes their contact details in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan Tamils are NOT entitled to residence permits. Sri Lankan Tamil refugees CANNOT own land, houses or vehicles in India but can own cattle. The Tamil Nadu Government went to the extent of even ordering its revenue department to record all property owned by Sri Lankan Tamil refugees believing that the law was not being applied properly.

So what is all this big talk by the Indian Government of their concern for Tamils and shedding crocodile tears for them?

Sri Lankan Tamil refugees are required to produce ration cards to receive rice, sugar, kerosene & other entitlements. The US report claims the health conditions in the camps are of poor quality with scarcity of water and no privacy. Sri Lankan Refugees in Tamil Nadu are placed under police surveillance and have to report to the police every 3 days.

In November 2009 the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu requested the Indian Central Government to give Sri Lankan refugees Indian citizenship (The Hindu 3 Nov 2009) but the request was denounced because India did not want to create a precedence that would make Indians from Bangladesh, Myanmar and Tibet demand citizenship of India as well. So India did not want to make any special concessions to the Sri Lankan Tamils.

Those who originate from India are many. In fact at the time of independence, there were more Indian Tamils than those that were defined as Ceylon Tamils which was one of the reasons why the Sri Lankan politicians at independence including the Ceylon Tamil leaders wanted them to return to India. The Sirima-Shastri Pact of 1964 and Indira-Sirimavo supplementary agreement of 1974 paved the way for the repatriation.

India uses all the following groups to exert political pressure on Sri Lankan Governments.To understand the commercial power they yield, one has to only take stock of the businesses and the entities they own in Sri Lanka.

  • The Colombo Chettys (Casie-chetty name, Fernandopulles, Ondaatje, Candappa, Chittys)
  • The Malayalees
  • The Sri Lankan Tamils (previously Indian Tamils/Malabar Tamils, Ceylon Tamils/Jaffna Tamils)
  • Hill Country Tamils/Estate Tamils/Plantation Tamils/Up Country Tamils(Thondamon, Mano Ganeshan)
  • Telugu community in Sri Lanka (snake charmers)
  • Borahs, (originally from Gujarat- Adamalee and Adamjee Lukmanjee Akbarally, Davoodbhoy, FazalAbbas, Fazleali, Hebtulabhoy, Jafferjee, Jeevunjee, Miajee, Moosajee, Nathani, Rehmanjee and Shethwala)
  • Khojas,
  • Memons (came as traders)
  • Parsees, (Pestonjee, Choksy, Captain, Jilla, Billimoria, Rustomjee, Jevunjee, Dadabhoy, Barucha)
  • Indian Moor

The other important factors that completely demolishes the quest for self-determination or homelands are

  • You cannot have the same ethnic group born in two separate countries and bothclaiming self-determination and homelands using the same arguments.
  • If Tamils in Sri Lanka are distinct from Tamils in Tamil Nadu, they should then claim homeland status by another ethnic name and not use ‘Tamil’ which originated in Tamil Nadu.
  • There was no independent or separate Tamil Kingdom reigned by Tamils who claim to have originated in Sri Lanka. With Sri Lanka invaded on numerous occasions by South Indian kings, these kings ruled for some years before they were defeated by the Sinhale kings. Tamils cannot use these invasions and rule to claim that there was a separate Tamil rule and use that argument to claim homelands and self-determination.
  • The architecture, archaeological and historical evidence available clearly points to Sinhala Buddhists and the prevalence of Buddhist temples, stupas and Buddhist monasteries living in the North. To undermine these facts Tamils now have come up with another imaginary fictional story that they were Buddhists! There is no end to the fairy tales they come up with.

What is obvious is that India is using emotional ties to politically exert pressure against the Sri Lankan Government using the Tamil voter numbers which suddenly keeps inflating inspite of supposed genocide of Tamils. Have you ever heard of Tamil population statistically increasing when Sinhalese are being accused of committing genocide of Tamils?

What Tamils should also ask themselves is

  • If India could separate East Pakistan and create Bangladesh why has India not done the same to create Eelam for Tamils? The ‘rebels’ fighting for independence were created by India & illegal refugees have played a key role in both scenarios. Bangladesh like Sri Lanka is important for India because it is a strategic corridor & India uses its media to invent notions that India has to interfere to protect India’s interests. India’s interests are not the interests of Tamils, hope Tamils realize this.
  • Sikhs demanded a separate Khalistan state in 1946 by Resolution as Tamils have done in Tamil Nadu and thereafter in Sri Lanka through the Vaddukoddai Resolution. The Sikhs & Tamils both have their international head quarters in London. Diasporas of both have invested heavily in this ‘sovereign state’. Storing the Golden Temple in 1984 resulted in the assassination of Indira Gandhi while Rajiv Gandhi was killed by LTTE in 1991. India created Akali Dal & armed & trained Bhindranwale & killed him in 1984. India armed & trained LTTE and Prabakaran was killed in 2009. Both diasporas have similar methods in collecting monies. Indian Government have manipulated Sikhs and Tamils both in Tamil Nadu & Sri Lanka. Rajiv Gandhi signed the ‘Punjab Accord’ & ‘Indo-Lanka Accord’ in 1987. In both cases Indian military took over. Akali Dal state government was dismissed in 1987 as ‘secessionist’ while Sri Lankan President Premadasa annulled the merged NE provincial council following the unilateral declaration of independence by Varatharaja Perumal (Indian stooge).

What needs to be understood is that India will never give Khalistan to the Sikhs nor Eelam to the Tamils especially in Tamil Nadu, but India will use the Eelam card and side with Tamils to turn the areas being demanded as Eelam towards an Indian enclave that would meet India’s historical goal and geopolitical strategy.

Is it that Tamils and Tamil politicians are aware of India’s real motives but are happy to play ignorant because it advances their own agendas (Tamil politicians can make demands, Tamils can claim discrimination and win for themselves asylum and other benefits etc)?

Tamils in Sri Lanka know that Eelam is an elusive deal, they also know that India is playing the eelam card and concern for Tamil card for its own advantage, but why would Tamils wish to compromise an entire country and be party to India gobbling up Sri Lanka to make Sri Lanka its next state? Tamil Nadu Tamils themselves have lists of grievances against the Indian Government.

Do Sri Lankan Tamils seriously think that once India ‘acquires’ Sri Lanka, India will even bother to entertain a single Tamil demand?

Do Sri Lankan politicians who are signing carte blanche deals with India think that once India has enough leverage over Sri Lanka (economically & politically) Sri Lankan politicians will have any role to play in Sri Lankan politics?

These are serious points that Tamils and Sri Lankan politicians need to consider in allowing India and Indian Prime Minister to interfere in Sri Lanka’s domestic affairs. The latest is the Indian focus on Central Province. Was there an Indian hand in the floating of Samooha Needhikkaana Makkal Amaippu (Peoples Organization for Social Justice) launched on Gandhi Jayanthi Day?

You can bet that trouble will commence immediately after his departure with Indian intelligence operatives already busy on the ground to further destabilize Sri Lanka. Once the dog ticks set it, it is difficult for them to be removed.  

There is no reason for any Indian PM to visit a sovereign country and only address one community, when that very community have no acceptance in India legally & constitutionally. Such interferences should not be diplomatically permitted and it speaks volumes of the pettiness of a 1.2billion country aspiring to be a superpower!

Shenali D Waduge

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