The opposition DMK and Congress have questioned the absence of India at the time of voting on the resolution on ‘Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka’ in Geneva on March 23. It is alleged that thousands of people were killed in those last days of the brutal quarter century long civil war.
The two political parties may make it a poll issue against the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is in power at the Centre, but contesting election in alliance with the ruling AIADMK in the state.
The DMK leader M K Stalin and former Union finance minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram are of the view that India should have voted in favour of the resolution. After the passing of the resolution Stalin strongly criticised India’s stand.
While 22 out of the 47 members of the United Nations Human Rights Council supported the UN resolution condemning Sri Lanka, neighbouring China and Pakistan were among those who opposed it. India was among the 14 countries which abstained from the voting. Only a few weeks back Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was in Sri Lanka.
The keen watchers of India-Sri Lanka relationship are of the view that Colombo’s tilt towards Beijing might have compelled New Delhi to adopt this stand. India and Japan had in 2019 signed a deal with Sri Lanka to build a terminal in Colombo, but the Sri Lankan government on February 2 this year pulled out of the agreement. India was surprised by this move as less than a month before, the external affairs minister S Jaishankar had made a trip to that country. As India wants to get back this contract it, along with Japan, decided to abstain from the UN Resolution.
The voting in UN has come just less than a fortnight of the April 6 Assembly election in Tamil Nadu. The relationship with Sri Lanka always has its shadow on the politics of Tamil Nadu.
It needs to be mentioned that the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in Tamil Nadu on May 21, 1991 when he was in the state on the eve of the Lok Sabha poll. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was held responsible for the assassination.
