UPA’s Sri Lankan fix: Act judiciously

Now that the DMK has spelt out that it is leaving the ruling coalition, no serious purpose may be served by the Congress seeking to push for a resolution in Parliament to harshly criticise the Colombo government for its actions against Tamils following the defeat of the LTTE in the middle of 2009. However, finance minister P. Chidambaram said on Wednesday that the government did wish to convey its own stand to reassure the people of Tamil Nadu and the Tamil diaspora regardless of the DMK’s position. The difficulty with a resolution in Parliament is that it will carry the desired effect only if it is unanimous. The BJP, the main Opposition party, has said it doesn’t favour a “country-specific” resolution. It will, therefore, be interesting to see what negotiated common ground the government is able to prepare in its confabulations with various parties in Parliament. As far as the Congress itself is concerned, its leader Sonia Gandhi has settled the contours of its formulation on the Sri Lankan issue. Addressing the Congress Parliamentary Party Tuesday, she spoke of an “independent and credible inquiry” into the events of May 2009 and “reports of unspeakable atrocities on innocent civilians and children”. She avoided saying “genocide” that the DMK had pressed for. Bringing in another factor not touched upon by the DMK, Mrs Gandhi also spoke of “the plight of our fishermen who are being detained or fired upon by the Sri Lankan Navy”. This covers the Congress’ flanks against motivated political assaults by the DMK if a unanimous resolution in Parliament is not feasible. However, the DMK’s demand for a strong move by India, condemning Colombo for Tamil “genocide”, at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva remains on the table. India’s official position on this is likely to crystallise in the near future, but it will be surprising if it is materially different from the outline that the Congress president has delineated. At any rate, India would appear foolish at a widely watched international forum if its position is substantially at variance with that of the 24 member-countries of the UNHRC. As far as the Lok Sabha goes, the Congress-led UPA-2 coalition has seen an erosion of its numbers, but not to the extent of the government being in danger of falling. That may be the DMK’s regret.