Delhi must explore Lankan Prez’s idea

On a visit to Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka, President Ranil Wickremesinghe appeared to push the right buttons. He said his government would announce new reconciliation measures next month, and also signalled his readiness to “fully” implement the 13th Amendment, a constitutional provision for devolution of power to the Tamil minority in the north. He also reminded his audience in Jaffna of an agreement with India, signed during his visit to Delhi last year, to increase connectivity between the two countries by way of a land bridge between Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu and Thalaimannar in north-western Sri Lanka. Wickremesinghe clearly wants the support of the minority Tamil community as the country, reeling under an economic crisis and International Monetary Fund rescue conditions, braces for a double election this year, parliamentary and presidential. He was also likely messaging Delhi, whose good offices the Tamil community has continued to seek on the questions of constitutional reform, and post-war accountability and reconciliation. The land bridge has been his big idea for closer “economic integration” with India. Since taking charge last year, he has also called for setting up special trade areas with the more developed southern Indian states.

Sri Lanka's Tamil community has been waiting in vain for nearly four decades for a resolution of the big national question. Since the war ended, there has been a creeping Sinhalisation of the north and east, including a calculated Buddhist encroachment on religious land. A land bridge between India and the Tamil north holds many economic and people-to-people attractions, not just for Sri Lanka's minority community but, as Wickremesinghe has said, for the entire country. 

However, no further word has been heard from India on this project since Wickremesinghe's visit six months ago. Delhi may appear to be dragging its feet on his invitation to participate in a strategic infrastructure project, but it is also possible – even likely -- that Delhi  is waiting to see if Colombo makes good on its promise of full implementation of the 13th Amendment, especially as this project is expected to link India and Sri Lanka through the Tamil north, where there has been no provincial government that can decide on how to utilise land resources. A provincial government elected in the north after the war did not have land powers, though these are written into the 13th Amendment. Most Sinhala nationalists oppose the full implementation of the amendment as it was a constitutional provision introduced at India's persuasion in 1987. The idea of a land bridge has come from a Sinhalese leader with a broader understanding of Sri Lanka-India relations than most. But how the majority Sinhalese perceive such connectivity and its potential impact on the Tamil question is what will make it or kill it.