UPA looks on as LTTE flies high

As the dramatic use of air power by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam makes headlines, there is no reason to believe that New Delhi is surprised. Other than Colombo, New Delhi is perhaps the one Government that is acutely aware of the

significant upgrade of LTTE’s capabilities in recent years.

That the Tamil Tigers were gearing up for air attacks was evident from news reports earlier this month that the Sri Lankan Navy had intercepted ships carrying spare parts and other equipment for the fledgling Tiger Air Force. The LTTE’s successful development of an air force — it has long had an impressive naval capability — is less shocking than the current political reality in New Delhi. It is the UPA government’s policy paralysis that lets the LTTE, which India declared as a terrorist outfit long ago, evolve into a monster.

No political formation in India has a bigger grievance against the LTTE than the Congress Party: the murder of former prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi. Yet it is the Congress-led coalition that has adopted such a dangerously permissive policy towards it. The UPA’s problem is not a lack of awareness of the extraordinary threat posed by the LTTE’s expanding military capabilities or the many dimensions of the Sri Lankan crisis. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee is aware of the intensity of the Congress sentiments and, in his recent capacity as India’s defence minister, should be on top of Indian intelligence on the LTTE. National Security Advisor, M.K. Narayanan, who served as the chief of Intelligence Bureau in the late 1980s when India intervened in Sri Lanka, holds much of the nation’s institutional memory on the evolution of the LTTE. Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon was India’s high commissioner to Colombo less than a decade ago.

Two factors have hobbled the UPA as the peace process unravels in Sri Lanka. One is its political fear of offending the coalition partners from Tamil Nadu, and the other is in letting the Mahinda Rajapakse government — which is chasing the illusion of a military solution to the ethnic conflict — believe that it can take India for granted.

Historically all governments in New Delhi have had to take into account Tamil political sensitivities in dealing with the civil war in Sri Lanka. But few governments have sunk to the depths of such a pre-emptive appeasement of Tamil coalition partners. Whether it is in letting its allies proceed with the controversial Sethusamudram project or in failing to take timely steps to counter the LTTE, the UPA government has chosen to abandon its national responsibilities rather than invite any political trouble in the coalition.

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