A Colombo journal has speculated that President Jayewardene might attend the forthcoming Commonwealth prime minister’s conference next month and avail himself of this opportunity to have discussions with Mrs. Gandhi on the Tamil issue. It is difficult to be sure whether or not this speculation is based on official briefing. It is even more difficult to be sure that President Jayewardene would stick to his present plans if he has indeed decided to visit New Delhi next month. But assuming that he has taken such a decision and that he would adhere to it, it cannot follow that diplomatic efforts to find a solution to the complex problem can be stepped down. On the contrary, it follows that such efforts should be stepped up. Like other summit meetings, the one between the Indian and Sri Lankan leaders can be useful only if adequate preparatory work is done in advance. Which is a different way of saying that the broad framework of an agreement acceptable to both the Sinhalese and the Tamils should be worked out before President Jayewardene comes to New Delhi. But going by the report in the Colombo journal cited above, it would appear that the Sri Lankan authorities might be using the possible (not yet certain) meeting between Mrs. Gandhi and him as a means of avoiding a second trip to Colombo by the Prime Minister’s special envoy, Mr. G. Parthasarathy. This raises doubts about their intentions. Perhaps that is one reason why at her press conference in New Delhi last Saturday, Mrs. Gandhi went so far as to say that India was not in a position to accept millions of refugees from Sri Lanka. She also indirectly confirmed that Colombo is reluctant to receive Mr. Parthasarathy.
While it is understandable that foreigners wanting to confuse issues and immobilize New Delhi on a matter of the deepest concern to it should talk of interference by this country in Sri Lanka’s “internal affairs,” it is shocking that some of us should also fall victims to this kind of interested propaganda campaign. The future of Tamils in Sri Lanka is not just that island’s “internal problem” and cannot be treated as such by this country because its own vital interests are involved. The issue bears no comparison with the Akali agitation in Punjab whatever President Jayewardene might say regarding his non-interference in this Indian problem. The Akalis are an Indian problem for hundreds of thousands of Sikhs are not going to pour into Sri Lanka or Pakistan if the Indian government puts down the present agitation with a firm hand. Surely President Jayewardene and his supporters must know that hundreds of thousands of Tamils would in fact flee into India if they continue to feel insecure in Sri Lanka.
So much nonsense has been talked and written on this subject that even Mrs. Gandhi has found it necessary to say that she does not intend to interfere in the island republic’s internal affairs. She has no reason to be on the defensive. India has every right to defend its interest. Its interests are engaged in Sri Lanka. These will be gravely jeopardized if a satisfactory solution of the Tamil issue is not found. It is precisely to avoid such an injury and the consequent public pressure in favour of force that New Delhi offered to act as a bridge between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamils. Colombo is apparently trying to go back on its earlier acceptance of this offer. If this is in fact the case, it should be left in no doubt that this could create a dangerous situation.
No one can possibly deny that President Jayewardene might still need time to bring Sinhalese extremists in his own government and party firmly under control and to evolve a “consensus” with organisations like the Sri Lanka Freedom Party of Mrs. Bandaranaike which can strengthen his position and enable him to reach an agreement with the Tamils which they can live with. We hope that this is his intention in convening a four-party meeting this week. In such a framework it would be understandable that he has kept the Tamil United Liberation Front out of the proposed conference for the time being. But “time being” must mean “time being”. He has to reach an accord with the TULF if Sri Lanka is to stay one country in fact. The TULF’s formal adherence to the objective of a separate state creates a difficulty for him. But it was precisely to enable him to get round this obstacle that India offered its good offices. He cannot in effect (if not in words) sabotage India’s mediatory effort and at the same time refuse to negotiate directly with the TULF on the ground that it has not abandoned its separatist platform without putting himself in a trap from which there can be no easy exit. His western friends should not encourage him to pursue such a dangerous course.