The Flight of the Eagle-High Cost of India s Sri Lanka Policy


The Flight of the Eagle High Cost of India's Sri Lanka Policy Anil Nauriya THE Indian action in Sri Lanka has been welcomed, albeit in varying degrees, in domestic circles. The extent to which reactions outside India have been virtually blacked out by Indian newspapers can hardly be accidental. At other times, even a word of grudging praise by some obscure western newspaper is enthusiastically reported in the columns of Indian newspapers. The welcome, whether gleeful or cautious, extended by the opposition parties and the non-official media is founded almost entirely on the justifications that there may have been for the measures taken. A discussion of this kind is bound to be very subjective and, given the specific nature of the Tamil problem, highly emotive. Save on the question of international law, on which the position is quite clear, various views can be taken to show why the action was warranted. For our purpose it is not necessary to present them. As the entire matter is, in any case, a fait accompli the next and perhaps the more important question concerns the long-term consequences of what has been done.