External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjees dash to Colombo comes quick upon Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhis renewed call to the Centre to show some insistent diplomacy. With the Sri Lankan army piling up successes against the LTTE,Tamil Nadus politics has been simmering with demands that New Delhi put pressure on Colombo to kickstart a political process to solve the longstanding ethnic conflict. In this context,Karunanidhi had threatened to withdraw the DMK from the UPA coalition. With Mukherjee undertaking the visit,the ultimatums in Chennai have subsided somewhat. The visit,though sudden,is therefore timely. With it,the MEA should take control of the direction and tenor of diplomacy with Indias island neighbour.
Mukherjee has correctly separated the status of the LTTE from that of Sri Lankas Tamil population. India,he said before leaving for Colombo,has no sympathy with terrorist organisations like the LTTE. Its chief,V. Prabhakaran,is after all among the most wanted terrorists in this country. But for the series of swift military successes against the Tigers to be fully beneficial,the Sri Lankan authorities need to see that humanitarian assistance is rushed to the civilians,mostly Tamils,in the affected theatres of battle. Also,for any lasting peace to be a consequence of the LTTEs reverses,a political solution must be begun.
All multi-ethnic societies struggle with issues of representation; it is a process of accommodation that never stops. In the years of conflict and then of the ceasefire and its dismantling,Colombo postponed the issue. It cannot afford to do so any longer.
