Srilanka - Letter to NSA

10.August.2008 

Shri.M.K.Narayanan

The National Security Advisor

Government of India. New Delhi.

Dear Sir,

My humble salutations to you and the honourable office held by you.

I have been an avid follower of the national Security at different levels through constantly updating myself with support of Media reports, writings of responsible and well informed people and intellects of the various establishments of the Union of India and through relevant overseas contacts in countries of strategic importance. I am happy to see the sincere effort put in by people like you and others with great national patiortism.

Of late, I have been keenly following the developments in SriLanka, where I had spent quite some time in running a business at the turn of the century. The considerable time I spent in there has given me enormous knowledge of the people, their culture, their psyche, their attitude towards us Indians etc. I have some of my best friends in life from the Sinhalese community. I had great personal friends in some former cabinet Ministers, bureaucrats and politicians from different political parties in SriLanka. It's never difficult to fall in love with those people.

My understanding after the invaluable interactions with people in SriLanka at various levels over the years is that they are generally sane and innocent people only worried about 'today' and never think about 'tomorrow' or the  'day after'. They also lack a vision and gravely miss the ability to administer themselves effectively in a manner so as to be called a "State". They are more like the people of Nepal, to my knowledge. The Nepalis can only manage a task assigned to them, a simple example being asking them to guard a campus. Though this might be a too simple example it best describes their ability. You design a task and they can follow to implement it, but never ever can plan to execute on their own. Similarly, the Sri Lankans fall way too short in ability to manage their Domestic and National affairs effectively. All this is not news to you as our establishments are much more capable of managing any given situation.

What prompted me to write to you was the news of you, as a National Security Advisor of the Union of India, being treated with so much carelessness and inefficent handling of your security during your visit to the SAARC Summit earlier this month. I learnt that you were left stranded without a vehicle or security and you had to take a taxi from the Conference venue Bandaranaike Hall (BMICH) and had to walk for a certain distance to reach your hotel Taj Samudra having been stopped by local police preventing your taxi from proceeding further, being unable to identify you.

I am surprised the vigour with which you, as National Security Advisor (NSA), have been ferociously supporting the Military action of the Govt of Sri Lanka (GoSL) against the LTTE. Though I am not in favour of the armed LTTE, I firmly believe that without an organization as strong as the LTTE as the sole representative of Tamils of North & East Srilanka, Srilanka would not be a safe place for Indian interests. I am sure we all remember the games that the Late Srilankan President J.R.Jayawardene had played during the times of our Late Prime Minister Mrs.Indira Gandhi. Sri Lankans, being as naive as the above given example of Nepal, are just incapable of safeguarding themselves as effectively as they should. 

I wish better senses prevail in our establishment and a solution to the Srilankan problem is found without compromising the powers of the Tamil people and without any compromise on the necessity that there remains a true and strong representative of Tamil people in Srilanka within a UNITED SriLanka.

Jai Hind!