Modi plays Santa and wows Gota with a fistful of 450m US dollars
India unveils new ‘Neighbour First’ policy towards friends in the region
India’s Delhi would have certainly worn a newer face when Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa set foot on its soil this Thursday evening -- a face definitely friendlier and more welcome than the one he would have been accustomed to have seen the last time he was here in India’s British built capital five or six years ago. So too would have been the climate. Then frosty, now more warm and inviting.
Then he had been summoned to the Indian city as the Defence Secretary of Lanka during his brother Mahinda’s second tenure as the President. It was to receive a pukka sahib ticking off as to why he had not kept India abreast with the information that a Chinese submarine had surfaced at the Lankan port.
Today, the rainbow welcome made it clear what a difference the passage of time makes and when the political fortunes of one turn full circle. If it then had been chicken tikka masala dished out by some minor ministry official, today it was a succulent full chicken roast cooked in clay pot tandoori oven and served by no less a personage than the Prime Minister of India.
And as for the kulfi, India delivered a damning indictment on the MaithriRanil government that had failed to deliver the goods the region demanded for its stability; and hailed the new Lankan President as the honoured guest and the man for the present season. It was a complete U-turn by India of its policy towards Lanka which not even five years ago had, along with America, called for regime change – Rajapaksa regime.
In a land of 22 major languages written in 13 scripts plus English to boot and 720 dialects, India was speaking in a different tongue now than the official Hindi she had spake then, demonstrating the age old maxim that there are no permanent friendships between nations but only permanent interests. And there was more.
If Narendra Modi had wooed Donald Trump in Washington with words of praise, he wowed Gotabaya Rajapaksa on his own home turf by playing Santa
Claus before Christmas and presenting the Lankan President at the Hyderabad House where the talks were held on Friday with a 400 million US dollar credit line to boost development plus a 50 million US dollar grant to beef up the intelligence network. At a joint press briefing the Lankan President thanked Prime Minister Modi and said, “since the recent experience of Sri Lanka we have to re-think national security strategies. Assistance from India in this regard is most appreciated” and Modi’s assurances are most encouraging.
The fisherman’s issue had also been discussed. And that steps to be taken to release the Indian fishermen’s boats. He also invited Indian Prime Minister Modi to Sri Lanka as the first ever foreign leader to visit the country after his election. Modi also unveiled a brand new Indian policy called Neighbours First, geared to enhance the security of the region.
Perhaps it was with some trepidation that President Gotabaya had undertaken his visit to India. After the invite had been delivered to him personally by India’s External Affairs Minister, Jaishankar, the Indian government issued a statement that had been “conveyed to President Rajapaksa India’s expectation to arrive at a solution that meets the aspirations of the Tamil community for equality, justice, peace and dignity”. Observers interpreted this as a sign given by India that it will not hesitate to use the Tamil issue to curb Lanka’s pro-Chinese tilt.
But Gotabaya need not have been unduly worried about it. Even before he had set foot in India on Thursday evening, Indian External Affairs Minister, Jaishankar had already been carrying the can for him and telling the Rajya Sabha that Gotabaya had assured India that he represents all Sri Lankans.
Jaishankar was responding to MDMK member Vaiko’s allegation that President Rajapaksa was ‘responsible for the genocide of Tamils.’
“I had visited Sri Lanka a day after he was sworn in as President. We discussed our bilateral relationship briefly. The President assured us that he is today the President of all Sri Lankans. We need to look at that assurance and obviously whatever discussions happen during his visit would demonstrate where that assurance holds,” Mr. Jaishankar said.
Now the question to be asked is how the Chinese figure in this cozy IndoLanka equation? How they fit- in in India’s Neighbour First policy? Especially when China too is a neighbour of India – not merely an armslength neighbour with a comforting Palk Strait between them but a next door neighbour only a shout away -- and India’s Neighbour First policy seems to be designed specifically against her.
Even as the Chinese have invested in Lanka, Indian investment too has not been insubstantial. All India Radio reported, “India is one of the largest investors in Sri Lanka with cumulative investments of around 1.239 billion dollars. The investments are in diverse areas including petroleum retail, IT, financial services, real estate, telecommunication, hospitality and tourism, banking and food processing. Sri Lanka is among the major recipients of development assistance from India. India’s overall commitment stands close to 3 billion dollars, out of which around 560 million dollars are purely in grants.”
But impressive as it may seem it pails into insignificance when compared to China’s breathtaking investment portfolio in Lanka. To name a few that make clear China’s intentions to stay, one is the $1 billion Hambantota Development Zone, the other the $1.4 billion Colombo Port City project with a 99 year lease on the reclaimed land which is expected to attract $ 13 billion in investment over the next 20 years, and the $1.35 billion Norochcholai Coal Power Plant project.
But is China worried? It seems not. Unlike India that showed undue haste to be the first nation for Gota to visit and Modi’s hand, the first foreign leader’s hand for Gota to shake since his election to the presidential office, China, in the manner of a slothful panda bear, took it easy and displayed no anxiety attacks over Gota’s visit to her land. Instead, she took a laid back attitude and merely said, ‘No Rush’.
Chinese Leader Xi Jinping in his congratulatory message to the Lankan President said, “I highly appreciate your continuous support and contribution to China-Sri Lanka friendship and cooperation. I attach great importance to the development of our bilateral relations and wish to work together with you to enhance our political mutual trust, docking our development visions and deepen our practical cooperation within the framework of the “Belt and Road Initiative”, to start a new chapter of China-Sri Lanka Strategic Cooperative Partnership and to bring more tangible benefits to our two peoples.”
The Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka and his delegation calmly trooped in to the President’s office to convey to Rajapaksa his government’s congratulations and also to invite him to China at a mutually convenient and mature time.
A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy said, “We want the new government of Sri Lanka to settle down first.”
See, no rush. No Chinaman in Beijing was reported to have choked on his chopsticks hearing the news that the Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had first visited India instead of China. There was no need to. China knows that wherever prodigal Lanka may wander, he would always return to her bosom seeking succour and last refuge.