Author: Marwaan Macan-Markar
Publication: Asia Times
Date: January 27, 2005
URL: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/GA27Df04.html
Within a month of the tsunamis battering
12 countries across South and Southeast Asia, together with East Africa,
India has gained a new political foothold in the Indian Ocean region.
Nothing captures this emerging climate
better than the reception extended to India, itself a victim of the December
26 tsunami, from Sri Lanka. This week, an Indian naval medical team was
given a rousing farewell as it left the port town of Trincomalee, in northeast
Sri Lanka, after completing its mission of mercy.
Elsewhere across the South Asian
island similar scenes of gratitude are being enacted to thank the large
contingent of Indian military and naval personnel who began arriving in
Sri Lanka hours after the tsunami struck as part of New Delhi's "Operation
Rainbow".
"Indian assistance has had a tremendous
impact across Sri Lanka," Iqbal Athas, a senior defense analyst at the
Sunday Times, a Sri Lankan English-language weekly, told IPS. "People are
thanking them for coming to the country's rescue despite India also being
affected."
But India's tsunami assistance rendered
to its immediate neighbors can also be viewed as going beyond the humanitarian
dimension. "India's willingness to help Sri Lanka and the Maldives clearly
indicates that New Delhi takes an active interest in the region," Betram
Bastiampillai, former professor of history and political science at Colombo
University, said in an interview.
From the geopolitical front, New
Delhi's helping hand also virtually put a stop to possible challenges from
other contenders for power and influence in the region, such as China and
the United States, at a time of crisis. "India's actions were also pursued
to prevent other countries trying to step in ahead of her in an area that
comes under its sphere of influence," Bastiampillai added.
India's commitment to help Sri Lanka
- which has the second highest death toll from the natural disaster, with
close to 38,000 deaths - has not been limited to aid in the form of assistance
from its military and navy, supported by ships, aircraft and helicopters.
New Delhi has also pledged US$23 million to help rebuild the South Asian
island's coastal areas.
The collective impact of such goodwill
has washed away the bitterness that lingered as a result of the two previous
Indian interventions in Sri Lanka over the past two decades. The first
was in June 1987, when five Indian military transport planes dropped 25
tonnes of relief over the north city of Jaffna. The aid was for the beleaguered
Tamil population under siege following an assault mounted by Sri Lankan
forces against the Tamil Tiger rebels, who had the northern city under
their command.
Soon after, relations between New
Delhi and Colombo plummeted to an all-time low, with leading voices of
Sri Lanka's then political establishment lashing out at India, accusing
it of being the region's bully. Then came the humiliating end to the Indian
military's two-and-a-half years stay in Sri Lanka as part of an accord
signed between New Delhi and Colombo in July 1987. The Indo-Sri Lanka pact
was meant to usher in peace on the islands northern and eastern provinces
- the areas where the Tamil Tiger rebels were waging a separatist war to
carve out a Tamil state.
But the Indian Peace Keeping Force
(IPKF) was soon set on by the Tamil Tiger rebels, resulting in the death
of over 1,500 Indian soldiers and with nearly 3,000 injured. The Sri Lankan
government at the time added to India's misery by ordering the IPKF out
of the country's shores rather than thanking the Indians for their assistance.
"The past tensions have been overcome
by what has followed the tsunami," said defense analyst Athas. "India and
Sri Lanka have forged new, close bonds. There is a new respect for India."
India's stature in the region has
gained in magnitude due to another tsunami-related policy - namely New
Delhi's reluctance to accept foreign aid to help its devastated south-eastern
coast, where nearly 9,000 people died due to the killer waves. The Indian
government has taken on the burden of footing the entire disaster relief
bill, estimated at over $575 million.
Of the 12 tsunami affected countries,
only Thailand, where over 5,300 people died, ranks with India in turning
away direct foreign aid for relief efforts. Bangkok's decision was rooted
in the self-confidence and pride of being able to manage its own affairs,
as was reflected by New Delhi.
The diplomatic edge India has gained
by aiding Sri Lanka and the Maldives has also come in the way of US forces
being showered with all the praise for their relief efforts in Sri Lanka
and the region's worst hit country, Indonesia, where over 200,000 people
died due to the tsunami.
In fact, an Indian news magazine
reveals that New Delhi's prompt response to be the first to send relief
to Sri Lanka was largely to preempt Washington stealing a march over India
in its own backyard. "The decision to deploy relief ships was hastened
by reports of a possible large-scale US deployment in the region," writes
Saikat Datta, in the latest issue of Outlook. "The Indian response was
in tune with its stated policy of looking after its strategic interests
in the Indian Ocean region," added Datta.
And in doing so, the South Asian
nation has achieved a milestone. According to analysts, India's foreign
relief efforts were the largest since the country gained independence in
1947.
(Inter Press Service)
