I am nobody’s stooge and never will be. I am a Sri Lankan nationalist” – Rajapaksa
Asserting his nationalist credentials Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa has told all countries ‘ even if I call them friends’, that he is nobody’s stooge. ‘I will never be’, he declared in ringing tones ‘…all countries must realise that even if I call them friends, I am nobody’s stooge and never will be. I am a Sri Lankan nationalist’, the President said in an interview to an Indian journalist.
He rejected outright the criticism that India was pressurizing him on the ethnic Tamil issue. And disclosed that if there was any pressure on him it has been coming from the West. ’There has never been pressure from India. Only a desire for more understanding. If any pressure has come on me, it has been from the West’, Mahinda Rajapaksa told Inderjit Badhwar of Gfiles in a candid interview. The Tehelka magazine’s latest issue (August 1, 2009) carried the interview that covered the entire gamut India- Sri Lanka relations, regional security, China’s influence, West’s concerns over human rights, ethnic Tamil issue and above all LTTE’s brutal mission.
While on India, the SL President said, ‘I am sensitive to India’s feelings because Indiais my elder brother, and I have said this openly to Western powers’. He however did not subscribe to the view that Sri Lanka’s commercial and defence ties with Chinawould come in the way of further strengthening and deepening Sri Lanka-India relations. The arms shipments from Chinaand concessions given to Chinaat the Hambantota port are ‘commercial arrangements and strategic deals’, he pointed out. And added that at no time ‘did I keep secret from the Indian government the sources of my arms purchases’.
He disclosed that the Indiawas kept in the picture most of the time. ‘In fact, we gave your security establishment regular briefings’. President Rajapaksa stated that he would not allow Sri Lanka to become a plat-form for anti-India activities by any country. ‘So long as I am in charge ( Sri Lanka) I will never allow Sri Lanka to become a platform for anti-Indian activities by any country’, he told the interviewer. Rajapaksa brushed aside the criticism of the West that that after his decisive victory over the LTTE he was no longer concerned about the rights and grievances of Sri Lanka’s Tamils. ’I do not need lectures from outsiders on Sri Lankan Tamils’, he told his western critics, saying the Tamils are ‘my people’ and ‘our country is proud of them (Tamils)’.
The President pointed to his own abiding ties with Tamils at the personal level and at the political level to make it abundantly clear ‘I will tolerate no injustice towards them (Tamils) as I would not tolerate injustice to any Sri Lankan’. On political solution to the ethnic issue, President Rajapaksa blamed the LTTE for the delay in resolving the Tamil imbroglio. The political solution was delayed ‘not by me’ but by the LTTE ‘who held everyone seeking a political solution hostage to their gun or assassination or mass murder’. He also spoke of his continued adherence to the 13th amendment as a starting point. ‘I have openly spoken about the 13th Amendment as a starting point. It is acceptable to Indiaand it has been accepted in Sri Lanka’.
