CHOGM: British PM does what Indian PM failed to do

 

Chennai: British Prime Minister David Cameron has returned home a victor.  But, his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh, in deputing his subordinate Salman Khurshid, has neither won a single Sinhala smile in the island nor appeased Tamils here ahead of the crucial 2014 polls.

 

For Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa, who hoped to hijack global attention from war crimes by hosting CHOGM, the most undesirable happened - the discourse of CHOGM changed from the usual to probing war crimes committed by Lanka during the bloody 2009 war.

 

A simple study of CHOGM reportage by independent foreign media would demonstrate how awry did Rajapakshe's PR plans go. An AFP report for instance begins with a description “troubled CHOGM summit” overshadowed by boycotts.

 

And for this, Tamils mustering global support against Rajapaksa owe it as much to David Cameron, the first foreign leader to visit Jaffna since the former British colony gained independence in 1948, as they do to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Mauritius counterpart Navin Chandra Ramgoolam who abstained from CHOGM by stating that human rights was more important than commonwealth summit.

 

A concerned Cameron, who, after his 'historic' Jaffna visit said, “This is not going to go away, It is an issue of international concern”, gave an ultimatum to Lanka before he flew back home.

 

Probably, Cameron's caution that he would use his influence in UNHRC to call for a full, credible and independent international inquiry, if Lanka fails to probe the alleged war crimes before March 2014, had upset Lanka so much that a defiant Rajapaksa who earlier cautioned in his opening speech that CHOGM was "not a punitive or judgmental body”, on Sunday dared to recall the shooting of the 13 Irish civilians by British army in 1972 and warned the British PM not to throw stone from the glass house. His brother Basil Rajapaksa even said, “Definitely, we are not going to allow it.”

 

If all Tamil Nadu parties condemned PM for ignoring Tamil sentiments and sending Khurshid, experts slammed Dr Singh's failed diplomacy that left a strategic neighbour red-faced and allowed China and Pakistan to fish in troubled waters.

 

Dravida Viduthalai Kazhagam leader K. Rajendran says; “If one should visit Lanka to raise Tamils issue, why didn't Khurshid talk like Cameron?  What prevented Khurshid from visiting Jaffna? Unlike Indian PM, Canadian and Mauritius leaders gave a reason for boycotting CHOGM.”