Sunday Times 2
Rahul’s expulsion from parliament: A red light warning to Sri Lanka
View(s):The suspension of India’s Congress Party leader Rahul Gandhi from parliament, the threat of imprisonment, and being debarred from politics if found guilty on a charge of criminal defamation, sends a red light warning to India’s neighbouring countries.
Indian prime Minister Narendra Modi’s anti-democratic moves, the latest of which is the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi from parliament with severe consequences, appears to be ominous to its smaller neighbours whom Modi has shown interest in bringing under control of the Central Indian government in the interests of the defence of India.
Narendra Modi is riding the ‘Hindu war chariot’, the Juggernaut, smashing the traditions of a country described as the ‘largest democracy in the world’. (Juggernaut is a word taken over from Indian epics into the English language.)
The Hindutva ideology directed against mainly the Muslim minority in India — though the second largest Muslim community in the world — has propelled his party, the BJP, into power and now has enabled it to have a preponderant majority in parliament enabling enactment of legislation that goes against the secular spirit of the Indian constitution. This was evident in overriding the special consideration given in the constitution to the Muslim majority state of Jammu and Kashmir and breaking it up into two states and many other moves of the BJP made against minorities.
Modi is abiding to the Indian Constitution and showing the world how a parliamentary democratic autocracy can be implemented, riding roughshod over the democratic rights of minorities. He is not the first person to do so.
In Sri Lanka, prime ministers and presidents, commencing from Sirima Bandaranaike to Gotabaya Rajapaksa, have successfully used their parliamentary majority, giving them the right to change the constitution or using their executive powers to penalise the minorities through parliamentary majoritarianism to pander to the majority or violate existing legislation.
Rahul Gandhi’s offence was that while addressing a polls rally in 2019, in Karanataka he is alleged to have said: ‘How come all the thieves have Modi as a common surname’.
In India, an old colonial law which makes defamation a criminal offence, still exists in the statute books In Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickremesinghe while being the prime minister with Chandrika Kumaratunga as president, abolished the law on criminal
defamation.
(In passing, we mention that this writer along with some editors of independent newspapers at that time were in the dock facing charges of criminal defamation for publication of articles against officials of the Kumaratunga regime and some were accused of defaming Kumaratunga herself.)
One of Narendra Modi’s politicians — a BJP Member of the Legislative Assembly of Gujarat — who identified himself as one referred to by Rahul Gandhi, alleged that Gandhi had ‘defamed the entire Modi community’ and filed a case in Gujrat, far away from Karnataka.
The Chief Judicial Magistrate H.H. Varma in Surat Gujarat concluded hearing arguments on both sides and sentenced Gandhi to two years of rigorous imprisonment and suspended the sentence for 30 days so that Gandhi could appeal to a higher court.
The Congress Party tweeted that Gandhi would make an appeal in the matter and that he was raising his voice against ‘the dictator’. The Tweet said that the dictator was horrified by Gandhi’s courage and was using the ‘ED Police’ and cases to intimidate Gandhi.
The Indian parliament Lok Sabha (Lower House) and Rajya Sabha (Upper House) acted swiftly after the verdict was pronounced and suspended Gandhi from attending parliament and asked him to quit his official residence.
India’s opposition parties (17 parties) in a rare show of unity met in the office of Trinamool Congress Chief Mallil Kharge and decided that the opposition parties should be united against Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from parliament and discussed strategies that should be adopted though they are distancing themselves from a joint front on other issues. Reports also said that 14 other opposition parties have informed the Supreme Court alleging misuse of central investigating agencies. The Supreme Court will hear the case on April 5, a
report said.
In this undemocratic political scenario, Sri Lanka’s main concern should be the billion-dollar loans obtained from India to overcome the financial crisis both under Basil Rajapaksa as Finance Minister and Ranil Wickremesinghe as the President. The agreements made for these loans have not yet been disclosed to the public or parliament. While Lanka should be thankful to India for these loans in times of crisis, the impact of the strategic interests of India on investments made in this country has to be assessed.
Of particular importance is the nexus between Prime Minister Modi and swashbuckling investor Gautam Adani to whom the Lanka government handed over the Kayts and Delft islands which were earlier earmarked to be leased to China for wind power and solar power generation. It has been over a year since the official announcement was made but what has become of these projects? Is the national grid being supplied with power by these projects? If not when?
More important is the interest shown by Adani in the development of ports in and around India.
Two months ago, Adani had a devastating setback when Hindenburg Research, an investigative organisation into offshore financial empires, alleged that the Adani Group had engaged in brazen stock manipulation over the years.
Bloomberg, the US financial news channel, reported this week that the billionaire is re-evaluating his
ambitions.
Adani who is closely associated with PM Modi’s nation-building efforts will revert his focus to core projects which include power generation, ports and newer green initiatives. These are the types of projects Adani has evinced interest in Sri Lanka.
He has steadfastly denied the allegations made by Hindenburg and called them attacks on India.
The report adds that Hindenburg’s allegations have made Adani’s relationship with Modi fair game with the Indian Congress Party saying that the tycoon
benefitted from special treatment by PM Modi.
‘In a stunning move, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was removed as lawmaker in what he says was retribution for debating Adani’s ties to Modi’, the report says.
If these allegations or presumptions are correct, Sri Lanka’s newest moves in aggressively promoting Foreign Direct Investments will result in the country being placed in an extremely vulnerable state. The investors showing interest in this country are mainly those from India and China. The Indian business community has already declared that it was an opportune time for Indian businessmen to invest in Sri Lanka, as was reported in this column recently.
National security was the main plank on which Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his party were elected to power. They accused Ranil Wickremesinghe of selling the country’s national treasures (Jatika Vastu) when he leased out for 100 years the Hambantota harbour being unable to repay the debts incurred to China for the construction of the harbour and the Rajapaksas’ other narcissistic projects which were deriving little or no income.
National security appears not to be of much concern for this Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa government with the biggest profit-making state-owned enterprises being open for sale. With India sprouting out billionaires in current times at a pace like the number of Naadi Vaakyam horoscope readers a few decades ago, Lanka may soon be like the much desired Singapore but with Advanis, Ambanis and Tatas owning every little bit of our country.
(The writer is a former editor of The Sunday Island, The Island and consultant editor of the Sunday Leader. He can be contacted at gamma.weerakoon@gmail.com)