Will internal issues take precedence in India?

by Uditha Kumarasinghe

Senior Minister for International Monetary Cooperation and Deputy Finance and Planning Minister Dr.Sarath Amunugama said that Sri Lanka and India have close ties at present. Let’s hope that the national feeling articulated by Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should participate in CHOGM would prevail.

The question is whether India’s international role would be influenced due to domestic compulsions especially in view of the forthcoming elections. Internal problems should not affect good neighbourliness, the Minister told the Sunday Observer yesterday.

“There is also a political dimension as the Indian Government has to face an election soon. Therefore, they have to consider the South Indian factor too. We hope that India will look into all these aspects and reach a solution and hope that India would participate in CHOGM,” he said.

Political leaders such as Jawaharlal Nehru and the Congress were like a huge banyan tree but nobody grew under it.

That was the Nehru legacy. But it is now cracking. No single party in India can form a Government without regional parties such as in Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka or Andhra Pradesh. Therefore, any Government needs to consider those regional interests too.

On the one hand, India has to play its regional and global role and participate in global fora such as CHOGM and work with its neighbours and larger groupings, he said.