The case for joining India

The case for joining India(as a solution to the Sri Lankan ethnic problem)
India was a state of mind for the outsiders.India was never a political reality until British decided it is high time the world have a mediocre cricket team that would consistently loose to teams from smaller countries to prove that size really doesn't matter after all.Only time India became almost a political reality was 2000 years ago under emperor Asoka.It's not a single country rather a collection of countries with hundreds of different languages and cultures.The miracle is somehow this crazy mix stayed together and thinks about it as a single entity after 50 years (with minor exceptions).Think about it this way folks ,it's our EU .

The pre - independence Ceylon politics was heavily influenced by Indian politics.Gandhi and Nehru visits in 1930's were sort of hidden message saying either we own you when British leave or We are in this together depending on who interprets .(Also Tagore's visits.Being away put serious restrictions on my quoting ability directly from reference material that are not on-line.May be Mephistopheles1981 the closet Indophile can verify) .May be British would have tied us to the freedom at mid-night experiment if not for the military bases and the cool moustache of DS.
That being the history ,we exactly fall into the size and composition of the Indian state with all the cultural connections any other Indian state could claim to their neighbors.The SAARC experiment was supposed to tie the countries together more tightly economically anyway.They were talking about the single entry passports couple years back!We were going to sign a defense fact with India ,weren't we?On the other hand we can't extend Palalay airport ,lease oil tanks in Trincomalee or our President can't take a bathroom break without first getting the permission from Delhi.Why not cut the crap and eliminate the middleman?
The important question is WWPD(What Would Pirabakaran Do)?
Of course on the first glance this one would sure to go down the crapper like the peace talk at airport suggestion.After fighting IPKF and killing Rajiv LTTE wants India to be involved in negotiations and everybody accepts that India is the deciding factor of any settlement.What if there is a mass political movement for joining India among both Sinhala and Tamil communities?Factor in the up-country Tamils and the cozy relationship of SLMC with India.He will be irrelevant if everybody else want to join.There is still a sizeable Sri Lankan Tamil community in India as refugees. That is where most of them would go if the war breaks out again .
To ease the way to merge with India I would say let's lay the ground work now.As soon as possible.
1.Single entry passport
2.Single currency(also free trade)
3.Highway network
(From Colombo) Think about Going to Galle/Kandy within 1 hour ,Trinco,Batticalo in 2-3 hours Jaffna in3- 4 hours maximum.See how tiny we are?My personal bilief is that If we had a good highway network in the country we wouldn't have this trouble at all.Instead of Mahaweli project we should have done this first .That's another post though .
On the same line ,think about Chennai in 6 hours ,Bombay 10-12 hours(I don't know the exact numbers just throwing them out .The point I'm making is to connect with India via land ,Air and Sea as much as possible)
4.More Interaction with Higher Education system in India.
What if we can get it done in next 5-10 years plus a critical mass within Sinhala community to back up the support to join India.
WWPD?

What about the Sinhalese dominated factions?JVP cannot say no ,can they?They wanted to fight India by killing Sri Lankan armed forces and police first .They also re-named Bombay onions and Mysore dhal (Freedom fries anyone?).Then their mighty leader's ass was saved by RAW .There is no bigger buddy than India now.UNP and SLFP are all for good relations bending over backwards for India.That leaves JHU and some irrelevant leftist parties.I'm sure leftists would say yes.How can JHU say no when the country wants to join the holy land where Buddha was born?
I can list plus and minus points for the case.The pluses cancels out lot of minuses and there are ways to get around them ,too.
I'm aware of Subramanium Swami's campaign for totally different reasons.That wouldn't hold us from considering a totally valid option which can bring peace and prosepertity.Let's try the anti-separatism!

Brilliant!

This is freaking brilliant !

Sri Lankan response to Katrina

It seems like president is sending 25,000USD and asking SL doctors in US to help. NYTalso noticed
"
Aid was being promised, too, from overseas. Australia said it was giving $7.6 million to the American Red Cross and sending a team of 20 disaster experts to the United States. Financial aid was also scheduled to come from Japan, Sri Lanka and a handful of other countries.
"

Katrina,Kadhimiya and Tsunami

Just after the Tsunami, Sri Lankan ambassador to US ,Devinda Subasinghe was on C-SPAN .(He did a great job in the US media after tsunami).One of the questions he got from a caller was "What did you do to help when Florida was hit by hurricanes this year?". I think he mentioned that as a resident of Florida for a long time, he knows it first hand but the let the stupid part of the question slip.
It looks like the conditions in New Orleans are getting worse. The people who couldn't leave the hurricane were the poor .There are stories about people pleading for 20 dollars (from Josh Marshall)for gas to get out of the area in Biloxi. The New Orleans' mayor is saying that thousands could be dead.
At the same time there are thousand dead in Iraq and may be thousands dying in other parts of the world without media attention.
One of the news stories that came out at the time of Tsunami was how victims of Belsan terror attack in Russia and victims of earthquake in Iran expressing their sympathy with victims of Tsunami.
I know Sri Lanka cannot do much and I know ordinary Sri Lankan know the loss of loved ones hurts whether it is in New Orleans ,Drafur or Kalmunai.I remember after 2001 flood (or was it 2002?) in Europe Sri Lanka sent some tea to Germany and the German government said they were moved by it.
Ordinary US citizens were the biggest donors and first to respond after the tsunami even before the US government . It is sad that Sri Lankan government hasn't even released a statement. Better if they can send some tea to the thousands of people who are being evacuated from superdome to astrodome ,if they can afford.

P.S.
As an anonymous comment pointed out , now the SL government has released a statement.