PARLIMENTARY ELECTIONS IN SRI LANKA

Having won all the elections, the Council Elections, the Presidential Election and the General Election Rajapaksa, the President of Sri Lanka can feel safe and secure. Having failed to win the confidence of the people the opposition has brought discredit upon itself. Indeed the voter turn out reported to be around 54%, was all time low. All the same it does not belittle Rajapaksa’s victory. His party, United People’s Freedom Alliance, a group of ten parties, bagged 143 seats out of 225 in the election held almost a year after the Lankan army put the LTTE to rout. LTTE believed to be the well organized militant group in the world was defeated and its leader Prabhakaran was killed in a fierce battle by the Lankan army. The LTTE is said to have had an Air force and Navy of its own.
Neither the United National Party (UNP) led by the former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe nor Democratic National Alliance (DNA), led by the retired General Sarath Fonseka, one of the main architects of the military victory of the Lankan army over LTTE, could not win the confidence of the people.
The pro-LTTE, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) managed to bag 16 seats six seats less than what it had in the last assembly.
Having tasted military as well as electoral victory, President Rajapaksa described his party’s electoral victory as an endorsement of his policies and a rejection of the allegations against his government. Agencies reported Rajapaksa as having said, “The assured majority in Parliament given by the votes encourages the government to proceed with its policies for the strengthening of peace and reconciliation, reconstruction, greater infrastructure development, increased investment in identified areas of growth”.
Rajapaksa needs the support of just seven members for a two-thirds majority in the parliament. Anyone who has been watching Rajapaksa knows that winning the support of seven legislators is child’s play for the shrewd politician that he is.
According to Ranil Wikremesinghe, however, the results are not an endorsement of the government policies. He is reported to have said that the fact that the percentage of the people who did not turn out for the voting was about forty eight was an indication of the people’s indignation at the government’s policies. All the same, he has not been able to explain his party’s dismal performance.
Now that the President has all the power he needs at his disposal he must in all earnestness take the initiate to solve the decades old ethnic problems of the island. Though the LTTE has been wiped out, the causes that gave rise to the LTTE have not been addressed as yet. Rajapaksa’s contention till now has been that a constitutional amendment, for which a two-thirds majority is needed, is necessary to solve the ethnic problem. Now that he has in his hands as it were what he lacked, he must move fast. Other he will lose faith that the people reposed in him.
Let’s hope that Rajapaksa will employ the mandate he has been given judiciously. Let’s us all who want to see a peaceful solution to the Tamil ethnic problem hope that it will emerge soon.

INDO-RUSSIAN RELATIONSHIP

Indo-Russian relationship has stood the test of time. Russia has always stood by India in the International forums. Even the collapse of the USSR has not dented the relationship in anyway. Russia had even offered to hand over the technical know-how of the cryogenic engine to India. Unfortunately succumbing to the US pressure Russia later withdrew from its earlier stand.

The Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed many agreements when Putin visited India in early March this year. They are expected to strengthen the bilateral relationship between the two countries further.

At a time when the nuclear energy is expected to meet the ever increasing energy needs in India Russia has promised to build a nuclear reactor at Haripur in West Bengal and two at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu within the next ten years. The Russians has reportedly told India that they could build 10 to 12 nuclear reactors in India in no time. This assurance has helped India to heave a sigh of relief.

Sergei Ivanov, the Russian Deputy Prime Minister said that his country had promised India that it would build “16 nuclear energy units” in India. Both the countries have also agreed to cooperate more in the exploration of gas and oil as well. It could lead to an over all surge in the bilateral trade between the counties.

The defense deals India signed with the US, Israel and other counties had made Russia anxious. Manmohan Singh sought to ally the Russian anxiety by saying that they “had finalized several important and long-pending defense cooperation projects”. Putin on his part assured India that it would keep the interests of India in mind and would not have any defense deals with Pakistan.

Not to be outdone by other countries especially the US, Russian have expressed their readiness to produce its fifth generation fighter as a joint venture with India. India is reported to have conveyed its readiness to Russia. If both the countries are able to work out the details it would be the second joint venture by India and Russia after the BrahMos cruise missile.

Though there is no denying the fact that this news is heartening to India, India should not hasten to sign agreements with Russia. Unavailability of spare parts has always caused much heartburning in India. We must before signing any agreements get an assurance from Russia as to the availability of the spares. This is important in the context of the Russian ambassador’s own admission that even Russia has problems getting spares for its own use. Many of the factories that make the spare parts are located in former Soviet Republics.

India and Russia have also settled the disputes about the cost of the submarine Admiral Gorshkov. It was in 2004 that India decided to buy the submarine from Russia. The agreed price was $974 million. However, as Russia took time to restructure it according to the needs of India the price also kept soaring. Now both the countries have arrived at a price of $2.3billion

Let us hope that the time-tested relationship between the countries will become stronger in the coming days.