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Sri Lankan leaders for Indian model of federalism

V.S. Sambandan

COLOMBO: As the Sri Lankan election caravan winds its way across the island's districts, the Indian model of federalism is cited by the two main contestants, Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapakse and the Leader of the Opposition, Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Quite different from the 1988 Presidential poll, when an "anti-India" rhetoric dominated the election campaign, both parties now refer to the Indian political structure as the way out of the "federalism" conundrum the island-nation is ever-so-frequently boxed into.

Referring directly to the Indian model in his manifesto, Mr. Wickremesinghe says: "Whilst safeguarding the territorial integrity of Sri Lanka we will make a close study of the Indian example of a three-tier system of devolution." However, emphasising a home-grown solution, he states: "finally we must evolve a system of government that can be truly called our own." Mr. Rajapakse's campaign managers cite the Indian example of sharing powers within "a unitary structure." His Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) asserts that it "still stands for a federal solution based on the Indian Constitution."

Political rhetoric

At election platforms, however, the Indian example of federalism has not started to figure, making it, as a Sri Lankan diplomat pointed out to The Hindu : "a confidence-building exercise for an insecure south."

The reluctance to use the phrase "federalism" is largely because of its imagery of secession.

"Heavy political rhetoric has all but brainwashed the people, with both parties trying to bring into the agenda in a disguised manner," the former Sri Lankan ambassador pointed out.

Over the decades, opponents of federalism, the latest in the list being the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) portray it as synonymous with separation. Despite various examples to the contrary, at the ground level it is the JVP-JHU perception that dominates an average Sinhalese mind.

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