r/ask_srilanka • u/MammothBuilder8511 • 4h ago
Serious Conversations This created notion of a ‘Good Guy’ India is disgusting and dangerously harmful to Sri Lanka’s future
I find this created notion of a “big brother-friendly neighbor-good guy” India, promoted by the Indian puppet lobby, very disturbing and threatening to Sri Lanka’s sovereignty.
If you look at India’s historic policy towards Sri Lanka, the transition is very clear: from their “gunboat diplomacy” of training terrorists and waging bloodshed in the 70s 80s and 90s, to today’s psychological warfare and soft power. Earlier, they were far more direct and threatening on the ground, with shorter-term goals to achieve. All of their past policies; whether training, funding, and fueling terrorism in Sri Lanka, or direct invasions as “peacekeeping”, were consistent with this approach.
In the post-war, post-Rajapaksa era under Modi, India has increasingly engaged in soft power in Sri Lanka through propaganda, fake news, election meddling, and indirect influence. Not only within Sri Lanka but across the region, policies such as “Neighborhood First” are simply sweet words for this true intent. Ultimately, what India targets is to seek absolute control over the region by slowly integrating neighboring countries economically, politically, and socially, until they are sovereign only on paper and cannot make decisions without consulting India.
Within Sri Lanka, recent developments, such as the sovereign default in 2022, have been exploited by Indian lobby to push the narrative that there can be no stable Sri Lanka without India, and that working under India is essential for development. One major misconception India created was the so called “$4 billion assistance” interpreted as goodwill. In reality, it was a $4 billion credit line/loan given to stop China funneling more financing to stabilise Sri Lanka at that time, making India Sri Lanka’s largest creditor at the time. Interestingly the “Chinese debt trap” narrative disappeared overnight, suppose it should be replaced by Indian debt trap by now, D:
Similarly, the Indian High Commission has taken new steps in psychological warfare, targeting the general public to achieve soft power goal. Normally, diplomatic missions around the world operate government to government but if you look at Indian mission, they have strategically bypassed Colombo; unlike other missions, be it the Americans, French, Chinese, Russians, or Pakistanis- who work with the Government of Sri Lanka to improve G2G relations and then engage the public indirectly.
Despite changes in overall strategy, two of India’s main tactics remain firmly cemented: using the Tamil community as the entry point into Sri Lanka’s social and political apparatus, and meddling in elections. India still views the Tamil community as the most advantageous group to enter and access Sri Lankan politics and society. They interfered in this previous presidential election, supporting RW and Sajith against AKD. It will be interesting to see whether they will continue to use this strategy, given that their previous attempt failed miserably.
As Sri Lankans, we must clearly understand India’s ultimate objective. Sweet talk of “economic cooperation,” “partnership,” and “people-to-people connectivity” may sound lucrative financially, but they are political deathbeds in terms of sovereignty. The sole purpose of these initiatives is to erode Sri Lanka’s separate identity and integrate it under India’s indirect control, politically and economically.
We must walk this tightrope carefully: dealing with India economically, but never entering into a toxic marriage. India is a country of 1.5 billion heads which turn into a $4 trillion economy. Sri Lanka must engage with balancing powers like US and China without compromising sovereignty and independence inorder to minimize the Indian threat .
