File photo of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa
Talking to the Sri Lankan government will always remain a priority, irrespective of domestic compulsions - that's the essential message of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh at the BIMSTEC summit in Naypyidaw, the capital of Myanmar.
BIMSTEC is the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, a tongue twister of a name for a grouping which features Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar and India.
While taking forward India's 'Look East' foreign policy initiative may have been his stated objective, it's the equation with Sri Lanka that the PM has been most concerned about. Dr Singh's meeting with the Lankan President has begun; this comes on a day when more than 30 Indian sailors have been detained by the Sri Lankan Navy. Parties in Tamil Nadu, including the DMK and the AIADMK, have repeatedly stressed that the handling of Indian fishermen who stray into Lankan waters reflects the anti-Tamil attitude of the Sri Lankan regime.
Today, in his meeting with President Rajpakse, Dr Manmohan Singh will be walking a diplomatic tightrope, balancing the needs to be keep the Lankan government engaged with the domestic compulsion of meeting the aspirations of the Tamil electorate.
In fact, in just a few weeks, India will need to decide on another delicate issue potentially affecting ties with Sri Lanka. The US is set to table a resolution against the Sri Lankan government at the UN Human Rights Council for human rights violations in the country against the Tamil community. The US may call for an international probe into the Lankan government's record on human rights and India will be obliged to vote on the resolution. In the recent past, India has voted against the Rajapaksa government at the United National Human Rights Council and last year, under pressure from Tamil parties, the PM decided against visiting Colombo to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting. Speaking to NDTV last night, Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid said, "There is no draft and for me to sort of predict what the draft will be and therefore what our reaction will be would not be fair. Let's have a draft and see what we can do with that draft."
New Delhi may choose to play its cards close to its chest right now, but in a few weeks, New Delhi will need to decide and the tradeoff will be inevitable. What comes first - the strategic importance of engaging the Sri Lankan government or the sentiment of Tamil voters just ahead of the elections?