Indian fishermen should be treated in humane manner: PM tells Mahinda Rajapaksa

Naypyidaw, Myanmar: Talking to the Sri Lankan government will always remain a priority, irrespective of domestic compulsions - that's the essential message of the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh at the BIMSTEC summit here 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. Today, the PM met Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa on a day when more than 30 Indian sailors have been detained by the Sri Lankan Navy. Without getting into specifics about today's incident, the Prime Minsiter reminded Mr Rajapaksa of the need to ensure that Indian fishermen in Sri Lankan water need to be treated in a humane fashion. 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 Rajapaksa, Dr Singh brought up the issue of a United Nations Human Rights Council resolution against Sri Lanka which is just weeks away from being voted on. But in this, there is some good news for Delhi as it tries to balance the sentiment of Tamil voters and the imperative of a strong foreign policy. NDTV has learnt that the draft UN resolution which is sponsored by the US and the UK among other states does not call for country-specific sanctions against Sri Lanka for its human rights record. However, it does call for "independent and credible international investigations in the absence of credible national progress" in the process of reconciliation with Tamil minorities on the island. 

In the recent past, India has voted twice 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.

New Delhi may choose to play its cards close to its chest right now, but in a few weeks, the government will need to decide and the trade-off will be inevitable. What comes first - the strategic importance of engaging the Sri Lankan government increasingly being wooed by Pakistan and China or the sentiment of Tamil voters just ahead of the elections?