Sudath Gunasekara

Dear All Patriots,

Please see the following notice by the Indian High Commission calling for applications from children of estate workers

India offers scholarships to children of Sri Lankan estate workers

May 27 (HCI) Applications are invited from the children of Estate Workers, who are residents of Estates, for award of scholarships by the Ceylon Estate Workers’ Education Trust (CEWET).  These scholarships are available for GCE A/L, Undergraduate courses and for students undergoing Vocational/Technical courses. Students, who have passed GCE O/L (with minimum 6 credit passes) or A/L exam, and are below 25 years of age, can apply for this Scholarship.

I quote here  a section from a an open letter I addressed to Prime Minister Modi when he came to Sri Lanka to attend the International  Vesak festival this year where in also I brought up this issue.

2 Stop all direct assistance to Tamil areas in future and all such assistance should be sent to the Government of this country as assistance to all Sri Lankans on a bilateral basis.  Don’t treat Tamils as a separate target group

3 Your Governments present practice of offering scholarships only to Estate Tamils also should be discontinued as it would tantamount to India’s selective treatment to Tamils who are Sri Lankan citizens. Indian assistance must come to Sri Lankans and not to any particular community or area as it will make Sinhalese suspect the Indian agenda behind such assistance. (I am compelled to tell you this as I have seen some paper advertisement in the past by you Embassy in Colombo calling for applications for Indian Scholarships only from Estate Tamils)

These unfortunate practices have lasted long enough. This is how the Indian Government has driven a wedge between native Sinhalese and immigrant Indian Tamils. As such India is more responsible for ethnic clashes and ethnic separatism here even than Britain. Aren’t both parties are contributing to create ethnic compartments and communal unrest and building Chinese walls to keep the communities separately eve their own benefit.

Also tell them to drop Indian identity if they want to be Sri Lankans and develop a Sri Lankan identity, learn the language of the natives and integrate with the natives. Then they will be equal with native Sinhalese. That is the best answer to the current problem.

Actually it is the Government of this country that should make these requests from you. But I am compelled to make these request from you as a responsible Citizen on behalf of the Sinhala Community who are sick of Indian interference in our domestic affairs and secondly, as there is no patriotic  Government with a backbone in this country to do so and stand for its own people. Such action may bring short term political gain to you. But they are detrimental to both countries in the long run. You must not act like a third grade Tamilnadu politician when it comes to matters like this. You must act and behave like an exemplary Statesman representing the land of the Buddha, whom we worship day and night.

Please don’t treat them any more as Indians. They citizens of this country. If you are interested in helping Sri Lanka please offer them to the Government of Sri Lanka without specifying any community. So that the Government can call for applications from qualifies candidate, process them and submit them to you.

I see this action by the Indian High Commission as an unwanted strategy and conspiracy to build up a Pro-Indian Tamil generation within Sri Lanka. While I strongly protest the Indian High Commission’s action I request the Government   of Sri Lanka also to lodge its protests against the Indian High Commissioner’s action and ensure that in future these all foreign scholarships will come only through the Sri Lanka Government. Because it is the Government of the country that should take decisions on is citizens and not a foreign