COLOMBO : Participants at a recent webinar held on ‘Indian Expansionist Designs – A Challenge for the Regional Countries in General and Sri Lanka in Particular’ felt that Sri Lanka should be left alone to develop its own infrastructure without regional interventions.
The webinar was organized by the Universal Human Rights Council and European Institute for Economics, Political & Social Research on September 15
The discussions took place on the sidelines of ‘48th Session of ‘UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) held in Geneva.
The Webinar was moderated by Igochi Ikwue of the director of simple bridge consulting and founder of ripple vision foundation. The other participants included: Latheef Farook – Senior Journalist, Dr M.Shiraz Yoonus- Sri Lanka Political Activist/National Coordinator for Muslim Affairs to the Sri Lankan Prime Ministrer Mahinda Rajapaksa and life member UN Association, Dr.Yousuf Marikkar – Human Rights expert and former guest Lecturer university of Colombo and Ruhunu University.
Speaking occasion, Shiraz Yoonus recalled that Indian expansionism started with the arrival of exiled Indian prince Vijaya. Because of expansionism, Yoonus said India has made Sri Lanka and other countries in the same region suffer politically, religiously, economically, and culturally. Sri Lankans have to accept all of the demands from Indians, both willingly and unwillingly. Problems have been forced upon the Sri Lankans, which has made the developmental rate of Sri Lanka standstill and impacted Sri Lanka significantly. Some of the massive projects were undertaken in Sri Lanka with the Indian patronage.
The panelists agreed that the Indian expansionism has made Sri Lanka and other countries in the same region hindered independent implementation of projects in countries in the region.
The neighboring countries like Nepal, Bhutan, Afghanistan, and etc. are being affected by the Indian expansionism as each country has their own culture, politics and economics but all of other South Asian countries have to ask permission from India whether we can do this or that. India is taking away the rights of each country to rule their own people and do what is best for their citizens.
The speakers criticized the silence of UN and other international organizations on the expansionism of India. They questioned the problem in Kashmir, border conflicts in the region of India as they believe the silence of international community has allowed India for what they have been doing. Additionally, they emphasized the importance of giving back Sri Lanka, as well as other countries the rights to rule their own countries and citizens in ways that the countries want.
