The hectic Indian General Eelction has just been concluded with an emphatic victory to the Congress Party-led coalition Government. It has remained the only party to gain national acceptance. Its secular policies and appeal to the millions of new voters of forging a Modern India have paid dividends over the Bharatiya Janatha Party (BJP) which was seen as a party playing the Hindu communal card while being distinctively urbane and without grassroots support in the larger Indian states, or without winning allies in these states.

Closer home, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, a desperate attempt by opportunist politicians to play the 'Sri Lanka Tamil' card also came a cropper. The vociferous spokesmen for the LTTE in Sri Lanka have been defeated at the polls.

For Sri Lanka, there really would have been no great concern as to whether the Congress or the BJP became the senior partner in a coalition Government in New Delhi. As far as Sri Lanka's battle against the LTTE has been concerned, both Congress and BJP Governments have been supportive of the Colombo Government , albeit to a limited extent.

Today, India not only has a nuclear pact with the US, but its widening diplomatic ties with Israel are best demonstrated by the purchase of a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle from Tel Aviv - a reconnaissance satellite that can spy on its neighbours.
India has slowly, but surely been also slipping away from the Mahatma Gandhian approach to statehood. And things have come a long way since 1987. The most significant development as far as Sri Lanka is concerned has been its approach to the separatist insurgency which was an integral part of its geo-political strategies then, but since changed after the murder of one-time Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by the LTTE.

Some things, however, have not changed. One is the continuing scenario where no strong Government is elected to run the country, thereby forcing whichever party that forms a Government to do so with smaller partners who then tend to exert pressure disproportionate to their national standing. Despite the resounding victory yesterday, the Congress Government will be a minority Government heavily dependent on other parties.

Principled politicians and political parties are hard to find. The mad scramble for coalition partners to cobble together the numbers to form a Government began even before the results were announced yesterday. So, when Tamil Nadu Opposition leader Jayalalitha Jayaram made that preposterous statement that she would ask the Central Government to send the Indian Army in to Sri Lanka to carve out a separate state of 'Eelam', both Congress and BJP leaders remained silent. The BJP leaders were already being blamed for remaining silent when Varun Gandhi made some inflammatory racial hate speeches. They all lay prostrate before the altar of electoral politics. None were able to rise above the cacophony and play statesman or stateswoman.

Now we see there has been an upset in Tamil Nadu with the DMK of Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi defeating the more fancied Ms. Jayalalitha. Pre-election predictions indicated a sweep for Ms. Jayalalitha's AIADMK, so much so that the Congress was sending 'feelers' to her in preparation for the dumping of its ally, DMK's Mr. Karunandhi. Ms. Jayalalitha's last ditch attempt to whip the 'Sri Lanka Tamil' card by calling for New Delhi's intervention (on election day she asked for another notorious 'parippu drop' a la July 1987) seems to have had no impact in her favour. In fairness to Mr. Karunanidhi, notwithstanding his one-time support for the LTTE, and the suffering he has endowed on Sri Lankan Tamils by that support, he never made such outrageous statements. It also shows that the Tamil Nadu electorate, irrespective of the local media play for such anti-Sri Lanka rhetoric, was neither impressed nor swayed. The problem for Sri Lanka would be that the re-elected Congress Government would now be further beholden to the DMK for delivering the goods.

Tamil Nadu politicians have found the 'Sri Lanka Tamil' issue a handy smokescreen for their inability to stem the chronic power-cuts, unemployment and poverty in that state. 'Eelam' has been a favourite hobby-horse to flog when the chips are down. Yesterday's results however will be an eye-opener that in Tamil Nadu, the fate of the LTTE was not the only factor. The fact that Ms. Jayalalitha tried to outmanoeuvre her opponents with her scandalous statement a fortnight before the polls shows how desperate these politicians can get.

Fortunately for Sri Lanka, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has arguably as many fans as he has detractors in India for crushing the LTTE with a heavy hand. It is incumbent on the part of the Government in Colombo to reach out, without paying 'pooja' to the next crop, or generation of Indian and Tamil Nadu political leaders - Rahul Gandhi's Congress, Narendra Modhi's BJP, 82-year-old Mr. Karunanidhi's daughter's (DMK).

They are the future power-brokers of India and they need to be convinced not only that the 'war against terror' in Sri Lanka is not a racist pogrom but that India's best security in her southern borders is a stable and friendly Sri Lanka.