Sri Lanka

There's been little to no comment on the Sri Lanka election in the Indian blogosphere. Odd, since the outcome is clearly worth noting.

With nationalist hawks in power now, the ill-fated "peace" talks of the past few years are now silenced. At one level, India ought to be pleased -- these were talks aimed at power-sharing with a terrorist (who once had an Indian PM killed, hence can never be forgiven), and facilitated by Norway (what locus standi do they have in India's sphere of influence?).

But, a Tamil friend from Jaffna has a different take. He believes that while LTTE may not be geo-politically savvy, they know Sri Lankan politics quite well. Indeed, the hawks have come to power precisely because Tamils boycotted the polls (the underlying assumption is that this was LTTE's doing). This is the outcome because the LTTE wanted it so. Nitin agrees.

This leaves us somewhat perplexed. How can both India and LTTE seek the same outcome? Who among the two will regret our present joy at the election results?

In the meanwhile, Sri Lanka's stock market is in a free fall.