BY : TOI

India continues to dither about whether to drastically upgrade its ongoing military aid to Sri Lanka to include "offensive capabilities" as well, even as Colombo increasingly turns to Pakistan and China for help in its bloody fight against LTTE.

The worsening security situation in Sri Lanka and its implications for India, with both Beijing and Islamabad making inroads into the island nation, came up at a high-level meeting chaired by defence minister A K Antony on Tuesday.

The meeting, which reviewed the "overall security scenario" in India's neighbourhood, was attended by national security advisor M K Narayanan, cabinet secretary B K Chaturvedi, Army Chief General J J Singh, Navy Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta, IAF Air Chief Marshal F H Major and defence secretary Shekhar Dutt, among others.

Though the huge spurt in infiltration across the Line of Control in J&K over the last three months also figured in the meeting, the question about stepping up military aid to Sri Lanka seems to have divided India's security establishment. The armed forces do not want the "story" of Myanmar which saw China, and to some extent Pakistan, gleefully step into the vacuum created by India's cold-shouldering of the military junta there in the 1990s to be repeated in Sri Lanka.

But the government is struggling with its own domestic compulsions, with heightened political sensitivities in Tamil Nadu, to approve the transfer of offensive military capabilities to Sri Lanka. During his recent visit to India, Sri Lankan defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse listed out his country's "urgent military requirements", ranging from air defence weapons, artillery guns, Nishant UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) to more radars and even laser designators for PGMs (precision-guided munitions), said sources. India, of course, is already supplying "largely defensive" equipment to Sri Lanka, which include two more low-flying detection radars in light of the three recent LTTE air strikes.

Apart from a special Indian team to advise on air defence operations and two Mi-17 helicopters stationed in Sri Lanka for a month now, IAF AN-32 medium-lift aircraft have also been making "covert" visits to Colombo with military supplies and spares.

"But the Sri Lankans are asking for much more. With Indian help not forthcoming in full flow, they are approaching China and Pakistan. We might be forced to make a strategic U-turn, as we did in the case of Myanmar," said a senior officer. The unease in the Indian defence establishment was clearly evident by Narayanan's remarks last week that Sri Lanka should not seek weapons from China or Pakistan.