(EDITOR'S NOTE: Ms. Usha Ramanathan states that Prashant's comments are full of false information, and that Prashant makes up his/her "own facts" with no regard for truth and seems to think that readers can be fooled by his/her false assertions. Ms. Ramanathan provides point by point rebuttal to Prashant's comments. Make sure to read it before you make up your mind.)

AUTHOR'S RESPONSE: As of this writing (July 2000), the Indian Government has never once warned Sri Lanka. Although about 150 Tamil Nadu fishermen were killed and more than a thousand severely injured by the Sri Lankan Navy, there has never been a skirmish between the Indian Navy and the Sri Lankan Navy as Prashant states. (Prashant seems to think that if he writes something (false information) readers will believe it.)

India knows very well how to put an end to such attacks. See what it did when Bangladesh soldiers shot at Indian citizens in August 1999. " Bangladesh soldiers fired on Indian farmers in Belonia sub-division on India's northeastern border on August 22, 1999. India's Border Security Force retaliated and exchanged fire. Additional contingents of Border Security Force were sent to the area. Three Indian civilians were injured. Indian Foreign Office summoned the Acting High Commissioner of Bangladesh, Mr. Alimul Haque, to protest the incident." India never made similar protests to Sri Lanka. Indian Navy never exchanged fire with the Sri Lankan Navy to protect Tamil Nadu fishermen. Section 3 of my article discusses it in more detail.

AUTHOR'S RESPONSE: I do not know the types on naval vessels Sri Lanka has. But I do know that warships can reduce coastal towns to rubble. Based on damages reported, the Sri Lankan vessel in question is not so powerful but capable of damaging buildings on shore. The FACT is that a Sri Lankan ship came close to Tamil Nadu shore and shot at fishermen's houses and damaged them. Villagers went to the police station and complained. Police came to the site, talked with witnesses and inspected the damage. A police report was prepared and the Indian Naval Base in Rameswaram, not far from the site, was informed. Navy sent some of its men to inspect the damage and prepared a report. What more proof do you need?

Surely some Tamil Nadu fishermen have helped the LTTE in the past and at present. It does not give the Sri Lankan Navy the right to shoot at any Tamil Nadu fishing boat they see. Hindi speaking Indian Navy men from Rameswaram Naval Base have raped Tamil women [Reference 2]. Does that give us the right to castrate every Hindi speaking Indian soldier we see in Tamil Nadu?

AUTHOR'S RESPONSE: India does not have any deployable nuclear weapons according to authoritative Jane's Report. Our concern is that once India has nuclear weapons, they will be based in the south (away from India's enemies in the north) and so south will become the target of missile and aerial attacks by Pakistan, China and other enemies of India. This would wreck havoc on our industry and civilians. See Reference 3.

AUTHOR'S RESPONSE: Of course it makes sense for the Hindians to place the long-range bombers in the south to retaliate against its enemies in the north (Pakistan, China, etc.) The question I raised in my articles was "Why should Tamil Nadu allow such bombers in Tamil Nadu and expose our civilians, industry and infrastructure to attack by India's enemies. As I stated clearly stated in my article, we are willing to do so if the Hindian rulers of India treat Tamil people as equals and protect Tamil Nadu fishermen. As long as Hindians consider Tamil Nadu fishermen as expendable in its geo-political strategy for regional super power status (read my article, especially Section 4), we have no reason to allow Indian military bases in Tamil soil to help Hindians with their wars with Pakistan or China. It is a two-way street. If the Hindian rulers of India consider Tamil people's concerns and protect our fishermen, then we will consider the defense needs of Hindi heart land and allow long-range bombers to help them in their wars in the north. As long as Indian Government's step-motherly treatment of Tamil people continues, we will oppose Indian military bases in Tamil Nadu. It is quite possible that Tamil nationalists in Tamil Nadu may sabotage them during wartime or inform India's enemies of sensitive information about Indian military bases. We cannot foreclose such a scenario unless the Hindian rulers of India change their stripes.

AUTHOR'S RESPONSE: Enemy planes will not fly along the coast; they would either fly off the coast and then make a turn at the shortest point to its target or fly an inland route avoiding known Indian air defenses.

AUTHOR'S RESPONSE: Prashant does not seem to understand that I was talking of two different types of warplanes in my article: bombers and fighters (it was clearly stated in the article). My contention is the article was that advanced long-range bombers will be based in the south whereas much of the advanced fighters will be based in the Hindi heartland to protect the bases, industry and civilians there, leaving Tamil civilians and industry with much less protection. (My reasons for this conclusion are stated in the article and I will not repeat them here.) To understand this, one need to know the different functions of bombers and fighters.

The sole function of a bomber is to carry a payload of bombs and deliver them (drop them) on target. Bombers are usually escorted by fighter planes. The sole function of fighter planes is to shoot down enemy planes (bombers or fighters) in air-to-air combat. Additional fighter planes may also be in place at airbases to defend the base against enemy bombers (that is, if a bomber approaches the base or other nearby targets, fighters will rise up to shoot down the bomber and its escort fighter planes) in addition to surface-to-air missiles.

Enemy often sends bombers or missiles to destroy the bombers (especially long-range bombers) at the start of the war, even through pre-emptive strikes, so that they would not visit devastation on their military bases, industry and civilian population later in the war. During the Six-Day Arab-Israeli War in 1967, Israel launched a preemptive strike on Egyptian bases housing their advanced Soviet-built bombers and this is often sited as a decisive factor for Israel's quick victory over the combined forces of Egypt and Syria. So Tamil Nadu Air Force Bases housing India's long -range bombers and the surrounding Tamil civilian population will be early targets for bomber as well as missile strikes in case of a major war.

Bombers are purely offensive weapons whereas fighters are mostly defensive in nature. Any decision on placement of offensive and defensive weapons will depend on how much value one places on different assets and how much protection one is willing provide to each asset. Hindian rulers of India consider life and welfare of the Tamil people cheap (as evinced by their inaction to protect Tamil Nadu fishermen as discussed in my article) and Hindian life dearer. So they will be miserly in allocating defensive resources to Tamil Nadu while the offensive long-range bombers will be placed in Tamil Nadu inviting enemy aerial and missile attacks harming tens of thousands of Tamil civilians.

AUTHOR'S RESPONSE: It is interesting that Tamils are expected to finance and fight the wars in the north (which is important to the Hindi heartland not far from the northern borders) but the Hindi rulers of India would refuse to protect the Tamil Nadu fishermen from the tiny Sri Lankan Navy because of the Hindian rulers geo-political calculations vis-a-vis its wars with Pakistan (see Section 4 of my article for a detailed discussion). So far about 150 fishermen have been killed and over a thousand seriously injured by the Sri Lankan Navy.

I repeat here the last paragraph of my article. "It is the Hindian politicians who dominate and control the Indian government who are self-centered and treating the non-Hindi population as third class citizens. Let them show their "broadminded Indian-ness" by protecting the Tamil Nadu fishermen from Sri Lankan naval attacks. Issue an immediate warning that any future attack on the fishermen will result in the attack on Sri Lankan Naval vessels. Then, next time the Sri Lankan Navy attacks Tamil Nadu fishermen, Indian Navy should shoot a Sri Lankan Navy ship and disable it in retaliation. This will stop the attacks on our fishermen for good. If this happens, then we may allow Indian military bases to operate in Tamil Nadu. If the Indian government would rather continue to let the Sri Lankan Navy kill our fishermen in exchange for its diplomatic neutrality in India's quarrels with Pakistan over Kashmir, then we say "no" to Indian military bases. If the Indian government treats us as expendable pieces in its military and diplomatic strategy, there is no reason for us to put the people of Tamil Nadu at great risk from attacks by India's northern neighbors with whom we have no quarrel or dispute as such."