India's vote against Lanka in UNHRC calculated: Official

CHENNAI: Calling it as "calculated vote," a top official today defended India's vote to the resolution in the recent United Nations Human Rights Council ( UNHRC) session in Geneva on Sri Lanka and said that the Island Republic has "not done enough" and was "not doing what it promised to."

"..we believe that country (Sri Lanka) although has won the war, is losing the peace..definitely in the long term, because they have not done enough. Or they are not doing what they promised to. Definitely, our voice was in that direction," Lt Gen (retd) Prakash Menon, Military Advisor to National Security Council Secretariat said while addressing a seminar here.

"Of course, you can say that the Central government was influenced by coalition politics. But, in the end its all about national interest. It was a calculated vote. It is not something we have done off the card," he said.

Brushing aside critics that China was going to leverage in Sri Lanka, Menon said, "All our neighbours play this game with us. Nepal plays, Bangladesh plays, Sri Lanka plays. But we must understand that is natural for small countries to deal with a bigger neighbour like this. But it does not mean that Sri Lanka can forget its geography. So we know where we stand and what we are voted upon is a value-based vote."

Calling upon people to believe in themselves as a strong country, he said, "When we say that China is actually becoming powerful militarily, then the strategic question to ask is, 'So what?' The answer to that question would obviously have a whole lot of meanings," he said, delivering a lecture at a national seminar on 'Challenges to India's Security in 21th Century.'