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It is a week since an ‘all-party’ meeting at Chennai served a fortnight’s
ultimatum on New Delhi. The Congress, currently in power at the Centre, props up
Karunanidhi to stay as chief minister in Tamilnadu. So, the caucus owing
allegiance to the Nehru dynasty must not have expected the clear warning that
‘all’ members of Parliament (MP) from TN will quit Parliament if India fails to
force Sri Lanka to halt its military offensive in its Tamil territories. It will
be the end of the Congress-led government, which had bought a fresh lease of
life just four months ago, if the threat really materialised.
Creating strife in Tamilnadu will only be compounding the simmering discontent
and animosity New Delhi is facing in Kashmir, Assam and Northeast. Arrogantly
unmindful of the risk, external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee has flatly
rejected the demand to stop military aid to Sri Lanka. He glossed over in
Parliament, “Surely, we would not like to have the playground of international
players at our backyard. These aspects are to be kept in view while making an
assessment of the situation (cutting off military aid).”
About the visit of three Indian officials to Sri Lanka, Mukherjee disclosed, “We
told them that we can meet their security requirement provided you do not look
around.” However, Mukherjee’s advice, ’there is no military solution to the
ethnic conflict’, has been ridiculed by Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa.
He has vowed that political talks could come only after the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam was wiped out or disarmed.
The ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has a lot less MPs than the
opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and miraculously survived the
pulling out of the Left Front that had been propping it up since four years. The
‘miracle’ was achieved by wrapping up colossally expensive ‘deals’ with
defectors, including the speaker. The fresh crisis adding to the complete
disarray in country came at a time when it is furiously trying to get the
electoral and ‘other’ advantages from that colossal ‘investment’ in buying them
up.
Ruling Dravidian parties could not convince the Dravidian parties in opposition
(loosely allied to NDA) to join the ‘all party’ meet. But, the opposition too
can ill-afford to be seen betraying the ‘interests of the Tamil race’ for the
sake of clinging to power although it mocked at the ‘resignation stunt’. For,
(almost) every one in the state is outraged at the military supplies and
logistics New Delhi has provided to Colombo, which is employed to suppress Tamil
rebels. Most MPs of Karunanidhi’s party, including former Union telecom minister
Dayanidhi Maran who has been sacked, handed over their post dated resignations
to him.
That local Congress leaders were more than willing to join the meet should not
be surprising. For, the Congress remains extinguished in the state and cannot
face the electorate. In TN, like in most other states, Congress leaders are
detested for their ruthless betrayal games. Sceptics even view them as having
been responsible for the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in
Tamilnadu soil. Blaming LTTE and its chief Prabhakaran for the killing that
created a sympathy wave for the party is increasingly under cloud. Particularly
after his daughter ‘pardoned’ the supposed assassin, the hush-hush trial and
convictions are viewed as cunning political games.
Every Congress MP is convinced of losing political career without electorally
allying with one of the Dravidian groups. That has been the position ever since
K Kamaraj, then ruling Congress CM, lost his security deposit in an election in
1960s. Interestingly, Kamaraj was noted for his Machiavellian tactics to
sideline several leaders for projecting Indira Gandhi, playing the ‘sympathy
game’. She, however, dumped him later.
The Delhi leadership did not pay much attention to the ‘threat’ initially, save
for some customary noises. In any case, Sri Lanka is fully aware of the
‘capabilities’ of the ‘emerging superpower’ that has no control over its own
internal squabbles. The country has spent some $ 22 billion to revamp its forces
recently with the objective of somehow establishing a strong, unitary,
‘pure-Sinhalese’ regime.
Sri Lanka gets massive aid from the China-Pakistan-Iran combine, because they
see Lanka as gateway to control the colossal opportunities provided by the
Indian Ocean. It is only natural that Colombo does not countenance any ‘regional
power’ role for New Delhi. It accepted only Norway and other powerful countries
from Europe and Asia in the International Commission (IC) to broker peace with
its rebels. Its leaders discreetly trashed the noises from New Delhi as
‘misinformed by propaganda’. Despite this, pundits of New Delhi apparently think
they can counter ‘international players in the backyard’ with the bait of
abetting Colombo’s designs, by making scapegoats of Tamil population.
In an ominous development just a week before the deadline, spin doctors of New
Delhi have mounted a swift offensive to extricate themselves from the tangle.
This came at the behest of a few TN Congress tycoons enjoying Rajya Sabha seats
as a reward of doing errands to the dynasty. After all, they do not have to
bother facing the electorate and saw that the stand of the state unit was
reversed.
On October 24, police arrested former MP Vaiko, the most vocal TN politician,
who remains steadfast in the face of New Delhi’s incentives and threats. The
erstwhile emissary of Indian government to broker a peace deal to amicably end
the liberation struggle of Tamils, he is general secretary of Marumalarchi
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK). Its presidium chairman and former Union
minister, M Kannappan, was also arrested. MDMK leaders ironically were not a
party to the ‘stop atrocities in Sri Lanka’ ultimatum earlier issued to New
Delhi.
Cases under Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 124-A (bringing or attempting to
bring in hatred or contempt or exciting disaffection towards the government) and
Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act section 13-1-b (advocating, abetting in,
advising or inciting the commission of any unlawful activity) were slapped
against them. According to director-general of police (DGP) KP Jain, the case
was registered ’as their speeches could affect the nation’s unity, integrity and
security’.
The CM commented whatever had happened had happened ’as per the letter and
spirit’ of the law. Asked if there would be more arrests, he said mysteriously,
“I do not know.” This was the same man who had bravely declared on October 18:
“We are ready to pay any price to stop the annihilation of the Tamil race in Sri
Lanka, whose future has become a question mark!” In this context, an elected
government of TN being dismissed by New Delhi has happened many times. Even
while the regime was enjoying absolute majority in the legislature, in the type
of ‘democracy’ practiced in India!
Vaiko addressed his followers from the foot-board of the police van. He warned
that extending of help to protect Sri Lanka’s ‘integrity’, would only jeopardise
India’s own unity and integrity. “We also have as much commitment to protect the
sovereignty and integrity of the country,” he added and implied that New Delhi
should not risk a strife in TN for the sake of abetting tyranny of Colombo. He
reiterated, “I hold the Centre responsible for the killing of the Eelam Tamils,
because they are the ones supplying arms.” Clearly, he was not spoiling for a
military intervention but only wanted India to stop supplying arms and logistics
to Colombo regime for use against Tamils. Rajiv Gandhi had committed this fatal
blunder once, resulting in huge humiliation to mighty Indian military machine,
which got unceremoniously thrown out by Colombo after sacrificing more than a
thousand jawans who unsuccessfully attempted to crush LTTE.
The sedition charges are apparently in connection with Vaiko’s fiery speech on
the topic `What is happening in Lanka’ in a meeting on October 21. He openly
challenged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to severe all diplomatic ties with
Lanka if he was incapable of exerting diplomatic pressure to achieve immediate
political solution to the ethnic issue. He disclosed that the PM had assured him
that no military aid would be supplied to Sri Lanka but had gone back on his
word. Kannappan, presiding over the lecture, had warned the Centre not to ’force
Tamils in Tamilnadu to struggle for a separate country’. Vaiko echoed him, “LTTE
and Sri Lankan Tamils could not be separated. Though we are against any
violence, we should differentiate between violence and right. . . If you give
arms to the Sinhalese to kill our Tamil brethren, will we not take up arms and
if required I will be the first person to lead this.”
About Karunanidhi’s ’half-hearted resistance to the abetment’ by New Delhi in
annihilating Tamils, he opined, “All this human chain and the all-party meetings
are a farce. He is betraying the Tamils".
Vaiko said nothing could stop him from voicing his concern for the Tamils
equating jail term to the ‘dust on my feet’. Notably enough, he had used the
same words when he was arrested in July 2002 on exactly the same charges. The
arrest was made by the then CM Jayalalitha, who was keen to save her chair.
Karunanidhi had slammed her then for using the draconian POTA provisions that
kept him for 19 months in jail.
US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Robert Blake has rejected Rajapaksa’s adventurism,
saying that even if the army occupied all of northern Sri Lanka, LTTE fighters
would go underground and continue the struggle to the end. So, it is unlikely
that the fireworks will have fizzled out by the time a new government will be in
place at New Delhi, hopefully in 2009. The new regime may well be required to
douse yet another strife deliberately created by Machiavellian spin doctors of
Delhi, who have been thriving under worthies like Pranab Mukherjee.
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