Naivete and Rascality of Narasimhan Ram
together with Comments by
tamilnation.org
2 November 2008
Since I penned my previous commentary on
Malini Parthasarathy�s malodorous malady, The Hindu (Chennai) of
18 October had carried an editorial, captioned �Sri Lanka: What needs to be
done� on the prevailing conditions in the North-east of Sri Lanka, where
indigenous Tamils live. This is not the first time, I have critiqued the naivete
and rascality of the Hindu�s chief editor N.Ram�s stand on the Eelam
Tamil issue. If you bother to
google (as I did on 29 October) the name Narasimhan Ram, 205,000 items are
presented; the second item on the list was my critique penned on Jan.2, 2006,
titled �A Low-down on Narasimhan Ram�.
A subsequent editorial that appeared in the Hindu of 25 October
(entitled, �Curbing dangerous tendencies�), which make reference to the 8
October item, prompted me to write this critique. For record, I provide the
complete text of 18 October editorial below, before
I critique the naivete and rascality of Narasimhan Ram.
Sri Lanka: what needs to be done - N.Ram, 18 October 2008
Note
by
tamilnation.org
Given the propagandist nature of Narasimhan Ram's diatribe (which
appears to have been a precursor to his
celebrated interview with Sri Lanka President Rajapakse on 29 October
2008 in the 'tranquil surroundings' of Temple Trees) we ourselves
feel impelled to comment on some of Ram's more outrageous
assertions. We are reminded of respected journalist and writer,
Subramaniam Sivanayagam's
remarks
in 2005 in the aftermath of the Tsunami
"... The case of the editor of a leading Indian newspaper � The Hindu �
Ram by name, is ...shameful. The dictionary defines the word ram, as an
'uncastrated male sheep' (The New Penguin English Dictionary). Although
it happens to be his name, with a capital R, there is no question that
he needs some form of assistance to make him a more professional editor
and a better human being."
�The global financial crisis has spawned a new term that is fast acquiring
the status of a clich� � �bailout package.� Now attempts are on,
internationally and in Tamil Nadu, to craft a bailout package for the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Comment by
tamilnation.org
Good samaritans engaged in bail outs
or international actors jockeying for power in the Indian Ocean Region?
"'India loves to play all sides, and
has always done that,' said Reva Bhalla, an analyst with the U.S.
private intelligence firm Stratfor. 'They can cater to the
Tamil politiciansand benefit from the Tigers' military capability going down
without taking too much political risk.' Underscoring India's
dual-track approach to Sri Lanka, furious denials erupted from Colombo
and New Delhi last month after two Indian radar technicians were injured
in a Tiger assault on a Sri Lankan military base. Rajapaksa later said
the men were providing after-sales service to radars India's Bharat
Electronics sold to the military. India has also helped Sri Lanka
intercept Tiger boats, which it considers a threat to national
security..." C. Bryson Hull in India Rumbles
over Sri Lanka war,
but to what end?,
17 October 2008
Just what kind of political animal is the LTTE? The answer is
straightforward. It is a dreaded terrorist organisation � described by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation as �amongst the most dangerous and deadly
extremist outfits in the world� � that claims to be the sole representative
of Sri Lankan Tamils and pursues the secessionist goal of �Tamil Eelam� in
an uncompromising way.
Comment by
tamilnation.org
Being a political animal himself (albeit in the garb of a journalist) it
is not surprising that Mr.Ram is concerned to ask the question: 'Just
what kind of political animal is the LTTE?'
But in searching for an answer it seems
that Mr.Ram's own politics has clouded his vision. Is the answer
to his question, as he asserts, 'straightforward'?
"Ever since the U.S. Defence Department organized the
first ever World Wide Psyops Conference in 1963 and the first NATO
Symposium On Defence Psychology in Paris in 1960, many NATO leaders and
several scientists have been working in the field of psychological
counter-insurgency methods (cf. the detailed reports and analyses of P.
Watson, Psycho-War: Possibilities, Power, And The Misuse Of Military
Psychology, Frankfurt 1985, p.25ff.). The central aim of this
defence approach is to destroy the morale of the insurgent movement at
the early stages, to discredit it and destroy it using repressive means
like long periods of isolation detention in prisons, thereby preventing
a mass movement from starting which could be hard to control with
conventional means. Defaming the insurgents as "terrorists" and
punishing them accordingly - thereby ignoring international law
concerning the rights of people in war - is a particularly useful means..."
Michael
Schubert in Theses On Liberation Movements And The Rights Of Peoples
" ..I believe that terrorism is a tool that has been
utilized throughout history to achieve certain objectives. Some have
been ideological, others territorial. There are personality-driven
terroristic objectives. The bottom line is, you can't lump all
terrorists together. And I think we've got to do a much better job of
clarifying what are the motivations, the raisons d'�tre of terrorists. I
mean, what the
Tamil Tigers are fighting for in Sri Lanka, or the
Basque separatists in Spain, or the insurgents in
al-Anbar province may only be connected by tactics. They may not
share all that much in terms of what is the philosophical or ideological
underpinning. And I think one of our mistakes has been painting with
such a broad brush, which has not been particularly helpful in
understanding what it is we were up against when it comes to those who
pursue terrorism for whichever ends they're seeking..."
"You Can't Lump All Terrorists Together" - Hillary Clinton,
23 October 2007
What is its present situation? For all its success in building, over time,
low-intensity fighting capabilities that are the envy of extremist and
terrorist organisations the world over, the LTTE has taken a military
battering as never before. Every credible independent assessment indicates
that it faces a crisis of depleted infrastructure, combat strength, and
morale, and has dug itself into a deep hole in its eroding strongholds in
Mullaithivu and Killinochchi districts in the mainland North.
Comment by
tamilnation.org
"the
LTTE has taken a military battering as never before"?
�...We trounced them. The LTTE ran for
life. That will be the trend for the future also..�
Sinhala Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka to State Controlled Sri
Lanka Sunday Observer, 13 August 2006 and
two months later... "..It was the day of the Tiger on Wednesday, 11
October 2006 ...The seeming docility of the LTTE had given the wrong
picture to the GOSL. The strategic withdrawals by the LTTE in recent
times had bolstered this feeling. Even during the current battle the
Tigers had let the army move in without much resistance. An
overconfident army had either walked into or been lured into a deadly
trap..." Sri
Lanka Armed Forces Suffer Debacle, 15 October 2006
It was Mark Twain
who said many years ago that reports of his death were greatly
exaggerated and Mr.Ram may also want to attend to the words of
Subramaniam Sivanayagam in the aftermath of the Tsunami in 2005 -
"... The case of the editor of a leading Indian
newspaper � The Hindu �
Ram by name, is
...shameful. The dictionary defines the word ram, as an "uncastrated
male sheep" (The New Penguin English Dictionary). Although it happens to
be his name, with a capital R, there is no question that he needs some
form of assistance to make him a more professional editor and a better
human being. No sooner than the wishful conjecture of Mr. Pirabakaran�s
death spread in Sri Lanka and in the West,
Ram jumped on the bandwagon.
"Where is Prabakaran?" was the title of his editorial on January 11,
as if that was a fit subject for an editorial in a reputed Indian
newspaper, at a time when both his country and Sri Lanka were reeling
under the tsunami tragedy. It was very obvious that the poor man was
wishing that Mr. Pirabakaran was dead, from the kind of doubts he raised
in that editorial about the Tamil leader being alive. What a
disappointment for him to find Mr. Pirapaharan is very much alive. It
must be remembered that this is not the first time The Hindu has
"killed" Mr.Pirabakaran in its columns. Fifteen years ago, in 1989, in
its issue of July 24, The Hindu ran the following headline - PRABHAKARAN
REPORTED KILLED IN LTTE SHOOTOUT. The paper went on to report that
Pirapaharan had been killed by his deputy "Mahattaya." That was after
India�s disreputable intelligence agency RAW spread that diabolical lie,
taking All India Radio, Doordashan, Lalith Athulathmudali in Colombo and
many others for a merry ride..."
Rumour-mongering, Sinhala Chauvinism and Hindu's Ram - S.
Sivanayagam, 23 January 2005
The terrorist crimes and atrocities of Velupillai Prabakaran�s organisation
are too well known to detail here.
Comment by
tamilnation.org
"...Do we not
deliberately obfuscate when we conflate the two words 'terrorism' and
'violence'? ... The Cuban revolution was violent but it was not
terrorism. The war against Hitler was violent but it was not
terrorism...What are the circumstances in which a people ruled by an
alien people may lawfully
resort to arms to resist that alien rule and secure freedom? Or is it
that there are no circumstances in which a people ruled by an alien
people may
lawfully resort to arms to to liberate themselves? And if all resort
to violence to secure political ends is not terrorism, then
what is terrorism?
..to categorise a combatant in an armed conflict as a 'terrorist'
organisation and seek to punish it on that basis, is to.. assert in
effect that a people ruled by an alien people may not, as a last
resort, lawfully
resort to arms to resist that alien rule and secure freedom... " Nadesan
Satyendra on Terrorism and Liberation, 23 September 2006
Suffice it to note that its extremist character is expressed by the fact
that it has rejected, out of court, every worthwhile proposal for devolution
of power to the Tamil regions within a united Sri Lanka.
Comment
by
tamilnation.org
There are lies
and then there are bare faced lies. Mr.Ram clearly subscribes to
the
Goebellsian view
that
the bigger the lie the more it may be
believed. Was Mr. Ram being naive or was he being a knave when he chose
to ignore the views expressed by independent academics such as Professor
Marshall Singer and Professor Devotta -
"...One of the essential elements that must
be kept in mind in understanding the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict is that,
since 1958 at least, every time Tamil politicians negotiated some sort
of power-sharing deal with a Sinhalese government - regardless of which
party was in power - the opposition Sinhalese party always claimed that
the party in power had negotiated away too much. In almost every case -
sometimes within days - the party in power backed down on the
agreement..." -
Professor Marshall Singer, at US Congress Committee on International
Relations Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific Hearing on Sri Lanka
November 14,1995
"Under
the 13th Amendment power will continue to reside in a Sinhala dominated
Central government, within the frame of an unitary constitution. The 13th
Amendment is intended to secure a constitutional frame which will enable a
Sinhala majority to manage the Tamil people more effectively than before. It
has created Provincial Ministers who will not exercise executive power but
who will have executive power exercised 'through' them!. At the same time it
has created a Provincial Governor appointed by the Sinhala President who
will exercise executive power in respect of provincial matters - a
Provincial Governor who is also the administrative head of the provincial
public service and who has control of the Provincial Finance Fund. And the
13th Amendment has created a Provincial Council without control of planning,
without control of the provincial budget, without control of police and
public order within the province, without control of disposition of state
land within the province, without control of higher education and whose
remaining meagre legislative powers are subject to the over riding will of
the Central Parliament. Finally, the provisions of the Provincial Councils
Act itself may be amended from time to time by a simple majority of members
present and voting in Parliament!"
Thirteenth Amendment to Sri Lanka Constitution - Devolution or Comic Opera
Nadesan Satyendra, March 1988"
Following the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi on Indian soil by an LTTE squad
in May 1991, India became the first country to ban the LTTE as a terrorist
organisation � whose supremo, Prabakaran, continues to be wanted as Accused
No. 1 in the Rajiv assassination case.
Comment by
tamilnation.org
For one thing,
India did not ban the LTTE as a terrorist
organisation. The
text of the Ban Order of May 1992 states that
the LTTE was banned 'on the ground that '
LTTE's objective for a
homeland for all
Tamils disrupts the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India
and thus appears to fall within the ambit of an unlawful activity'.
(see
of order). And in the Rajiv Gandhi
assassination case, on appeal, the
Indian Supreme Court on 11 May 1999, reversed the finding of the
TADA court and held that the trial court had erred in law in convicting
the accused of offences relating to terrorism..
For the other, if Mr.Ram
had been concerned with presenting a balanced view he may have felt the
need to take on board the views expressed by Dr.T.Somasekeram and
A.P.Venkateshwaran -
"...as an Indian I feel ashamed that under the
Indo Sri Lanka agreement, our forces are fighting with Tamils whom
they went to protect...I believe that the Indian Government had betrayed
its own culture and ethics...The guilt, therefore, rests entirely on
those who sent them to do this dastardly business of fighting in Sri
Lanka against our Tamil brothers and sisters..."
India's former Foreign Secretary, A.P.Venkateshwaran, speaking in
London in April 1988
If Mr.Ram had taken aboard these views he
may have even agreed that if 'Rajiv Gandhi had been tried before an
International Court of Justice, an opportunity may have been afforded
for an informed judgement to be made on the extent of his guilt'
in relation to the
war crimes committed by the IPKF in Tamil Eelam -
"If Rajiv Gandhi had been tried before an
International Court of Justice, an opportunity may have been afforded
for an informed judgement to be made on the
extent of his guilt, and whether, in any case, the imposition
of the death penalty was justified - but there was no court of justice
whose jurisdiction, the people of Tamil Eelam could have invoked. ...The
assassination of ex Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was wrong,
because it was wrong to punish without charge and without trial
according to law. But, if that was wrong was the procedure adopted to
establish the guilt of the accused in the Rajiv Gandhi
assassination a fair one? Was
Amnesty International right in pointing out that: 'The
legislation under which they were tried... contravenes several
international standards for fair trial, including the holding of trials
in camera and the non-disclosure of the identity of witnesses.'?...
Procedural law is civilisation's substitute for private vengeance and
self-help. 'Lynch law' is no law..."
Rajiv Gandhi
Assassination - The Verdict - Nadesan
Satyendra,23 October 1999
Since the Indian proscription, nearly 30 countries, including the United
States, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, the European Union, Canada, and
Australia, have banned or listed the LTTE as a terrorist organisation.
Comment by
tamilnation.org
"..The most problematic issue relating to terrorism and armed conflict
is distinguishing terrorists from lawful combatants... States that do
not recognize a claim to self-determination will claim that those using
force against the State�s military forces are necessarily terrorists...The
controversy over the exact meaning, content, extent and beneficiaries
of, as well as the means and methods utilized to enforce
the right to self-determination
has been the major obstacle to the development of both a
comprehensive definition of terrorism and a comprehensive treaty on
terrorism..."
Terrorism and Human Rights Final Report of the Special Rapporteur,
Kalliopi K. Koufa, 25 June 2004
For several years now, some small political parties and fringe groups in
Tamil Nadu have been involved in ineffective chauvinistic propaganda and
activities to enable the LTTE to stage a political comeback in India. They
got no political purchase for the simple reason that the overwhelming
majority of the people of Tamil Nadu, something like 95 per cent, did not
want a reprise of the secessionist campaigns and violent activities of the
Tamil Tigers in one of India�s most peaceful States.
Comment by
tamilnation.org
"small
political parties and fringe groups involved in
ineffective
chauvinistic propaganda that got no political purchase"?
"...if the fictitious concept of
placing �country�s interests above human rights, ethnic pride
and identity� continues to be promoted for long, it will be a
matter of time for India too to meet the fate of USSR or
Yugoslavia or now Sri Lanka... In 1965, when Tamil Nadu faced
the possibility of military action from a powerful New Delhi,
Annadurai opted to abandon his demand for full autonomy for
states under a lose confederation with one currency but multiple
ethnic, cultural and national identities.
Today, Tamil Nadu appears headed
for revolutionary political changes in a culmination of a
combination of events: For one, the two main Dravidian political
outfits � Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), headed by three-time
chief minister M Karunanidhi and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra
Kazhagam (AIADMK), headed by former two-term CM Jayalalitha �
are both reeling under overwhelming outrage among the Tamil
population...The ground reality in Tamil Nadu is that almost
every Tamil � belonging to whatever religion or strata � has a
primary affinity to other Tamil-speaking people of whatever
domicile or religion. .. Dravidian leaders, in their zeal to get
on the right side of Delhi bosses, are seen to be conniving with
New Delhi�s policy of aiding Sri Lankan government in
exterminating Tamils...Developments in October will decide if
New Delhi will be adding to the Kashmir imbroglio another
hopeless embroilment in the South." Natteri
Adigal in Merinews, 9 October 2008
"Tamil Nadu had a history of demanding secession from the
Indian Union. Yet, over time, it has chosen to integrate itself fully
with the national mainstream. If New Delhi does not change course in its
Sri Lankan policy, it may plant the seeds towards a reversal of such
history. That will be India's misfortune".
M.S.S.Pandian
Times of India, 23 October 2008
Now several mainstream parties that have no love lost for the LTTE found
themselves taking a strident stand on the Sri Lankan Tamil question. In six
resolutions adopted at a recent all-party meeting chaired by Tamil Nadu
Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, they alleged �ethnic genocide� and issued an
ultimatum to the Central government to provide humanitarian assistance to
the Tamils (through international agencies such as the Red Cross), cease all
military assistance to the Sri Lankan government, and bring about a
ceasefire within two weeks � or else all Tamil Nadu MPs would resign,
presumably bringing the United Progressive Alliance regime down with them.
Comment
by
tamilnation.org
" Many
will see the current posturing (and ultimatums) by Jayalalitha and
Karunanidhi in Tamil Nadu as no more than a drama on a platform
provided by New Delhi so that New Delhi may coerce President Rajapakse (and his JVP
allies) to move away from the China-Iran-Pakistan axis... (Said that)
The posturing by Jayalalitha and Karunanidhi (whatever may be their
motives) is, in the final analysis, an appeal to an underlying
Tamil national consciousness, and therefore their actions will help to
nurture
Tamil togetherness -
and
for that reason will be welcomed by many Tamils and
used by them to further strengthen
that Tamil togetherness."
tamilnation.org
in
We
won�t stop military cooperation with Lanka says Indian External Affairs
Minister Pranab Mukherjee 24 October 2008
Official and political India must avoid a serious conceptual trap: equating
the politico-military crisis of the LTTE with an existential crisis for Sri
Lankan Tamils.
Comment by
tamilnation.org
'Conceptual trap' of
separating Eelam Tamils from the LTTE?
For political parties in Tamil Nadu, expressing concern over, and putting
their best foot forward to help resolve, the humanitarian crisis created by
the military conflict in the Wanni would be the just and proportionate
response.
Giving moral support for a political solution along federal lines within a
united Sri Lanka will also be consistent with the long-term thrust of Indian
policy towards Sri Lanka�s ethnic conflict.
Comment by
tamilnation.org
Federalism? "Along
Federal Lines"? Amendment of Sri Lanka Constitution with support of all
Sinhala political parties?
"...In the Sinhala
language, the words for nation, race and people are practically
synonymous, and a
multiethnic or multicommunal nation or state is incomprehensible to
the popular mind. The
emphasis on Sri Lanka as the
land of the Sinhala Buddhists carried an emotional popular appeal,
compared with which the concept of a multiethnic polity was a
meaningless abstraction..." [Sinhala Historian K. M. de Silva in
Religion, Nationalism and the State, USF Monographs in Religion and
Public Policy, No.1 (Tampa, FLA: University of South Florida 1986) at
p31 quoted by David Little in Religion and Self Determination in Self
Determination - International Perspectives, MacMillan Press, 1996]
".. it is wrong to say
that there exists in Sri Lanka either a Sinhala nation or a Tamil
nation. Marxism-Leninism does not accept this. What exists is a Sinhala
nationality, a Tamil nationality, a Moslem nationality and only a Sri
Lanka nation... The proletariat opposes the establishment of a
federal system as a form of decentralization... the proletariat cannot
agree to the use of the federal system to decentralize an existing
united centralized state The north and the east cannot be one autonomous
region...It is equally reactionary to consider the north and east as the
traditional homelands of the Tamil nationality.. The proletariat needs
no official language... " The
Gospel according to the JVP
"In certain circles where a search is on for a
solution to the armed conflict in the island, the oft repeated mantra is
that Sri Lanka is a 'multi
ethnic plural society'. It is a mantra which the Sri Lanka
government has also found useful to chant from time to time. The mantra
has a nice meditative ring to it. It conjures up the soothing vision of
a society where all ethnic groups are equal and a plurality of view
points is encouraged and secured. But mantras intended to resolve an
armed political conflict, must fit the political reality on the ground.
"The
history of Sri Lanka is the history of the Sinhalese race"
-D.C. Vijayawardhana, The Revolt in the
Temple, 1953
''...The time has come for the whole Sinhala race
which has existed for 2500 years, jealously safeguarding their
language and religion, to fight without giving any quarter to save
their birthright... I will lead the campaign..."
-J.R.Jayawardene, Sinhala Opposition Leader reported
in Sri Lanka Tribune: 30th August 1957
"If we are ruling, we must rule. ...Let us rule as
a majority community".
Mrs. Wimala Kannangara M.P., Sinhala
Minister for Rural Development, in Sri Lanka's Parliament, July 1981
"I am not worried about the opinion of the Jaffna
people... now we cannot think of them, not about their lives or
their opinion... the more you put pressure in the north, the happier
the Sinhala people will be here... Really if I starve the Tamils
out, the Sinhala people will be happy." -
President J.R.Jayawardene, Daily Telegraph, July 1983
''The majority in this country are Sinhalese.
Without the consent of the majority no one can come into power" -
Ven. Galaboda Gnanassara Thera, the Chief Incumbent of Gangaramaya,
January 1992
The humanitarian crisis in the Wanni is defined by the plight of an
estimated 230,000 displaced people and a large number of civilians affected
by the recent battles. Reaching food, medicines, fuel, and other essential
goods to them in the zone of low-intensity conflict is a major challenge.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa, responding to humanitarian concerns raised in
Sri Lanka, internationally, and by India in an October 6 d�marche, has
promised to overcome the practical obstacles and reiterated (in a telephonic
interview to The Hindu) his assurance that �all hardships faced
temporarily by our brothers and sisters in the North will be brought to an
end in a short time.� The military has charged the LTTE with using civilians
as �human shields.�
On September 1, the Sri Lankan government proposed a �humanitarian corridor�
to enable civilians trapped in battle zones to flee from the Tiger-held
territories. Conflict-generated problems have cropped up in coordinating the
relief work with United Nations agencies and international NGOs. The U.N.
recently announced that a major World Food Programme convoy carrying 750
tonnes of food, which attempted to go into the Wanni, was �forced to turn
back due to fighting� and that it would seek �renewed security assurances
from the two sides before attempting the route again� soon.
This is the kind of humanitarian situation where India�s developed
logistical capabilities, combined with substantial fraternal contributions
of food, medicine, and fuel, can make a real difference, as was splendidly
demonstrated in Sri Lanka in the wake of the 2004 tsunami.
Comment by
tamilnation.org
Fraternal
humanitarian concern
? �We have a very comprehensive relationship
with Sri Lanka. In our anxiety to protect the civilians, we should not
forget the strategic importance of this island to India's interests,...
especially in view of attempts by countries like Pakistan and China to
gain a strategic foothold in the island nation...Colombo had been told
that India would "look after your security requirements, provided you do
not look around". "We cannot have a playground of international players
in our backyard." Indian
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, 24 October 2008
The Tamil Nadu government and political parties can make a handsome
contribution to such a timely humanitarian project. It goes without saying
that India�s assistance to the Tamils must be routed through the Sri Lankan
government and coordinated with the U.N. and reliable international NGOs.�
Comment by
tamilnation.org
"... இப்போது நன்கொடை
வசூல், தானம் உதவி என்று தமிழக முதல்வர் தொடங்கி யிருக்கிறார். இவை எப்படி
அங்கு போய்ச் சேரும்? யார் இதை அவதிப்பட்ட மக்களுக்கு வழங்குவது? மத்திய
அரசு, இலங்கைக்குத் தொடர்ந்து ராணுவ உதவி செய்வதால், இலங்கைத் தமிழ்
மக்களைக் கொன்று குவிக்கத் துணை புரியும், டில்லியிடம் மன்றாட மக்கள்
தயாராக இல்லை... "மத்திய
அரசைக் காப்பதா? இலங்கைத் தமிழ் மக்களைக் காப்பதா?
- Janasakthi, Indian Communist Party Official Daily,
Editorial, 30 October 2008
N.Ram (born 1945), with all the panoply at his disposal, projects himself as a
ranking Indian journalist. Tamil Nadu has seen quite a few ranking journalists �
such as
Subramanya Bharathi
(1882-1921), R. Kalki
Krishnamoorthi
(1899-1954), R.K.
Narayan
(1906-2001) and
C.N. Annadurai � Anna (1909-1969). But, N. Ram is not a ranking journalist
despite his pompous pretensions.
Bharathi was an eminent Tamil poet, Kalki and Narayan were illustrious
story-tellers in Tamil and English respectively, and Anna was a polymath. What
has Ram to show for his credit, as achievement for the past 40 years? � Neither
a poet, nor a story-teller, and too dumbbell of a kind to be compared with Anna.
So, how does one characterize Ram�s credentials? � he has a streak of aligning
himself as an intangible asset of Sri Lanka�s Sinhalese politicians in power �
whether they be J.R.Jayawardene (via Gamini Dissanayake), Chandrika Kumaratunga
(via Lakshman Kadirgamar) and currently Mahinda Rajapakse.
In the above cited editorial, Ram writes about the �bailout package for LTTE� in
pejorative terms. What should not be forgotten is that since 1987, it has been
the practice of Ram and the House of Hindu in providing �bailout package� to the
racist Colombo politicians.
It is evident that not only Ram is na�ve about the history of Sri Lankan Tamils,
but also he is clueless about the revolutionary and political history of U.S.A,
though he claims to have a post-graduate degree from Columbia University�s
graduate school of journalism. On LTTE, the Hindu editorial of 18 October
notes,
�It is a dreaded terrorist organisation � described by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation as �amongst the most dangerous and deadly extremist outfits in
the world� � that claims to be the sole representative of Sri Lankan Tamils
and pursues the secessionist goal of �Tamil Eelam� in an uncompromising
way.�
There are two issues here. First, as Jawaharlal Nehru wrote in his 1936
autobiography, �It is very easy and very fatuous to condemn persons or acts
without seeking to understand the springs of action, that causes the causes that
underlie them.� [An Autobiography, 1988- sixth impression, pp. 174-175]
towards the use of the T-word by the British imperialists to the militancy of
India�s freedom fighter Bhagat Singh, has Ram in any way comprehended the origin
of militant violence among the Eelam Tamils, and that it was sponsored on the
initiative made by Nehru�s daughter Indira Gandhi?
�On
Jan. 10, 2008, the venerable Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the
USA issued a report entitled �Taming the Tamil Tigers: From Here in the US.�
To say the least, I was delighted that the LTTE, at last, has received such
a meritorious badge from the FBI. As an institution established 100 years
ago, I�d say that the FBI has functioned gallantly as the ultimate arbiter
of American bureaucratic morals. I repeat that the FBI has been the
�ultimate arbiter of American bureaucratic morals� � and not the arbiter of
social, academic and popular morals�.In its 100 years of
existence, the celebrated folks who have been named, targeted and harassed
by the FBI as �subversives� for their beliefs and deeds surely make a Dream
Team of 20th century�s ranking thinkers, literati, scientists, social
activists, artists and entertainers. For a
sample, I provide the following names who were identified by the FBI as
�subversives�: Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann, Charlie Chaplin, Sinclair
Lewis, Carl Sandburg, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, Arthur Miller, Jonas
Salk, John Steinbeck, Aldous Huxley, Paul Robeson, John O�Hara, Tennessee
Williams and Martin Luther King Jr. Now, what would you say? Isn�t the LTTE
and Pirabhakaran in great company?�
So, here is my posture to Narasimhan Ram, the pundit? By the same token, are you
willing to concede that all these guys who have been tagged by FBI are
subversives?
Narasimhan Ram facetiously regurgitates the Sri Lankan army�s line, that �The
military has charged the LTTE with using civilians as �human shields.�� The key
phrase here is, �the military�. Whose military is this? What is its current
ethnic composition? Do Tamils have representation in this military, according to
the population ratio? For comparative relevance here are the numbers for the
U.S. armed forces and how the minorities are distributed in the U.S. armed
forces. American Blacks, though constituting 12.3% of population are represented
in the armed forces at 20.1%. Hispanic Americans, though constituting ~12.5% of
the population, have 7.9% representation. Other minorities (Native Americans,
Alaskan Natives and Pacific Islanders) make up 6.3% of U.S. armed forces. In
sum, minority representation in U.S. armed forces is around 34.4% (source:
New York Times Almanac, 2004). Minority Tamil (both indigenous variety and
Indian-Tamil variety) representation in the blatantly racist SL armed forces is
a state-secret, which even Ram cannot pry out from the President of Sri Lanka.
The 18 October editorial also claims that the Hindu has had a
�telephonic interview� with President Mahinda Rajapakse and repeats his
posturing as a savior of �brothers and sisters in the North�. This sort of
clich� has been floating in Colombo�s hot air since 1956 and Eelam Tamils never
gave any credence for the words of Sinhalese politicians, whether they were
uttered in the parliament or in the UN podium or to the editor of the Hindu
newspaper. Ram seems oblivious to the fact that Eelam Tamils (with the sole
exception of a few political parasites) never placed their trust on the
sugar-coated words of leadership of SLFP party, since 1956.
Ram is a master of clich�. His contemptuous needling on �some small political
parties and fringe groups in Tamil Nadu have been involved in ineffective
chauvinistic propaganda� (18 October editorial) and on the speeches and
activities made by leaders of �some fringe groups in Tamil Nadu� (Oct.25th)
deserves rebuke. As an ex-Communist apologist (In his earlier incarnation, Ram
was a propagandist for the Student Federation of India, Communist Party of
India, Marxist � established in 1964) currently parrot-mouthing the virtues of
democracy, Ram seems ignorant to the historical facts that some small political
parties and fringe groups, both in India and Sri Lanka (such as DMK in Tamil
Nadu, SLFP and the Federal Party to which A. Amirthalingam belonged, in Sri
Lanka in early 1950s), have been catapulted to power on how they reflect their
constituent�s wish-fulfillment.
The Fallacy behind being banned �by nearly 30 countries�
That Narasimhan Ram cannot think on his own is clearly proven, when he rehashes
and vomits the propagandist viewpoint of Colombo that LTTE has been banned �by
nearly 30 countries�. The logic behind this spurious claim deserves dissection.
In what century, does Ram seem to be living? First, over 195 countries are
represented in the UN. As of now, that 165 countries have not instituted a ban
on LTTE reveals that the decision making process of this �nearly 30 countries�
is rather defective, and promulgated for ad-hoc conveniences. Secondly, the
prevailing mindset of the political leadership of those 30 countries (touted as
�democratic�) has to be checked. The lead players of these 30 countries (such as
USA, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Denmark and Australia) have a
notorious past as colonial aggressors and plunderers, and majority of nations
that received independence during the past 50 years never bother to toe a line
taken from an angle of colonial racist mentality.
The claim that �the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi on Indian soil by an LTTE
squad� in 1991 resulted in India banning the LTTE may stand out as a politically
convenient, nerve-jerk reaction in 1992. Subsequently, a saner and rational
notion (call it �karmic view�) has come to prevail among millions of Indians
that Rajiv Gandhi was not the first and the last leader to lose his life, due to
his timidity, immaturity and reliance on unwise advice from his political
handlers. Ram, and his fellow-travellers such as Subramanian Swamy, with an
accusatory mindset may turn a blind eye on the faults of Rajiv Gandhi�s imperial
dreams and deficits that irked both Sri Lankan Tamils and Sinhalese, in the
latter half of 1980s. First amongst Rajiv Gandhi�s errors in dealing with the
Sri Lankan Tamil issue was that he betrayed his mother Indira Gandhi�s policies
in spirit and execution, and he paid with his life for such a betrayal.
"...Tamil
militancy received (India's) support ...as a response to (Sri
Lanka's).. concrete and expanded military and intelligence cooperation
with the United States, Israel and Pakistan. ...The assessment was
that these presences would pose a strategic threat to India and they
would encourage fissiparous movements in the southern states of India.
.. a process which could have found encouragement from Pakistan and the
US, given India's experience regarding their policies in relation to
Kashmir and the Punjab.... Inter-state relations are not governed by the
logic of morality. They were and they remain an amoral phenomenon....."
To learn realistically about how much influence LTTE has on Eelam Tamil lives,
Ram and his understudies who report from Colombo for the Hindu and its
sister journals, have a time-tested route. In the past, the Hindu
reporters such as Nirupama Subramanian, V.S. Sambandan and currently
B.Muralidhar Reddy, stationed themselves in the comfort of Colombo and have
reported on the Sinhalese-Tamil conflict, regurgitating the inflated, propaganda
feeds provided by the Sri Lankan armed forces and other ministeries. As such,
almost all of their reports and commentaries suffer from reality deficit. This
can be rectified if the reporters bother to live in the Tamil territory for the
entire length of their tenure and file their findings on the war. But one hardly
doubts, whether the Hindu reporters will sacrifice that much for the
purpose of finding the truth. This has not been in their training and tradition.
Comment
by
tamilnation.org
There are lies
and then there are bare faced lies. Mr.Ram clearly subscribes to
the
