Sachi SriKantha - Desperately Seeking Intelligence

My well-tattered copy of Funk & Wagnalls Standard Desk dictionary provides four usages for the word ‘intelligence’. These are as follows:

“(1) the faculty of perceiving and comprehending meaning; understanding.
(2) the ability to adapt to new situations.
(3) the collection of secret information, as by the police or military.
(4) information that has been so collected; also, the persons so occupied.”

Now that the rumors of LTTE leader Pirabhakaran’s death due to tsunami on December 26th have been shredded as whimsical hot air of intelligence-challenged individuals in Colombo, it is not irrelevant to delve a little into the mentality of pseudo-experts who gulped such hot air.

The Tweedledum and Tweedledee of Chennai, sharing the same name [N.Ram and B.Raman] crosses one’s mind. The folly of Tweedledum N.Ram – the editor of the Hindu newspaper - has been aptly critiqued by the Oru Paper editorial of January 23.

The Tweedledee B.Raman also deserves some scorn. He adorns himself with the following decorations: “additional secretary (retired), Cabinet Secretariat, government of India, New Delhi, and, presently, director, Institute for Topical Studies, Chennai, and distinguished fellow and convener, Observer Research Foundation, Chennai Chapter.”

If some Insitution in India has had the temerity to “distinguish this fellow”, one should really scan for prevalence of intelligence lacunae in the busybodies manning such an Institution. What was left out from Raman’s published decoration is noteworthy.

Last year, in the aftermath of V.Muralitharan’s [aka Col.Karuna] sacking by the LTTE, I was informed by a Tamil Nadu-born reader of my commentaries that this same B.Raman was a top intelligence official serving the Research and Analysis Wing of Indian bureaucracy. Then, this Raman was salivating for a miracle of Muralitharan’s success – even organizing a seminar under the auspices of his Observer Research Foundation at the end of March 2004 in Chennai. The unmentioned objective was to predict a future of RAW-sponsored LTTE, under Col.Karuna. Sadly within a month, the reality bites were too bitter to swallow for this intelligence-challenged ‘distinguished fellow’.

In the aftermath of December 26th tsunami, Raman again hoisted his hot air balloon of ‘LTTE without Pirabhakaran’. In a ‘copyrighted’ commentary entitled, ‘The tsunami and the LTTE’ which appeared in the Asia Times website in early January, B.Raman bragged as follows:

“The LTTE is a ruthless organization and Prabakaran was the most ruthless terrorist leader in the world. [Note by Sachi: Check the bombastic use of past tense ‘was’, as if Pirabhakaran is history!]. One need not shed any tears over his death, if he is really dead. I have been repeatedly writing that the Sri Lankan Tamils need an LTTE minus Prabakaran and that if the LTTE throws him out and gives up terrorism, India and Sri Lanka should be prepared to do business with it. Without the protective role of the LTTE, the Tamils would be at the mercy of the Sinhalese chauvinists…”

The rendered unabashed wish of B.Raman that “the Sri Lankan Tamils need an LTTE minus Prabakaran” exposes it all.

Despite false modesty, this guy is still in the intelligence business and one of his objectives appears like propping up the tattered image of Muralitharan’s ghost as a viable leader of LTTE.

While Eelam Tamils can pray to the Almighty that the Tweedledum [N.Ram] and Tweedledee [B.Raman] of Chennai need badly a blessing on common intelligence [usage no.1 in the dictionary definition of the word, noted above] before they are called to meet their Maker, there is a necessity to keep vigil on the crocodile tears shed by these two pseudo-experts on behalf of Eelam Tamils.

It is despicable that the Tweedledum and Tweedledee of Chennai choose disasters like tsunami to float their wildest thoughts in the media, while desperately seeking intelligence.