Tamils - a Trans State Nation..

"To us all towns are one, all men our kin.
Life's good comes not from others' gift, nor ill
Man's pains and pains' relief are from within.
Thus have we seen in visions of the wise !."
-
Tamil Poem in Purananuru, circa 500 B.C 

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International Relations
in THE AGE OF EMPIRE

Delhi Opts for Strife in Tamil Nadu

Natteri
27 October 2008, Merinews


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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