Mr.Madan Mohan Rao is concerned about the views
expressed by the Tamil Nation. We do not know about Mr.
Madan Mohan Rao, except ofcourse that he is the author
of an article entitled ''Tigers in Tamil Nadu: Politics
of cuckoos nest'' which appeared in the Sri Lanka
government controlled Sunday Times on March 15.
The reference to the ''cuckoos nest'' was to the
conference organised by the ''Viduthalai Kuyilgal'' in
Madras on March 8 which was banned by the Police. Mr.
Mohan Rao is worried that 'Tamil separatists have
become bolder by the day in Tamil Nadu'. He says and we
quote him:
"The LTTE's mouthpiece, Tamil Nation now published
from London, highlights news from Indian states such
as Punjab, Kashmir and Assam, where separatist
struggles are on. It repeated an anti-Indian
editorial warning of India's disintegra-tion.The
editorial in question says:
'Though reports of disintegration of the Indian
Union are often great exaggerated, events in the
Soviet Union show that empires do crumble, if they
do not recognise well in time, the political force
of emergent nationalisms, and take steps to
restructure in a genuine and meaningful way. And
for the Indian Union, the time is now. Unity will
emerge only when New Delhi acquires the vision and
the strength to constitute a confederal
commonwealth of free and equal nations.
It will be futile for New Delhi to order the
rising tide of emergent national-isms to recede.The
rising tide of Sikh nationalism, will not recede in
the years to come. Neither will Kashmiri
nationalism recede. Nor will Assamese nationalism.
Nor for that matter, will Tamil nationalism recede
in the years to come. On the contrary, these
nationalisms will grow from year to year. There are
momentous changes beginning to take shape all over
the world and India can-not insulate herself from
the new dispensation.""
We are grateful to Mr.Rao for the extensive
coverage given to our views... However, instead of
screaming in fear about 'separatists' becoming bolder
day by day, Mr.Mohan Rao and his ilk will better serve
the cause of Indian unity, which they endeavour to
espouse, if they wake up to the reality that Pramatha
Chauduri, the famous Bengali patriot and writer,
saw in the 1920s when he wrote in Bengali:
'You have accused me of Bengali patriotism. I feel
bound to reply. If it is a crime for a Bengali to
harbour and encourage Bengali patriotism in his mind,
then I am guilty. But I ask you: what other
patriotism do you expect from a Bengali writer?... If
self determination is not suited to us, then it is
not suited at all to Europe. No people in Europe are
as different, one from another, as our people. There
is not that much difference between England and
Holland as there is between Madras and Bengal. Even
France and Germany are not that far apart. If some of
our politicians shudder at the mention of provincial
patriotism, it is because their beliefs smack of
narrow national selfishness... To be united due to
outside pressure and to unite through mutual regard
are not the same...''
Let us reassure Mr.Rao that the Tamil Nation is
not anti Indian. We believe that the 1990s will
demonstrate that the unity of India will not achieved
by suppressing the national aspirations of the
different peoples of India. We repeat our belief that
''unity will emerge only when New Delhi acquires the
vision and the strength to constitute a confederal
commonwealth of free and equal nations'' and we are
confident that the coming years will prove us right. If
confederation is denied, separation and division are
inevitable and to say that and to believe that is not
to be anti Indian.
Self-determination is not a dirty word. On the
contrary, it is a word which encapsulates the single
most powerful political force of this decade. To deny
that is to talk about not the politics of the cuckoos
nest but about the politics of cloud cuckooland.
As for the Tamil Nation being an LTTE mouthpiece,
the fact that Mr.Rao writes to the Sri Lankan
Government controlled Sunday Times from Madras, should
not prevent him from recognising the force of the words
of our Founding Editor who today languishes in an
Indian jail, for standing up for that which he
believes:
''Tamil Nation is nobody's mouthpiece and is proud
of its individuality and independence. If an Indian
newspaper supports the Palestinian cause, it does not
become a PLO mouthpiece, does it?''
We repeat, Tamil Nation is nobody's mouthpiece. It
was and is fiercely independent. It also fearlessly
supports the Tamil struggle for national self
determination. If all that makes the Tamil Nation a
tiger, then so be it.
