Time appears to have stood still for most Tamil Nadu’s politicians who seem completely insulated from the complex ground realities that mark India’s new political landscape. India’s political establishment and civil society are anxiously grappling with the enormity of the horrific new threat to Indian society — terrorism — fast becoming an everyday reality on the streets. But oddly enough, seemingly oblivious of the contradiction, political parties in Tamil Nadu, led by the MDMK and the PMK, have recently plunged into high-pitched activity aimed at garnering support for the LTTE, a deadly terrorist organisation.
These parties have launched a campaign in the State ostensibly to express solidarity with the Sri Lankan Tamils trapped in the war zone in northern Sri Lanka but the timing of this campaign which appears to have materialised overnight, is a dead giveaway. The Sri Lankan army, just two kilometres away from the LTTE’s administrative capital, Kilinochchi, has successfully encircled the Tigers and their leader who are virtually trapped in their bunkers. For the first time in years, the Sri Lankan government appears to be on the brink of a major success in its battle with terrorism. There is now the very real prospect of the capture of the elusive LTTE chief, Velupillai Prabakaran, who is behind the assassination of a former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi.
Tamil Nadu’s politicians clearly have different standards for India and for Sri Lanka. It would appear that they accept that battling terrorism in India and saving Kashmir from Islamist jihadis are important national tasks but not so in Sri Lanka which has been menaced for more than two decades by the LTTE. It was the LTTE which pioneered terrorism in South Asia and produced two generations of suicide bombers who have claimed numerous high-profile victims. For far too long have the legitimate aspirations of the Sri Lankan Tamils been held hostage to the hegemonic ambitions of the LTTE chief Prabakaran who has consistently sabotaged all attempts to find political solutions to the ethnic conflict.
When Pakistani generals and Islamist militants characterise the separatist uprising in Kashmir as a “freedom struggle,” the collective Indian national consciousness is understandably outraged. Politicians in India are rarely exercised over concerns that the human rights of innocent citizens are often trampled upon in police action against terrorists or their perceived accomplices. There is indeed a broad-based political consensus behind the Indian state when it takes strong steps to root out terrorism.
It is therefore all the more incongruous that the political parties in Tamil Nadu, including the ruling DMK and its principal challenger the AIADMK have decided to work themselves into a frenzy over the alleged violation of the “human rights” of the Sri Lankan Tamils in the context of the military action against the LTTE. Evidently, the game plan of the LTTE and its supporters is to rally Tamil chauvinist sentiment and translate that into pressure on New Delhi to signal its disapproval to Colombo, thereby weakening its moral authority in the eyes of the Sri Lankan Tamil community.
There is a strong sense of déjÀ vu, listening to the rhetoric and speeches of leaders in Tamil Nadu, whose understanding of the Sri Lankan political situation is mired in a time-warp, their images of the ethnic conflict drawing primarily from scenes of two decades ago, particularly the flashpoint of 1983, when the Wellikada prison massacre highlighted dramatically the plight of the Sri Lankan Tamil community and brought thousands of refugees to Indian shores. But after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, the Indian national psyche recoiled from a continued engagement with the Sri Lankan ethnic crisis.
Since the 1990s, New Delhi’s policy has been to acknowledge the terrorist character of the LTTE and the imperative of a military confrontation with that organisation, while continuing to offer moral encouragement to Colombo to find a political solution that would provide a framework to empower the Tamil community. Meanwhile, India made clear its utter repugnance for the LTTE by banning it not just because it was involved in the murder of Rajiv Gandhi but because it viewed the LTTE as a terrorist movement that would continuously strive to stimulate the secessionist sentiment in Tamil Nadu as long as Sri Lanka continued to have ethnic strife.
The situation in Sri Lanka itself has undergone profound changes since the 1980s, when it was easier to conceptualise purely political solutions and rule out military responses to the violent dimensions of the conflict. At that point in time, it was indeed possible to sideline the militant groups of Sri Lankan Tamil politics by engaging the political interlocutors in the Tamil community such as the urbane leaders of the TULF, notably Appapillai Amirthalingam, who recognised the key to political empowerment lay in the democratic process. But with the ruthless elimination of every credible interlocutor in the Tamil community by the LTTE which insisted that it was the sole representative of the Sri Lankan Tamils, the space for a political solution has narrowed over the years, rendering null and void the several exercises seeking a devolution of power to the Tamil community.
Yet the Thirteenth Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution which was a consequence of the Indo-Sri Lankan Agreement of 1987, envisaging devolution of power to provincial councils has become a touchstone for the resolution of the ethnic conflict. The Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, has made it clear that he remains committed to a political solution of this sort. In a meeting with the All Party Representative Conference (APRC) last Saturday, Mr. Rajapaksa emphasised that it was the duty of the Sri Lankan state “to ensure to the Tamil people of the North the same democratic rights as enjoyed by the people in all parts of the country.” He also took care to explain that the military action against the LTTE was against terrorism and not against the Tamil community.
The Sri Lankan President has acquired unprecedented political space for his military campaign against the LTTE. Several factors including the rebellion of the powerful LTTE commander Karuna and the fact that there is now in place an elected provincial council in the Eastern Province have rendered irrelevant many of the points in the earlier Sri Lankan Tamil political platform. That there is a credible and workable political solution now in sight has made it easier for Colombo to launch military operations against the LTTE. It is indeed the sovereign right of Sri Lanka as it is of India to eliminate any terrorist organisation that poses a fundamental threat to its survival as a nation.
The parties in Tamil Nadu which have strong ties to the LTTE such as the MDMK and the PMK are in the forefront of this new campaign which has sprung to life overnight after decades of silence. Their rhetoric is dated and wearily familiar. The MDMK’s Vaiko, brimming with moral indignation, has lashed out at the Centre for allegedly sending military assistance to Sri Lanka which was “unleashing a genocidal attack on the Tamil race”. Likewise the PMK’s leader S. Ramadoss has alleged that “the situation on the island threatens to eliminate the entire Tamil race”.
That the LTTE’s shadow lurks behind this new campaign is evident in the demand of Dr. Ramadoss that the Union government recognise the “Eelam Tamils struggle for their rights.” There is also an implied acceptance of the LTTE’s claim to be the only authentic representative of the Sri Lankan Tamils in the declaration of Dr. Ramadoss that the LTTE is “acting as a fortress for ethnic Tamils.”
As the LTTE has presumably calculated, this binge of competitive chauvinism has compelled Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi to up the ante on this issue, adding for good measure, his own dramatic assertion that unless the Centre cooperates in stopping the attacks on the Sri Lankan Tamils, not only would the Sri Lankan Tamils perish but so also would the “Tamils in Tamil Nadu.” The strategic design behind the campaign to “express solidarity” with the Sri Lankan Tamils that is now under way in Tamil Nadu should not be underestimated.
For the last decade or so, New Delhi has successfully resisted the various attempts made by the LTTE and its supporters in Tamil Nadu to force it to intervene in the Sri Lankan ethnic crisis. If New Delhi were to express its disapproval, even implicitly, of Sri Lanka’s sovereign right to recapture its own national territory from the LTTE, it would weaken the moral authority of India’s own actions in regard to its struggle against terrorism and the separatist agitation in Kashmir. This latest campaign in Tamil Nadu masterminded by a desperate LTTE must not be allowed to undermine the sound policy decision upheld by successive Indian governments since 1991 to stay out of Sri Lanka’s internal affairs.
Malini Parthasarathy
http://www.hindu.com/2008/10/14/stories/2008101454490800.htm
Retrospective twitterification (1991 part 2)
7 years ago
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Tamil chauvinism in Tamil Nadu – a creation of biased journalism.
The piece ‘The dangers of Tamil chauvinism’ by an Executive Editor of ‘The Hindu’ was discussed adequately in a piece aptly titled ‘The dangers of biased journalism’ (Merinews of 4 Novenber 2008). Pushing views that are patently insensitive to the feelings of mainstream Tamilians indirectly stokes up divisive tendencies within India. Responsible media will desist from being a party to SL’s divisive agenda for India however deep its sectarian prejudices are.
On the SL Tamil issue that has a foreign relations dimension the media’s role being perceived as serving a foreign country at the expense Indian sensitivities whether national or state level is most damaging to its standing. SL policies have striven for decades to engineer divisive strains in Centre-TN state relations. These are most prevalent in post-Rajiv UPA administrations. ‘The Hindu’s’ advocacy of the SL genocide exploits these Delhi-TN strains, leaving perception that it is in partnership with SL’s India splitting up venture. At the state level the perception that Delhi treats TN as an outcaste and shut out of mainstream Indian polity on the SL issue is brought up as often as possible. This is most damaging to the core element in India’s national interest. This is unity within the Indian Union that needs to be nurtured and protected at all costs. Actions that attempt to barter this away for reasons however abstract and contrived deserve forthright condemnation.
‘The Hindu’ has its own inflated self-glorifying agenda. In its pursuit it tramples on the sensitivities of mainstream Tamilians and TN though collectively they are Indian sensitivities as well. ‘The Hindu’ lost its iconic standing (national and TN/regional) in yesteryears, more over the negative stance it took on the SL Tamil issue even as early as the 1960s. This is in total disregard of the feelings of Tamilians in TN costing it its locus standi in Chennai/TN. In this context its tears for killed leaders like Amirthalingam sound sinister.
The author’s belligerent tone chastising mainstream Tamilians’ anger in TN as ‘Tamil chauvinism’ is provocative and insensitive. Its underlying agenda is to support SL’s policies to stoke up Centre-TN differences to destabilize the TN state more so over the groundswell of sympathy for brethren SL Tamils. This alienates Tamilians encouraging SL style divisiveness into the Indian polity.
In further accusing TN leaders of applying harsher standards on Jihardis compared to the armed Tamil resistance to SL genocide, the vehemence of its emotional tirade against the armed Tamil resistance surpasses even those of the SL regimes themselves. It portrays the Jihardis as kinder souls and hence a lesser threat to India compared to the Tamil resistance. Sectarian prejudice that runs strong and deep do affect rationality. The enlightened world is moving fast for a nuanced and discriminating approach to the concept of ‘terrorism’. This will require the tempering of the ‘terrorism’ stigma that ‘The Hindu’ the SL genociders and Congress-Delhi strove hard to attach to the armed Tamil resistance. With the dawn of the Obama/Hilary Clinton era change is surely coming. Despite these positive developments none in their right senses in India would ever attempt as this author has done to elevate and morally justify Jihardism even in the context of Kashmir. India scrupulously avoided SL’s genocidal policies in dealing with Kashmir that bracketing SL and India over their respective terrorism policies is certainly most damaging to India’s moral image.
The secular armed Tamil resistance is local outfit fighting a genocide in SL within SL and not on Indian soil. Hence TN politicians make no apologies for their stronger anti-Jihardi stance. As Indians they share in the real pain of the atrocities committed by the lethal international Jihardism on Indian soil for several decades and most acutely since the UPA came to power. This is real terror unleashed India-wide and on Indian soil. The horrific 9/11 style attack in Bombay bears testimony to the viciousness of jihardism and its horrific international dimension. Why the author and ‘The Hindu are so sparing on Jihardis compared to Tamil resistance (LTTE) to the SL genocide should compel Indians to ponder seriously over how sectarian prejudices do contribute to biased journalism and highlighting rational debate critical to India’s unity. Giving moral support for Jihardism, the most monstrous terrorism outfit acknowledged world-wide any form of calls for stern condemnation.
Yet the author persists further with its SL agenda to revive the long buried spectre of Tamil separatism casting doubts on the loyalty to the Indian Union of TN/Tamilians. To the delight of SL genociders this mischievously plants the infective divisiveness into the Indian polity; another anti-Indian act. The highly opinionated piece further denigrates TN leaders as ‘mired up in a time-warp’ unable to comprehend Congress-Delhi’s stance of ‘staying out of SL’s internal affairs’.
In fact Congress-Delhi (not India) has been covertly, behind the backs of its Coalition partners, in a morally untenable partnership in SL’s genocide. The injured radars operators unraveled this covert partnership; sharing critical intelligence, training thousands of SL troops, three thousand troopers ( SAARC) remaining behind bolstering SL’s offensives and more remaining covert in support of an abhorrent genocide. Morally as an aspiring world power India including Congress-Delhi and TN has to distance themselves from such a pariah genocidal state.
The author is lavish in her praise of the Rajapakse (Buddhist-Sinhala) regimes and their ethnic policies. The six decades long ethnic conflict is basically a genocide on the Tamils. In this piece genocide does not receive any mention; perhaps they did not or do not exist or are irrelevant. The phantom of the Tamil armed resistance (LTTE) to the genocide only seems to haunt this author. This is precisely the line pushed by the SL propaganda machine. The SL Tamils who have and are facing total annihilation view the Tamil resistance as their saviors. So do the mainstream Tamils in TN at heart.
Unfortunately the sectarian anti-Tamil prejudice explains why this piece avoids any mention of the reality of the six decades long SL genocide and instead indulges in its ritualistic and laboured recitation of SL’s half truths (these are in fact ‘mired up in a time-warp’ ..‘rhetoric (ally) ..dated and wearily familiar’) about the dreadful Tamil terrorism, the Rajiv factor, SL’s sovereignty (applicable only for civil states that respect human rights.), the 1987 Indo-SL accord, LTTE spurning SL’s peace efforts and so on ad nauseam.
In sum one could surmise that ‘The Hindu’ is on a self-destruct path; its conspicuous sectarianism has dented its standing (national and regional (TN)). To re-build a more cordial and receptive readership moving its HO to safer Colombo and with the new ‘The Buddhist’ name will surely serve its pecuniary interests better at all times.
V S Subramaniam
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