My response to Charles Somasundaram

By: Rajasingham Jayadevan

LTTE head Arunachalam Chrishanthakumar alias A C Shanthan’s private secretary Charles Somasundaram has come from nowhere and has reflected his anger and hatred in a confused and desperate manner against me. By writing for Shanthan’s substitute Kannan who is managing a LTTE website, Charles Somasundaram adduce that he is now acting as Kannan’s private secretary.

Shanthan was arrested by the Counter Terrorism Unit in May this year on various charges of involvement with the proscribed LTTE.

I am reproducing the piece written about me by Charles Somasundaram below. The headline of the article states ‘Dr’ R Jeyadevan (leader of the little known 'Tamil Democratic Congress') & his views on Human Right’ but unfortunately very little is said about human rights in the body text of the article which in fact reflects confused state of mind of the writer.

When Anton Balasingam was alive, he came under due exposure for misusing the ‘Dr’ title without being backed by any qualifications or even being bestowed upon him gratuitously. I too reflected this fallacy in my writings. The LTTE gutter websites which were carrying out vituperative, vulgar and threatening campaign against me went on the spree to portray me as a ‘Dr’ when one of the UTCHR published document inadvertently quoted me as Dr Jayadevan confusing with my brother Dr R Narendran’s title.

Charles Somasundaram who claims to know me since early 1990 very well knows, I am neither a ‘Dr’ nor have claimed this anywhere. Except for his LTTE front gutter media playing mischievous claim to discredit me, there is no real evidence to justify the claim. I now doubt whether Charles Somasundaram was responsible for writing for the LTTE websites framing this title on me. I am glad Charles Somasundaram did not reproduce the doctored pornographic pictures published of me in the same LTTE websites to discredit me and use them as evidence in his writings.

I came to know Charles Somasundaram in 1996 after LTTE’s Eelam House started to function in London, which I helped to purchase on Shanthan’s request. I also came to know Charles on few occasions on LTTE’s ‘Hotspring’ meetings. I was one of the directors of Hotspring which too was started in 1996.

My first direct encounter with Charles was when he was seated next to me in a meeting and he was praising a book written by Rev D J Kanagaratnam which he had in his possession. He was praising Rev D J Kanagaratnam as a bright intellect who had given valuable archaeological insight into Vanni. I was pleased to hear all the good words said by Charles and told him Rev D J Kanagaratnam is my maternal uncle. He was very happy that I was connected to him.

It is not a hiding fact that I am an off spring from a mixed marriage. My mother changed her religion into Hinduism ten years before I was born. We were brought up as Hindu’s and my mother to my knowledge has always been a devout Hindu. None of the seven children were ever forced to learn Christianity and not a story of Christianity or quote from the bible was taught to us by our mother or even our maternal uncle any time. Our mother settled with the adapted Hindu religion well and taught us many Hindu religious stories. She was a real follower of Hindu customs and traditions until her untimely death in 1987.

Our engagement with my maternal and some of my paternal Christian relatives gave us wider exposure to Christianity. What we are today is because of this exposure. Late D J Kanagaratnam being an intellect had good knowledge of all the religions and my father too had that insight and their get-together always gave us valuable knowledge of the world we live in. To experience all what both my father and uncle knew and experienced is unimaginable and unforgettable opportunities for us which we sadly miss now.

My mother becoming a Hindu gave good interactions with our relatives. In togetherness we celebrated Hindu festivals and Christmas. Since I came to the UK, I maintain this tradition and my house has been a place of rejoicing for many of my relatives and friends in the UK on the Christmas day.

I cannot understand what is wrong in being a trustee of a Hindu temple. Charles Somasundaram’s sectarian mindset is unable to think beyond his shallow thinking and this only confirms his opportunistic attitude to boost the terror campaign of the LTTE. I wonder whether Charles will write something similar about Fr Gaspar Raj who is a South Indian Hindu temple owning Catholic priest and an ardent supporter of the LTTE. Charles has to learn a lot from another intellect like Fr Garpar whom I highly respect and regard in order to work beyond narrow thinking.

For Charles Somasundaram’s information, the meeting I organised for the Labour Party candidates in 1997 was not only disturbed by the Sinhala campaigners, we also faced sustained pressure from LTTE head Shanthan. At this time, Charles was engaged as Shanthan’s private secretary and I recall speaking to him on the phone expressing my revulsion about Shanthan’s conduct. All what Charles could say to me was ‘I do not wish to get involved in any personal quarrels’.

I also wish to state, I was not at any time the convener of the Tamil Welfare Union nor organised a meeting for the Conservatives in Harrow. I, in fact, participated in a meeting organised by one Mr Kangeyan who was a resident of Harrow.

With the bottled mindset to support the LTTE at any cost, persons like Charles will not and cannot visualise and rationalise the horrendous situation created by the LTTE for the Tamils. He only knows to glorify over the deaths, destruction and havoc brought upon our people by the LTTE. He has attempted to belittle my terrible experience in the hands of the LTTE for the mere reason to hold on to his petticoat power base with the LTTE.

It has become a habit of the LTTE goons like Charles Somasundaram to mudsling Barry Gardiner MP with the barrage of nonsensical stories. Mr Barry Gardiner is a respectable politician and provided invaluable service to the Tamil community. Only with his help, I was able to get down Anton Balasingam to London in 1999 which gave the respite from war in Sri Lanka from 2001 to 2005 with the Ceasefire Agreement. Barry was not involved in any way in the formation of the Hindu temple. But he got involved in the LTTE orchestrated conflict in the temple in 2002 and soon gave up when he knew it was not something he should get involved.

Charles Somasundaram in is tirade did not spare even the representative Tamil Democratic Congress (TDC) which I chair. With wider membership and support base stretching across the European continent, TDC is a voice of the Tamil people. Our parliamentary campaign meeting and other forms of democratic campaign work confirms extent to which we are making an impact. Charles tirades in his write-up confirm the worry and shiver the control freak LTTE is facing over the work TDC have undertaken.

I have no hesitation to invite Charles Somasundaram to come to TDC’s major summit meeting to be held in few months time, so long as he could leave behind his LTTE petticoat and attend our parley as a true Christian.

In concluding, I wish to state I am surprised to see an elderly Charles Somasunderam has become a bemoaning man. This is surprise to me, as I have known him as a passive, very submissive and someone reluctant to get involved in controversies. Unfortunately, his writing published below confirm lack of understanding of issues and knowledge of facts and shows to the extent Charles could play a subservient role to anyone who could provide him a petticoat.

R. Jeyadevan , leader of the well known Tamil political active party among the Tamil Diaspora 'Tamil Democratic Congress