Ethnic Issue: Keeping Tamil Nadu Engaged

by N Sathiya Moorthy

(October 06, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) Election time is the time for the 'Sri Lankan ethnic issue' coming to life in Tamil Nadu, India. When the rest of the world is crying over the sufferings of 225,000 internally-displaced persons (IDPs) in the Vanni area, it is only natural that from across the Palk Strait, Tamil Nadu feels the concern, and gives political expression, as well. Unlike in the past, the national Left that has taken the lead in the State, lending it greater credibility than in more recent times.

The last time the 'ethnic war' in Sri Lanka moved Tamil Nadu this way, it was home to 250,000 refugees in the Eighties. Their individual tales of woe, graphically described personally, did move hearts. This time, as on earlier occasion, the problems of 'Palk Strait fishing' and Kachchativu have got entangled with the ethnic issue.

The Indian Communists survived the 'Soviet collapse' but the strains have been showing for long. The emergence of non-Congress, anti-BJP 'coalition politics' saved the day for them since, but the Communists have not been able to adapt to global changes a fast as the one-time Congress compatriot-cum-competitor.

In the years immediately before and after Independence, the Communists would not acknowledge issues such as caste and ethnicity as forming a part of Marxian 'class struggle'. Left-leaning regional parties identifying with grassroots-level issues of caste and ethnicity thus upstaged them in the States. The 'Dravidian' Tamil Nadu was an early example but not the only one.

Today, the Indian Communists are fighting a battle for survival and subsequent strength at two levels. After withdrawing support to the Manmohan Singh Government, they are not sure as to which party between the Congress and the BJP they want to replace at the centre-stage of national politics – if ever they can do it together with their Left Front allies. In the States, they have concluded, and not without reason, that regional and sub-regional parties have either outlived their utility, or lost credibility or both. They want to fill those 'emerging vacuums'.

It is in this background that the Communist Party of India (CPI), whose status as a 'national party' is under test, has chosen the 'Sri Lankan issue' to try and expand its political base and voter-appeal in Tamil Nadu. For its part, the compatriot, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM), has taken up the 'Dalit issue' and is trying to revive the 'labour discontent' in 'foreign automobile units' abutting Chennai, the State capital. Between them, neither has contested any election in the State without a strong 'Dravidian ally' for decades now.

Should the CPI succeed in its current efforts to re-sensitise Tamil Nadu on the Sri Lankan issue, regional and sub-regional parties like the MDMK, PMK, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) could stand to suffer. Already competing among themselves for the shrinking pan-Tamil political space in the State, it is anybody's guess if any one of them would want more competition.

The AIADMK rival of the ruling DMK, which between them constitute the 'Dravidian majors' in State politics, stayed away from the CPI-sponsored State-wide, day-long fast on 2 October, 'Gandhi Jayanthi' day. The AIADMK, as also the PMK, had announced their intention to participate, but stayed away when the fledgling DMDK of film star politician Vijaykanth honoured the invitation.

Given Vijaykanth's chief ministerial ambitions, AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa sees him as competition. For a party from outside the region, the DMDK has made inroads into the northern strongholds of the PMK. For all this however, Vijaykanth, who had named his son after LTTE leader Prabhakaran in the Eighties, has been careful about his political posturing on the 'Sri Lankan issue'. He does not want to hurt the Congress or upset the BJP, on whose backing he hopes to become Chief Minister one day.

It remains to be seen if the CPI, for instance, shared the personal tirades launched by MDMK founder Vaiko from the party platform. The MDMK kept the 'Sri Lanka issue' and the LTTE out of the 2006 Assembly polls after the party aligned with the AIADMK. The latter's views on the subject were well known then as now, and the MDMK continues to be in the AIADMK-led election combine.

As the ruling party in the State and the self-styled guardian of the global Tamil community, the DMK has taken up the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh all over again. The party is also going to the people, with its version of the events and developments of the past decades – and its own role, in seeking to set right matters in Sri Lanka.

Between them, the DMK and the AIADMK still decide the 'issues' for any election in Tamil Nadu, however weakened they may have been in political and electoral terms. Together with the Congress and the BJP majors at the national-level, they have delineated the 'ethnic issue' from the LTTE after the 'Rajiv Gandhi assassination', and have not found any reason to change their approach.

For now, Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee has conveyed New Delhi's concerns to his Sri Lankan counterpart, Rohitha Bogollagama.. This could well be beginning. The ethnic issue is as real in Sri Lanka as the upcoming elections are in India. The twine shall meet in the coming months, going by the progress of the war and the date of the elections. Neither New Delhi, nor Colombo could ignore them, and indefinitely so.

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The writer is Director, Chennai Chapter of the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), the Indian public policy think-tank, headquartered in New Delhi.- Sri Lanka Guardian