God save the Tamils in Sri Lanka

“If Mukherjee believes that he can win the cooperation of the Sinhalese, he is living in a fool's paradise. Right now Sri Lanka needs India to contain Tamil Nadu and receive data on sea surveillance. At the same time she secures military supplies from two of India's arch enemies, China and Pakistan. Once the Tamils are crushed and subjugated, she doesn't need India any more. At that point of time, the Sinhalese, as they had done in the past, would dump India and woo China.”

by a special writer

(October 26, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) A senior officer at the Ministry of External Affairs while accompanying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Japan told journalists that there is a distinction between LTTE and the Tamils, "as it (LTTE) is a terrorist organisation responsible for assassination of an Indian Prime Minister and not even apologised for it." When questioned on the collateral damage caused to civilians and property by Sri Lankan bombing and shelling, he replied that "in war some damage was expected".

This is a typical example of the callous disregard shown by the Central Government towards the Tamils. What is going on in Sri Lanka is a genocidal war. The Sinhalese do not see any difference between LTTE and the Tamils. They carpet bomb the whole area and India is not unaware of this. They deprive the civilians of food, medicine and shelter. Even in the government controlled refugee camps, youths are taken away and murdered. White van abductions are a daily occurrence. While some of these abductees are released after collection of ransom, most of them disappear without a trace.

Rajiv Gandhi's murder was not the only catastrophe that took place in Indian history. We have the urder of the highly revered Mahatma Gandhi, who was killed by an RSS member, Nathuram Godse. Neither RSS or the Godse family had apologized for this murder. On the other hand many of them had come out with statements justifying the killing. Indira Gandhi was killed by her own Sikh body guards. To date I have not seen anyone apologizing for that.

Rajiv Gandhi was killed by a female Tamil suicide bomber in Sriperumbudur in May 1991. In the explosion, in addition to Rajiv Gandhi, thirty two others died – sixteen civilians and sixteen security personnel. The fact that not a single politician or Tamil Nadu state official was around Rajiv, puzzled many. The girl who blew herself up was Dhanu. According to reports, the rape and murder of her mother by Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in her presence prompted her into the act. Unlike the two earlier deaths, in Rajiv's murder there was no conclusive evidence that LTTE was involved. There were many other suspects. On that fatal day thePalestinian President Arafat had warned Rajiv not to go to South India, as there appeared to be a plot to assassinate him. Where did he get this information from?

Whatever the reason for his murder, one has to examine Rajiv's intentions for sending IPKF into Tamil Eelam in July 1987. The ostensible reason was to protect the Tamils and secure for them peace. When the IPKF first landed on the shores of Eelam, they were showered with flowers and treated to sweetmeat and drinks by the Tamils. When IPKF became aggressive, the Tamils realized that they were there to disarm the LTTE, before the security of the Tamils was guaranteed. When the LTTE rebelled, Rajiv ordered the troops to finish them off. Thus the war started until the Indians were forced to withdraw in 1990. On several occasions the Indian commanders advised Delhi to come to a settlement with LTTE, but Rajiv adamantly refused. The net result was the loss of 1,200 Indian troops, death of 5,000 LTTE cadres, 10,000 civilians and over 900 women raped by Indian troops.

In the Indian Parliament there was uproar over the failure of IPKF in Sri Lanka and their ultimate departure without the mission being accomplished. The former Indian Defence Minister and later President R.Vekataraman replied that the Indian troops were sent to Eelam to protect India's southern flanks. This was basically the truth even to this date. India does not favour the creation of Tamil Eelam, as she sees it as a threat to Tamil Nadu remaining with India. The Central Government in Delhi would rather prefer the Tamils to remain under the Sinhalese yoke than to allow them to go free. The same logic was not applied in the case of Bangaladesh.

The death of Rajiv Gandhi, however regretful it may be, is history. Nobody today points an accusing finger at RSS for the murder of Mahatma Gandhi, or the Sikhs for the death of Indira Gandhi. As a result the Sikhs have bounced back and are contributing their share to the nation. Arming the Sinhalese to finish off the LTTE and collaterally the Tamil civilians, is counter productive. A nation that helped the Bangladeshis to go free is now denying the Tamils the same freedom. The Tamils in Tamil Nadu see this as double standard, practiced by Northern Indians on Southern Indians. For a nation to be united and progressive every citizen must have a sense of belonging; otherwise national integration becomes a elusive, distant mirage. India already has sufficient armed insurrections all over the country. Why add one more to the list?

Let us now look at the other side of the story. Can the Tamils live in peace and harmony with the Sinhalese, as India wants them to do. Since independence in February 1948, the Tamils, like the various communities in India, had agreed to live in a unitary state. Unlike in India the Tamils were systematically marginalized from government service, educational institutions and in all other walks of life. First they disfranchised the Indian Tamils in central Sri Lankan estates; then they went for the Tamils who were there for more than two thousand five hundred years. Moreover, colonization of Tamil homeland was carried out in earnest. In 1948 in the Eastern Province the Tamils were more than 80% of the population. Today they are reduced to around 50%. The Jaffna Library was burnt down and, for admission to universities, the Tamil students had to score a higher percentage of marks. This is cultural genocide. The Sinhala Only Act denied the Tamils admission to the Civil Service, as they had to be highly proficient in Sinhalese. A string of satyagraha protests were crushed by Sinhalese thugs and police. By 1976 the Tamil youths realized that armed rebellion was the only way to rectify the situation. This gave birth to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam; hence the present state of affairs.

Before independence in February 1948, the Sinhalese leaders, especially D.S.Senanayake, gave assurance to the unsuspecting Tamils that the rights enshrined in the constitution would not be tempered with. The Sinhalese majority in the parliament enabled successive leaders to dilute Tamil rights and reduce them to the state of second class citizens. Nowadays, the Sinhalese make no apology about their intentions. D.B Wijetunga, the third president of Sri Lanka, said in 1994 that the Tamils were creepers on a Sinhalese tree and their existence depended on their clinging on to that tree.

Fourteen years later, Army Commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, in an interview with Stewart Bell of the National Post newspaper of Canada, published on September 23, 2008 stated that: "I strongly believe that this country belongs to the Sinhalese but there are minority communities and we treat them like our people…We being the majority of the country, 75%, we will never give in and we have the right to protect this country…We are also a strong nation... They can live in this country with us. But they must not try to, under the pretext of being a minority, demand undue things."

President Rajapakse has to date not reprimanded him for the above statement, as this is exactly each of them think. Under these circumstances is it fair for India to insist that the Tamils adjust themselves in a unitary state? In spite of all the upheaval in Tamil Nadu, Pranab Mukherjee refused to stop supporting Sri Lanka This is what he said in Rajya Sabha. New Delhi, October 23 : While reiterating its stand that the civilian Tamil population in Sri Lanka, caught in the crossfire must be protected at all costs, India on Thursday made it clear that it would not stop its military cooperation with the island nation because of the humanitarian crisis in that country.

Responding to clarifications sought by the members in the Rajya Sabha, he said security cooperation with Colombo, including training of Lankan forces by India, was "necessary". "We have a very comprehensive relationship with Sri Lanka. In our anxiety to protect the civilians, we should not forget the strategic importance of this island to India's interests," he said in response to questions raised by a few members over the rationale of India continuing its military cooperation with Colombo in view of the plight of ethnic Tamils in that country and also incidents of firing on Indian fishermen entering Sri Lankan waters by mistake.

If Mukherjee believes that he can win the cooperation of the Sinhalese, he is living in a fool's paradise. Right now Sri Lanka needs India to contain Tamil Nadu and receive data on sea surveillance. At the same time she secures military supplies from two of India's arch enemies, China and Pakistan. Once the Tamils are crushed and subjugated, she doesn't need India any more. At that point of time, the Sinhalese, as they had done in the past, would dump India and woo China. Sinhalese have problems with India not only on the Eelam Tamils, but also the Indian Tamils. India had written off both the Tamils to secure Sri Lanka's friendship. The Sinhalese do not have any difference with China. Moreover, China can supply far more money and material to Sri Lanka than India can ever hope to do. No one should be surprised if China sets up a base in Sri Lanka to threaten India from the north and south. For China Sri Lanka is a prized link in her ring of international bases and she would do anything to secure that friendship.

Indira Gandhi recognized that helping the Tamils was the only way to contain the Sinhalese. That was the reason why she aided the Eelam Tamils. Unfortunately, the Indian Intelligence, RAW, did not agree with Indira's policies. After her death, Raw influenced Rajiv Gandhi to reverse that policy, resulting in the present state of affairs between LTTE and India. The Indian foreign policy in Sri Lanka appears to be governed more by her emotional hatred for the Tamil Tigers than by any practical evaluation of the realities on the ground. The more India fuels the conflict in Sri Lanka the longer the guerilla warfare will continue and this would not secure India's southern borders. On the other hand, it would open up a Pandora's Box, which no future Indian government can handle, both in Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu. This also gives room for other players to move in. It will be wisdom on the part of India not to cut her nose to spike her face. God save the Tamils. - Sri Lanka Guardian