Good question. But who has the answer? Every few years, it devils governments in Chennai and Delhi. Watch this space for more
by Swati Das
(October 25, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) Saturday Special deliberates this week on a fundamental question in the new Sri Lanka-India-LTTE triseries. Are you sympathising with the suffering Sri Lankan Tamils or are you with the terrorist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)? But the distinction blurs each time the Sinhala-dominated Army of Sri Lanka gets the upper hand in the civil war against the LTTE. For the past fortnight, the familiar rankles have emerged, shaking governments all the way up to Delhi.
So, its once again time for reflection. Going back to 1984, when India's hand behind the birth and reaching of maturity of the LTTE was blown. LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran was flown to Delhi for a tête-à-tête with former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. But, after the IPKF fiasco, India recoiled. The assassination of Rajiv Gandhi on May 21, 1991 effectively dried up the LTTE's sympathetic reservoirs in India. Today, the LTTE is synonymous with trouble. And, this week, it was Manmohan Singh's time to get a taste of it.
But things are a little different in Tamil Nadu, whose politicians are torn between sympathy for the Tamils in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka and recognition of the LTTE as a terrorist organization. The Sri Lankan military offensive has become a burning issue as innocent civilians are trapped in the area where the Sri Lankan forces claimed to have cornered the LTTE. The ethnic affinity to Sri Lankan Tamils is now to the fore and the debates in the public sphere rage on about the human rights violations against the Tamils in northern Sri Lanka.
Politicians in Tamil Nadu, even those without much sympathy for the LTTE, believe that their cousins in Sri Lanka would lose their only shield if the LTTE is decimated by the Sri Lankan Army. The defeat of the LTTE, they argue, will make a political solution all the more difficult as the Sri Lankan government, which represents the Sinhala majority, may forget about delivering the promise of a solution to their outstanding demands. Put simply, the only time a Sinhala is conscious of Tamil is when a 'tiger' holds a gun to his head.
India's involvement in Sri Lanka began with the Wellikada prison massacre in 1983. Indira Gandhi had personally supervised the task of arming the LTTE. She helped Prabhakaran set up a clandestine transmitting station in India from where messages were transmitted to his cadre in Sri Lankan jungles. Transit camps were set up by the Research and Analysis Wing in various places in Tamil Nadu, which were place directly under the centre. The LTTE was also helped financially. Camps at Chakrata in Uttar Pradesh and Bangalore Cantonment were where not only the LTTE and other Tamil groups had their military training.
MGR, who then dominated Tamil Nadu politics, went all out to help the LTTE. Prabhakaran was his blue-eyed boy. Wrote former Tamil Nadu Director General of Police K Mohandas in his book, MGR: The Man and The Myth: " MGR, with his uncanny insight could easily make out the difference between the LTTE and the rest of the groups. It was a widely know fact that, as a consequence, MGR used to extend financial assistance at various stages in later years, both from his personal funds and sometimes from government funds."
Rajiv Gandhi was initially warm towards the LTTE, which encouraged him to put pressure on Colombo to accept the IPKF as part of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of July 29, 1987. But that ended with tragic losses of life on the Indian side. The IPKF failed in its role as the disarmer of the warring groups. It became unpopular with the same Tamils it was supposed to help. This led to the 1991 assassination because the LTTE feared that if Rajiv Gandhi returned to power through the election in that year, he would certainly turn the screws on them.
The DMK chief and the current Chief Minister M Karunanidhi had a love-hate relationship with the LTTE and was irritated by the MGR-LTTE closeness. However, his 1989-91 government supported the LTTE and its activities in Tamil Nadu, which cost him power in 1991. His party was charged of aiding the LTTE in assassinating Rajiv Gandhi and was indicted by the Jain commission. "If Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi support the LTTE, they become desh bhakts (patriots). If Karunanidhi supports it, the LTTE becomes anti-national. This is the argument put forth by the Jain Commission's report."
Last year when the LTTE spokesperson, SP Tamilselvan, was killed, Karunanidhi eulogised his death in a poem, leading to the rekindling of Tamil sentiments were aroused. However, he maintains that his party's support is for the innocent Tamils and not the LTTE. His bête noire, AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa, who is on LTTE's hist list, harbours a dislike for the LTTE. But even she now makes a distinction between empathy for the Tamil civilians suffering the Sri Lankan Tamil's excesses and an enduring hatred for the LTTE.
The joker in the pack is MDMK chief V Gopalasamy alias Vaiko. He has a personal affability with the LTTE, having made a stealth visit in the past to Prabhakaran's jungle hideout. This was used against him by Karunanidhi to throw him out of the DMK in 1993. Since then, Vaiko has campaigned for the LTTE at home and abroad. Jayalalithaa used POTA against him in 2002 and even though his party, the MDMK, was part of the NDA, he couldn't he saved. Unrepentant after that episode, he continued his campaign for the LTTE. For this he was arrested once again this week.
Saturday Special invited a leading Sri Lanka watcher, Anjali Sharma, (Main Story) to estimate whether the broad contours of the issue has changed much over the years. Actually, it has. Today, there is real pressure on India to recognise that China and Pakistan would love to fill the void that would result from clinging on to a hands-off policy. This week External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee made it unambiguous that this was no longer about the internal affairs of another country, but India’s national security.
Kanchan Lakshman of the Institute for Conflict Management and a regular contributor, points out (The Other Voice) that a LTTE in its death throes would not necessarily lead to a dead LTTE. The terrorist outfit has survived tight corners several times in its 24-year-old history. In the early 2000s, it appeared to be down to its knees and agreed to participate in peace talks. Later, New Delhi and Colombo discovered that it was only a ploy to gain time. One fine morning in 2005, the world woke up to morning news that announced the first ever ‘air force’ operated by a terrorist force.
For now in New Delhi, managing the domestic crisis resulting from the Sri Lanka is more important. - Sri Lanka Guardian
(October 25, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) Saturday Special deliberates this week on a fundamental question in the new Sri Lanka-India-LTTE triseries. Are you sympathising with the suffering Sri Lankan Tamils or are you with the terrorist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)? But the distinction blurs each time the Sinhala-dominated Army of Sri Lanka gets the upper hand in the civil war against the LTTE. For the past fortnight, the familiar rankles have emerged, shaking governments all the way up to Delhi.
So, its once again time for reflection. Going back to 1984, when India's hand behind the birth and reaching of maturity of the LTTE was blown. LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran was flown to Delhi for a tête-à-tête with former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. But, after the IPKF fiasco, India recoiled. The assassination of Rajiv Gandhi on May 21, 1991 effectively dried up the LTTE's sympathetic reservoirs in India. Today, the LTTE is synonymous with trouble. And, this week, it was Manmohan Singh's time to get a taste of it.
But things are a little different in Tamil Nadu, whose politicians are torn between sympathy for the Tamils in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka and recognition of the LTTE as a terrorist organization. The Sri Lankan military offensive has become a burning issue as innocent civilians are trapped in the area where the Sri Lankan forces claimed to have cornered the LTTE. The ethnic affinity to Sri Lankan Tamils is now to the fore and the debates in the public sphere rage on about the human rights violations against the Tamils in northern Sri Lanka.
Politicians in Tamil Nadu, even those without much sympathy for the LTTE, believe that their cousins in Sri Lanka would lose their only shield if the LTTE is decimated by the Sri Lankan Army. The defeat of the LTTE, they argue, will make a political solution all the more difficult as the Sri Lankan government, which represents the Sinhala majority, may forget about delivering the promise of a solution to their outstanding demands. Put simply, the only time a Sinhala is conscious of Tamil is when a 'tiger' holds a gun to his head.
India's involvement in Sri Lanka began with the Wellikada prison massacre in 1983. Indira Gandhi had personally supervised the task of arming the LTTE. She helped Prabhakaran set up a clandestine transmitting station in India from where messages were transmitted to his cadre in Sri Lankan jungles. Transit camps were set up by the Research and Analysis Wing in various places in Tamil Nadu, which were place directly under the centre. The LTTE was also helped financially. Camps at Chakrata in Uttar Pradesh and Bangalore Cantonment were where not only the LTTE and other Tamil groups had their military training.
MGR, who then dominated Tamil Nadu politics, went all out to help the LTTE. Prabhakaran was his blue-eyed boy. Wrote former Tamil Nadu Director General of Police K Mohandas in his book, MGR: The Man and The Myth: " MGR, with his uncanny insight could easily make out the difference between the LTTE and the rest of the groups. It was a widely know fact that, as a consequence, MGR used to extend financial assistance at various stages in later years, both from his personal funds and sometimes from government funds."
Rajiv Gandhi was initially warm towards the LTTE, which encouraged him to put pressure on Colombo to accept the IPKF as part of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of July 29, 1987. But that ended with tragic losses of life on the Indian side. The IPKF failed in its role as the disarmer of the warring groups. It became unpopular with the same Tamils it was supposed to help. This led to the 1991 assassination because the LTTE feared that if Rajiv Gandhi returned to power through the election in that year, he would certainly turn the screws on them.
The DMK chief and the current Chief Minister M Karunanidhi had a love-hate relationship with the LTTE and was irritated by the MGR-LTTE closeness. However, his 1989-91 government supported the LTTE and its activities in Tamil Nadu, which cost him power in 1991. His party was charged of aiding the LTTE in assassinating Rajiv Gandhi and was indicted by the Jain commission. "If Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi support the LTTE, they become desh bhakts (patriots). If Karunanidhi supports it, the LTTE becomes anti-national. This is the argument put forth by the Jain Commission's report."
Last year when the LTTE spokesperson, SP Tamilselvan, was killed, Karunanidhi eulogised his death in a poem, leading to the rekindling of Tamil sentiments were aroused. However, he maintains that his party's support is for the innocent Tamils and not the LTTE. His bête noire, AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa, who is on LTTE's hist list, harbours a dislike for the LTTE. But even she now makes a distinction between empathy for the Tamil civilians suffering the Sri Lankan Tamil's excesses and an enduring hatred for the LTTE.
The joker in the pack is MDMK chief V Gopalasamy alias Vaiko. He has a personal affability with the LTTE, having made a stealth visit in the past to Prabhakaran's jungle hideout. This was used against him by Karunanidhi to throw him out of the DMK in 1993. Since then, Vaiko has campaigned for the LTTE at home and abroad. Jayalalithaa used POTA against him in 2002 and even though his party, the MDMK, was part of the NDA, he couldn't he saved. Unrepentant after that episode, he continued his campaign for the LTTE. For this he was arrested once again this week.
Saturday Special invited a leading Sri Lanka watcher, Anjali Sharma, (Main Story) to estimate whether the broad contours of the issue has changed much over the years. Actually, it has. Today, there is real pressure on India to recognise that China and Pakistan would love to fill the void that would result from clinging on to a hands-off policy. This week External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee made it unambiguous that this was no longer about the internal affairs of another country, but India’s national security.
Kanchan Lakshman of the Institute for Conflict Management and a regular contributor, points out (The Other Voice) that a LTTE in its death throes would not necessarily lead to a dead LTTE. The terrorist outfit has survived tight corners several times in its 24-year-old history. In the early 2000s, it appeared to be down to its knees and agreed to participate in peace talks. Later, New Delhi and Colombo discovered that it was only a ploy to gain time. One fine morning in 2005, the world woke up to morning news that announced the first ever ‘air force’ operated by a terrorist force.
For now in New Delhi, managing the domestic crisis resulting from the Sri Lanka is more important. - Sri Lanka Guardian
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