The Lankan Tamils' plight is again an issue. The DMK scrambles to stay on top.
by Pushpa Iyengar
Eelam Sonata
(October 25, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) How Karunanidhi is playing out the Lankan Tamil issue
Positioning himself as the protector of Tamils ahead of Lok Sabha elections
Critics say he's diverting attention from local issues like price rise, power cuts. Resignation drama part of it.
This time CPI highlighted the Lankan Tamils' plight first. The DMK woke up later.
Jayalalitha says if MK is serious, he should pull the plug on the UPA, quit as CM
The Tamil Nadu chief minister, M. Karunanidhi, has always pegged himself as a protector of the Tamils everywhere, especially those from across the Straits. So what to make of his recent competitive grandstanding, his threat to get MPs from his state and party, the DMK, to quit Parliament if New Delhi did not stop the Lankan army's attacks on Tamils in Kilinochchi and Jaffna? Was it done with an eye on the Lok Sabha elections? It's a question uppermost on everyone's mind after Karunanidhi orchestrated six resolutions at an "all-party meeting"—which did not have Jayalalitha's AIADMK, Vijaykanth's DMDK, Vaiko's MDMK or the BJP. One of these was that all MPs from TN would resign by October 28.
The chief minister already has in his possession the 20 resignation letters of DMK MPs, including that of daughter and Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi and estranged grand-nephew Dayanidhi Maran. When asked what the UPA could do to help the Tamil cause, Karunanidhi replied mysteriously, "The Centre knows well what action should be taken to bring back peace." He has been accused by Jayalalitha and Vijaykanth, not to mention the Sri Lanka government, of trying to ensure a ceasefire to help the LTTE, a charge he denies vehemently.
File photo of Karunanidhi and Vaiko at a pro-LTTE meetThere are, of course, accusations that the CM has latched onto the emotive Lankan Tamil cause to divert focus from local issues like rising prices and power cuts. Last fortnight, the government revised power tariffs that will further burden domestic users as well as industry. The BJP, which boycotted the all-party meet, flooded Karunanidhi with telegrams protesting the power situation in the state. A BJP leader said their protest was "to make the CM realise that his government must first try to solve the problems of the people here before taking up the cause of Lankan Tamils".
It can be said that the BJP does not matter politically in TN, but the AIADMK and DMDK certainly do. Vijaykanth, at an impressive youth party conference here last week, was critical of Karunanidhi "for enacting a resignation drama". Vaiko, who even went to jail for 18 months under POTA for a pro-LTTE speech, is on the backfoot after boycotting the all-party meeting. Belatedly, he said his two MPs (the other two are "rebels" with the DMK) would resign. The man who once famously went to Vavuniya in Lanka by boat now says, "If the Indian government is against a military solution, why is it providing the Lankan army with arms? If the situation demands taking up of arms to support the Tamils, I'll lead from the front."
Jayalalitha, known for her anti-LTTE position, dared Karunanidhi: "If he has genuine concern for the Lankan Tamils, he should immediately withdraw support to a UPA which trains the Sri Lankan armed forces. But will Karunanidhi ask the LTTE to stop using innocent Tamil civilians as pawns in the war?" While calling the resignations a "farce" ("By sacrificing his MPs who have only six months left, he knows he is not going to lose anything,") she said, "The priority is to ask the Centre to stop military aid and pressurise Lanka to stop attacking civilians." Like Vijaykanth, she also wants India to send relief materials to Lanka.
Ironically, although there are several groups who are champions of the Eelam cause, it took a hunger fast by the CPI on October 2—in which neither the DMK or AIADMK took part—to bring the Lankan Tamil issue back on the radar. Dr A.R. Venkatachalapathy, Tamil writer and professor at Madras Institute of Development Studies, says, "After the Rajiv Gandhi assassination in '91, nobody would come upfront to express sympathy for Lankan Tamils for fear of being labelled pro-LTTE. In the last few weeks, though, there's been a drastic change with political parties, film associations and, most importantly, the people making common cause with their Lankan brethren." Meanwhile, the Congress, always a divided house, is targeting TNCC president K.V.
Thangkabalu for succumbing to the DMK and offering up the resignations of party MPs.
After the CPI-organised fast, at a party meeting in Mylapore Karunanidhi tied himself in knots making a confused statement about the continuation of the government. It was
never made clear whether he meant that he was ready to sacrifice his own government for the Tamil cause or whether he was demanding the exit of the UPA regime, which his party is propping up. "He can't afford to pull out for he is heading a minority government, and the alliance is weak. He needs Congress support in TN," points out an AIADMK leader.
Meanwhile, with the LTTE having wiped out every other group that spoke up for the Tamils, there is now no one to stand up for the community there. Chandrahasan, who runs the Organisation for Eelam Refugee Rehabilitation, an NGO run by and for Lankan refugees, says, "Any solution must be people-centric, not LTTE-centric." There are some 75,000 Tamil refugees in 117 refugee camps in 25 districts in TN. Sporadic protests have occurred in some camps.
Karunanidhi's latest move on the Lankan Tamil issue is being seen as a tactical one in many quarters. Evidence that he has softened came in his article in the DMK organ Murasoli: "Remarks made by the PM and foreign minister give us hope that the Centre will study our resolutions and respond positively," wrote Karunanidhi. And here's another spin from an expert donning DMK bi-focals: "Something constructive is going on and there is a qualitative change. India has made an impact. There is hope—Sri Lanka is an island, but it is not isolated."
So what of the October 28 deadline? New Delhi is expecting no fireworks. That said, Tamil politics has never been short on the Sivakasi quotient.
Courtesy: Outlook India.
Sri Lanka Guardian
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