A scorching love affaire

by Gamini Weerakoon

(October 27, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) (1) Keep the godfather of Chennai happy and try to hoodwink him. Also threaten to pull out your party support and bring down his Tamil Nadu Assembly government if he continues to dance on Chennai's streets.

(2) To make him happy, issue severe warnings to that upstart in Colombo, and ask him to call off his military operations. But make sure he doesn't. Velu is too big for his boots as we saw in 1987. Put him away but convey the impression that we love Velu, the Sri Lankan Tamils and that we are threatening Rajapakse.

(3) Make Rajapakse strike the high notes of our refrain: 'There is no solution but a political solution' but let him get on with the military operations. If Rajapakse gets uppity we can deal with him like we did to the much more astute JRJ.

There are 'self-evident truths' which gullible and not so gullible people come to accept without question. We take for granted that the Sun rises in the East, Love is eternal and most politicians are rogues etc.

In contemporary Sri Lankan politics two self-evident truths are accepted by the faithful. One is that Indian governments love Sri Lankan Tamils and the other is that President Mahinda Rajapakse is a firm believer in a political solution for the Tamil problem. On this Sunday it would be enlightening to ruminate on these self evident truths.

Love of the Indians

Of course Indian politicians and New Delhi Foreign Office wallahs love Sri Lankan Tamils. Look at the attention they are paying towards the hapless people made homeless in the Wanni. Priority is given to them over people of India's north eastern regions where innocent civilians are victims of the cross- fire between the Indian government forces and the terror groups fighting for freedom.

The Nagas have been fighting for their freedom since Indian independence 60 years ago - much longer than the LTTE. There are other rebels groups fighting Indian government forces to the detriment of innocent civilians but Sri Lankan Tamils' plight take precedence.

There are the Naxalites spread throughout the sub-continent spreading mayhem and murder but do not seem to be given much attention while those terror groups with alleged Pakistani connections are given top priority.

India loves all Sri Lankans of Indian origin. The love for the Indian Tamils -those of recent origin brought in by the British - are of course of greater concern than the Sri Lankan Tamils.

Sinhalese and Muslims too are also of Indian origin although Sinhalese do not appear to be top of the pops on the Indian chart. Muslims are not much concerned about the affections of India because most of them consider themselves to be of Arab origin.

The Bangla dream

Sri Lankan Tamils came into Indian focus only in the '70s when the so called Federal Party - Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi - passed the now famous Vaddukoddai Resolution envisaging a separate Tamil state. The architects of the move like S.J.V. Chelvanayakam were inspired by the creation of Bangladesh with the incursion of Indian troops into Eastern Pakistan and splitting the country into two.

So when the 'boys' (Tigers) - as they were called by senior Tamil politicians - commenced their fireworks in the north, the then Empress of India, Indira Gandhi provided them with plenty of fireworks, dollars and training in the fine arts.

Such was the love for the Sri Lankan Tamils. What Indira and her son Rajiv wanted to do was to create a separate playground for the boys (and later girls when they came in) in two of the nine provinces.

But Velu was a naughty boy. When Rajiv and then the celluloid emperor of Tamil Nadu, MGR wanted to make him the viceroy of India in Sri Lanka's north and east, he promptly refused. Why should he be merely a chief minister or viceroy? He was by then the Sun God hell bent on creating a Tamil empire stretching from the Fiji Islands, to Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, India, Sri Lanka of course, Mauritius, South Africa right down to the Caribbean such as Guyana. The enraged Velu who felt betrayed went on to bump off Rajiv his friend and benefactor.

The flames of love

The flames of love had singed the New Delhi wallahs twirled moustaches very badly. Love for the 'boys' turned into hate but nothing could be done because Velu's godfather Karunanidhi protected his boy. New Delhi wallahs kept aloof even helping Colombo in under-the-table deals.

But they did not want to upset the apple cart by endangering Velu and his boys, because the protective godfather in Chennai might turn tables on the Congress wallahs and make their government collapse.

Enter Kautilya

So the Delhi wallahs went back to their ancient texts and turned the pages of Kautilya's Arthashastra. Kautilya was the Indian Machiavelli who advised the great Indian emperors on statecraft and military strategy. And the Arthrashastra is his magnum opus. Their advice was:

(1) Keep the godfather of Chennai happy and try to hoodwink him. Also threaten to pull out your party support and bring down his Tamil Nadu Assembly government if he continues to dance on Chennai's streets.

(2) To make him happy, issue severe warnings to that upstart in Colombo, and ask him to call off his military operations. But make sure he doesn't. Velu is too big for his boots as we saw in 1987. Put him away but convey the impression that we love Velu, the Sri Lankan Tamils and that we are threatening Rajapakse.

(3) Make Rajapakse strike the high notes of our refrain: 'There is no solution but a political solution' but let him get on with the military operations. If Rajapakse gets uppity we can deal with him like we did to the much more astute JRJ.

And so Mahinda Percy Rajapakse is bellowing each day, flat out:

There is no solution like a political solution

To avoid an Injun invasion.

The yakkos may say: A hell of a how do you do

But tell me comrades just what else to do?

This is the end of a chapter of a sordid love affair between the Indian wallahs and Sri Lankan Tamils which is continuing. Await the next instalment. - Sri Lanka Guardian