Prabhakaran and Pottu Amman

by Helasingha Bandara

(December 07, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Modern Indian history will record Prabhakaran and Pottu Amman as the greatest villains for the murder of India’s much loved son Rajiv Gandhi. Sri Lankan historians, at least some, may record the murder of Rajiv with philosophical sarcasm accompanied by a warning about the obvious - “do not say it stings when you have placed a snake inside your Kurtha”. Indira Gandhi made the blunder by nurturing Tamil terrorism within the Indian soil and Rajiv followed her initiative. Although she did not live to see Rajiv paying for the misdeed with his life it is a lesson for everyone in the world not to nurture evil that has always been counter productive. History is full of examples. The prime example from this side of the Palk Straight was Ranasingha Premadasa who nurtured evil among both the Sinhalese and Tamil Communities and was known to have murdered many people. He was killed by the Tamils and the Sinhalese set off celebratory fire crackers all over the country upon hearing the news of his death. Those who live by evil will die by evil.

Karunanidhi and other TN politicians may have Tamil nationalism in their blood. In spite of the blind rage that is burning inside them they all are oblivious to reality in Sri Lanka. Is there truly genocide of Tamils or are these mere words used by LTTE propagandists? What are the true feelings of Tamils trapped in the Northern Province? Do they like Prbhakaran or Pottu Amman? The likely scenario is that most of them hate these two for snatching their loved ones away from the families by force, misleading their loved ones and sending them to their death, causing unbearable misery for all Tamils living in these areas and for killing Tamil intellectuals and moderate politicians. Simply the LTTE have taken Tamil community many years backwards. Consequently Sri Lanka as a whole has gone many decades backwards. If the TN politicians want to help Tamil people they should help the GOSL to eradicate LTTE terrorism.

India is facing an enormous task against many terrorist groups that want to destabilise India and wreak havoc among the civilian population. Instead of crying for Prabhakaran and Pottu Amman TN politicians should demonstrate and starve to pressurise the central government in order to ensure security of Indian people. We have not read Karunanidhi and his cronies even condemning the Bombay attacks. They are caught up in an issue of a foreign country just for the sake of securing a few votes by appealing to national psyche of ordinary Tamil Indians. If their love for their kith and kin in Sri Lanka is genuine they should help the GOSL to rescue Northern Tamil population from the tyranny of Prabhakaran and Pottu Amman.

There are only two options left for Prabha and Pottu. One to give up violence, surrender their arms and come to the negotiating table. Two to win India through the help of Tamil Nadu politicians. Without surrendering arms and giving up violence Prabhakaran and Pottu Amman have no chance of negotiating with the present government. The easiest option for the duo then is to win the Indian government support. This can only be achieved by Prabhakaran and Pottu Amman surrendering to the Indian authorities and serve the sentences pronounced upon them by the court of law in India for the murder of Rajiv Gandhi. By doing this they can save many lives of Tamils. TN politicians should agitate, demonstrate and strike to pressurise Prabhakaran and Pottu Amman to surrender to the Indian authorities in the name of all Tamils of Sri Lanka.
- Sri Lanka Guardian