Karunanidhi’s shocker

Defending Prabhakaran was uncalled for

(April 21, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian)Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi’s statement that he does not see LTTE chief V. Prabhakaran as a terrorist and would be saddened if he is killed in the ongoing fighting in Sri Lanka is shocking, considering that Prabhakaran has been declared a proclaimed offender in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case and is one of the world’s most wanted men. The LTTE is a banned organisation in India as in many other countries and is run by Prabhakaran with great ruthlessness. For Karunanidhi to say that “those in Prabhakaran’s group have taken to terrorism but that is not his (Prabhakaran’s) fault” is indeed preposterous. Karunanidhi has gone a step further by suggesting that if he is captured, the Sri Lankan government must treat Prabhakaran like the legendary Alexander the Great had treated the vanquished Porus — as a king. Whatever the reasons, Karunanidhi is on the wrong track.

For the Congress, the DMK patriarch’s outrageous statement is an acute embarrassment because by his own admission Prabhakaran had ordered Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination and now the Congress and the DMK are allies in the UPA. Over a decade ago, the Jain Commission had passed strictures against the DMK, accusing it of being soft on the LTTE while being in power in Tamil Nadu at the time of the assassination. Knowing how crucial the DMK is to the UPA in the Lok Sabha elections, Congress spokesperson Kapil Sibal dismissed Karunanidhi’s statement as being his “personal view” while maintaining that Prabhakaran was indeed a terrorist who, if captured by the Sri Lankan government, should be handed over to India. Apparently under pressure, Karunanidhi too has sought to assuage Congress hurt by saying subsequently that “we cannot forgive the LTTE for killing Rajiv Gandhi.”

Clearly, Karunanidhi’s statement was apparently aimed at appeasing a section of voters in the elections. But it was uncalled for and against the country’s avowed foreign policy line. Being part of a ruling coalition does not give him the licence to support a terrorist who has snuffed out thousands of lives in the fratricidal war is Sri Lanka — not even for electoral purposes.

-Sri Lanka Guardian