By Col. R. Hariharan
May Day celebrations in Sri
Lanka this year saw an unusual sight. R Sampanthan, the septuagenarian leader
fighting for Sri Lanka Tamil rights and president of the Tamil National
Alliance (TNA), standing shoulder to shoulder with the United National Party
(UNP) leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, waved a Sri Lanka flag to the cheers of a
massive crowd in Jaffna celebrating the May Day.
Sampanthan’s act was symbolic of the TNA’s moves to forge a political alliance with the UNP to press home their agenda for securing an equitable role for Tamils in the united Sri Lanka. Sampanthan’s show of unity with the UNP was in keeping with TNA decision taken after some deliberation. Even the two aspirants for the TNA leadership mantle - Suresh Premachandran and Mavai Senathiraja - are reported to have hosted a lavish dinner in Jaffna for the visiting UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe.
To quote from Lakbimanews, TNA
MP M A Sumanthiran described the first ever joint May Day rally held in the
Jaffna district, as ‘a resounding success.’ “We were able to join hands with
the people from the South and hold a successful May Day rally in the North. We
are also confident that the people of the North and the South would be able to
walk together in the future by joining hands with each other. That was the loud
message given to the rest of the country and to the world at this rally,”
averred MP Sumanthiran. Are the Tamil Nadu leaders hearing this?
The report further said the MP
observed that thanks to the Gurunagar May Day rally held jointly by the UNP and
his party, they had also been able to highlight the pressing concerns of the
Tamil people to the government and the outside world.
He added: “There are many
issues that are plaguing the people here. The cost of living is very high and
the salaries drawn by the masses are insufficient. There are scores of
unemployed youths here, and the resettlement process is still not going ahead
smoothly. Despite 3 years having lapsed, the situation in the North is yet to
improve. So far the government is stalling in their bid to find a solution to
the national issue.”
Sampanthan’s May Day political
debut came even as M Karunanidhi, theoctogenarian leader of the Dravida
Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and out of office Tamil Nadu chief minister, was
flogging the issue of creating an independent Tamil Eelam as his latest
political slogan. It illustrated how far removed are Tamil Nadu political
leaders from their counterparts in Sri Lanka in understanding the ground
realities in Sri Lanka.
When the Tamil Nadu leader who
carries the sobriquet “Kalaignar” (artiste) dusted up the idea of supporting
the cause of independent Tamil Eelam recently, in flowery statement he reminded
everyone that the DMK had advocated the idea of a separate Tamil Eelam as early
as 1983. He said the DMK general council meeting of on August 27, 1983 had
stressed that “a separate Tamil Eelam shall be the only remedy and permanent
solution.”
“At a public meeting on the
Marina sands the next day,” he said, “if Indian Army entered Sri Lanka to
create a Tamil Eelam, the Congress could rule the State and the DMK would not
make efforts to come to power for the next 10 years.”
What he forgot to mention was
what he and the DMK did for furthering the cause of an independent Tamil Eelam
in the 30 years thereafter, in which he was Tamil Nadu chief minister for five
times (1969–71, 1971–76, 1989–91, 1996–2001 and 2006–2011).
His statement called for a
referendum on Tamil Eelam on the lines of those held South Sudan, Bosnia,
Montenegro and East Timor. And he wanted to further the cause of an independent
Tamil Eelam through peaceful, democratic means. An astute politician, he must
be fully aware of the impracticality of the suggestion as it comes after the
failure of an armed struggle for thirty years in which thousands of lives were
sacrificed.
So it is not surprising Vaiko,
the leader of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazagham (MDMK) and perennial
supporter of the LTTE and Tamil Eelam in Tamil Nadu, questioned the competency
of the DMK leader to talk of Tamil Eelam.
One needs to put Karunanidhi’s
“independent Tamil Eelam” statements in perspective. The issue is the latest
political ploy in his desperate political battles on two fronts: the internal
battle of his siblings over leadership succession, and the battle of survival
after the rout of his party at the hands of his bête noir Ms Jayalalithaa,
leader of the rival All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) in the
last Tamil Nadu state elections. Otherwise, it is difficult to understand the
logic behind his Eelam call now, as it comes thirty years too late.
Even in playing up the Eelam
card, the DMK leader is way behind Ms Jayalalithaa. Despite her avowed
objection to Tamil terrorism, when news of the plight of Sri Lanka Tamils in
war zones and allegations of atrocities committed on them started trickling
during the run up to the parliamentary poll in 2009, Ms Jayalalithaa came out
in strong support of Indian intervention in Sri Lanka.
She wanted India not only to
halt the war, but to help Tamils gain Tamil Eelam. Speaking at a public meeting
she said: “If a government that listens to me is formed at the Centre, I will
take action for the despatch of the Indian army to the island nation and create
a separate Tamil Eelam.” Since then she had been taking the lead in keeping New
Delhi under pressure on Sri Lanka Tamil issues, particularly on hauling up Sri
Lanka at the UN for alleged war crimes against Sri Lankan army.
However, it should be
remembered that the late MG Ramachandran, the founder of the AIADMK and mentor
of Ms Jayalalithaa, was the patron of the LTTE in the early days. But he took a
hands on interest in the Sri Lanka issue and fully supported Indian
intervention after the signing of the Rajiv-Jayawardane accord in 1987, though
the LTTE was lukewarm to it.
But much water has flown in
the Palk Strait and Kelaniya river since then. Decades of armed struggle waged
by one of the world’s deadly terrorist groups led by Prabhakaran has failed.
Sri Lanka’s Tamil leaders of ability and charisma have been eliminated in the
fratricidal struggle of LTTE. The few leaders left alive have not been able to
articulate in one voice either an agenda or leverage their political strength.
Given the changes in Tamil
demography and spread within and without Sri Lanka in the last three decades,
such unity cannot be expected. But the reality is that even after three years
since the war ended Tamils affected by the war are yet to fully enjoy the
benefits of peace. They are still undergoing the pains of rehabilitation and
reconstruction. An independent Tamil Eelam is far from their minds; their
immediate goal is to get back to a life of dignity, and make up for the years
lost in the conflict.
The idea of an independent
Tamil Eelam itself appears to have been shelved from the minds to Tamils in Sri
Lanka. This was amply brought out by Rangarajan, CPI(M), a member of the Indian
parliamentary delegation, which had met a cross section of Tamil leaders and
war affected people during their recent visit to Sri Lanka. He said no Tamil
leader or party expressed support for the idea of Tamil Eelam; on the contrary
they wanted to be part of united Sri Lanka.
Somehow Tamil Nadu leaders
particularly of the Dravidian parties, in their scramble for scoring political
brownie points, appear to be oblivious to these problems faced by Sri Lanka
Tamils. Their ideas appear to be frozen in post-1983 situation focused on
creating a Tamil Eelam. They seem to think that their prescription for
furthering their own agenda is also good for Sri Lankan Tamils. Actually the
Tamil Nadu leaders’ pronunciations, which used to command a lot of respect
among Sri Lanka Tamils, stand terribly discounted in the Island now because
they are losing relevance for them.
The political fulminations on
Tamil Eelam erupting from Tamil Nadu serve only the overseas remnants of the
LTTE squabbling among themselves to recover their clout among the Diaspora.
They also keep alive the Tamil Nadu bugbear in Sri Lanka politics to be
effectively used by the ruling coalition and opposition parties in Colombo for
their own ends. They provide legitimate levers for the anti-India lobby in Sri
Lanka to stoke sentiments inimical to Indian interest.
Tamil Nadu leaders have to
study and understand the changes that have taken place in the political
firmament of Sri Lanka and adopt suitable strategies if they genuinely want to
help Sri Lanka Tamils. If they cannot, they should confine their effort to
consolidate and channelize the goodwill of the people in India to help speedy
rehabilitation Sri Lanka Tamils affected by the war. Otherwise they will be
distancing themselves further away from reality and that is not going to help
Tamils of Sri Lanka.
Courtesy: South Asia Analysis Group Note no. 650 dated May 7, 2012
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