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Caught up in Tiger claws
Friday, 8 March 2013 - 9:12 AM SL Time
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There are no signs of organised attacks on Sri Lankan interests in Tamil Nadu letting up. Regrettably, the central government seems to have let up on the Jayalalithaa administration and other inciters of violence for political reasons. The latest incident has been reported from Madurai, where the Mihin Lanka office was smashed up by a group of pro-LTTE protesters who have become a law unto themselves. Is it that the writ of the Centre has ceased to run in Tamil Nadu?
A protester who set himself ablaze in support of the Tamil Nadu politicians who have taken up the cudgels purportedly for the Sri Lankan Tamils has succumbed to his burn injuries. Why should anyone commit suicide in India for the sake of Sri Lankans? True, the situation in the North and East of this country is far from hunky dory. The resettled displaced people are undergoing numerous difficulties. The northern provincial council polls have not been held and the absence of an elected council amounts to discrimination against the northern populace. (However, it is only wishful thinking that a provincial administration will help solve their problems if the pathetic failure of the provincial council system in other areas is any indication.) The presence of armed forces personnel is being largely frowned upon and dastardly attempts are made from time to time to suppress democratic rights of dissenters as was evident from a recent attack on a joint Opposition Satyagraha in Jaffna. But, the situation is certainly not as hopelessly bad as it is made out to be in Chennai or in Geneva. The people s lot has greatly improved in comparison to their suffering under Prabhakaran s jackboot. That s why they are notcommitting self-immolation here.
Why is it that none of the Tamil Nadu politicians who say they are ready to make the supreme sacrifice in their campaign against Sri Lanka have killed themselves for the cause? Ordinary Indian protesters are burning themselves to death in vain. Their agonising deaths will only help their wily politicians whipping up anti-Sri Lankan sentiments to cover up failure at home and gain some political mileage. Jayalalithaa and others of her ilk have apparently taken a leaf out of the JVP s book. In the late 1980s the JVP conjured up the bogey of Indian expansionism to further its macabre interests and the Tamil Nadu politicians have taken to Sri Lanka bashing to shore up their crumbling images and shrinking vote banks. They are sure to graduate from attacks on Sri Lankan property in their state to killing Sri Lankans with the passage of time unless the Indian government put an end to their violence forthwith. Scores of Sri Lankans have already been roughed up on several occasions in Tamil Nadu and the worst is yet to come.
The LTTE stockpiled weapons far in excess of what it really needed for war in Sri Lanka. It used Tamil Nadu as a transit point for arms smuggling operations towards the latter stages of its struggle. So, there could be LTTE arms caches in that part of India infiltrated by trained Tiger cadres with enough following among extremist groups. What we are witnessing in Tamil Nadu may be the birth pangs of an emergent secessionist struggle. India has vehemently denied reports that there are clandestine LTTE training facilities on its soil, but it should not make the mistake of being lulled into a false sense of complacency.
That the vast majority of people of Tamil Nadu do not condone extremist violence goes without saying, but, the lunatic fringe has rendered that state extremely dangerous for Sri Lankans including non-LTTE Tamils. How would India have reacted, if organised attacks had been carried out against Indians here? In 1987, it may be recalled, India went so far as to bring two war ships to Colombo, claiming that its citizens and High Commission were not safe in view of JVP violence. Therefore, it may be advisable for Colombo to consider the calls being made in some quarters for preventing Sri Lankans from visiting Tamil Nadu and shifting Sri Lankan diplomatic missions etc to some other southern state, where their safety could be guaranteed. They are certainly not safe in Tamil Nadu, where both the ruling party and the Opposition have joined forces to ruin Indo-Sri Lanka relations through a systematic campaign of violence. Since the central government has been rendered impotent by a group of Tamil Nadu politicians who hold the Congress to ransom, Sri Lanka does not seem to be left with any other option.
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