FRONT
PAGE
NEWS
.
CLASSIFIED
.
DHAMMAWEB
.
SANDUN UYANA
.
ANTENNA
.
EVENTS DIARY
.
LONDON DIARY
.
FEATURES
.
LETTERS.
|
|
Attempted Disruptions Of Sri Lanka's Surging
Military Drive To Crush Terrorism, By Tamil Nadu Politicians
October 14th 2008
So the dissentors of Tamil Nadu who are also pro-LTTE terrorist sympathisers
are at it again! It has to be reiterated as reported in the Hindu News
Site that indeed "The latest campaign in Tamil Nadu masterminded
by a desperate LTTE must not be allowed to undermine the sound policy
decision upheld by successive Indian governments since 1991 to stay out
of Sri Lankas internal affairs." It has come to light very
visibly and audibly that in Tamil Nadu "a lobby", once again
to quote a report in the Hindu" led by the MDMK and the PMK, have
recently plunged into high-pitched activity aimed at garnering support
for the LTTE, an internationally proscribed terrorist organisation.
What these entities hope to acheive objectively by their actions is unclear
but in their meanderings they have also issued an ultimatum to the Indian
Government that their membership in the Indian parliament would resign
in two weeks if the Sri Lankan Military offensive against the Tamil Tigers
was not halted so whom are they trying to kid other than themselves? Certainly
not the Indian Government and never the Government of Sri Lanka whose
joint agreements and collaborations by way of policy are etched in stone
towards the safety of both nations as well as the entire region of South
Asia.
As a matter of fact it would boost the entire cause of eradicating terrorism
from the region if meddling organizations such as these who pose impediments
rather than facilitations towards the cause resigned and dissapeared from
the scene to let Sri Lanka and India get on with their task towards securing
their respective territories from the terrorist menace which has been
a scourge in the region for decades!
There seems to be a remarkable frog in the well mentality about these
two groups of politicians and perhaps all of Tamil Nadus politicians
who seem completely oblivious to Indias neo-political perspective
relative to collaborations with Sri Lanka where India perhaps has finally
realised the dangers the LTTE pose in a broader sense than being once
viewed as mere terrorists fighting for secession in Sri Lanka and also
cognizant that Sri lanka is on the verge of eliminating them. Thereby
India for the common good of both countries has chosen to assist Sri Lanka
in her cause and a seemingly bitter pill for the Tamil Nadu politicos
to swallow!.
One hardly needs to ponder with any great effort that Indias political
establishment and civil societies are faced with many terrorist related
dilemmas to Indian well being and posterity not only from within the nation
but also from the outside where the LTTE pose just such a threat or did
in the past having had their strike force crippled at the present time
by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces although their imminent threat has in all
probabilities played constantly on their minds as something India would
hardly want to infiltrate her borders and spill into India.
These parties with no real mandate than their own myopic convictions
to do so as perceived by any discerning observer have launched a campaign
in the Indian Nation using the excuse of expressing solidarity with the
Sri Lankan Tamils trapped in the war zone in northern Sri Lanka as their
theme and motivation for their demands but the timing of this campaign
which appears to have materialised overnight, is a dead giveaway as astutely
observed by the Hindu News site and hence the transparencies clearly indicate
where these politicos are aiming at and this at a time when the LTTE are
effectively being crushed by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces with nowhere
to retreat to! Not even ironically to Tamil Nadu!
While the latest reports indicate that the Sri Lankan Armed Forces, are
mere kilometres away from the LTTEs administrative capital, Kilinochchi
and have successfully surrounded the LTTE and their leader, virtually
trapped in their bunkers, it also points to the direction of what might
transpire in the very near future relative to the predicament the terrorists
are faced with en route to elimination.
Indeed as observed by many news sources the LTTE terrorists are on a collision
course with disaster! "For the first time in years, the Sri Lankan
Government appears to be on the brink of a major success in its battle
with terrorism. There is now the very real prospect of the capture of
the elusive LTTE chief, Velupillai Prabakaran, who is behind the assassination
of a former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi." quote from the
Hindu where despite the optimism by the Hindi of a live capture, cyanide
could play a major role towards his mortality but captured or hauled in
screaming and kicking he will be eventually.
It also needs emphasis that Tamil Nadus politicians clearly have
a double standard, one for India and another for Sri Lanka where it is
quite apparent that they condone fighting terrorism in India relative
to Kashmir and the Islamist invasions in the North considered national
responsibilities while also maintaining a watchful eye on other border
regions with Pakistan and China but in the case of Sri Lanka fighting
the insurgents of the LTTE for nearly four decades, something to gripe
about and oppose while suggesting that India should get involved in halting
what is now an outstanding priority for the Sri Lankan Government and
its Armed Forces!
Admirably the Hindu has once again finely worded the truisms applicable
to the LTTE in saying that quote "It was the LTTE which pioneered
terrorism in South Asia and produced two generations of suicide bombers
who have claimed numerous high-profile victims. For far too long have
the legitimate aspirations of the Sri Lankan Tamils been held hostage
to the hegemonic ambitions of the LTTE chief Prabakaran who has consistently
sabotaged all attempts to find political solutions to the ethnic conflict.
When Pakistani generals and Islamist militants characterise the separatist
uprising in Kashmir as a freedom struggle, the collective
Indian national consciousness is understandably outraged. Politicians
in India are rarely exercised over concerns that the human rights of innocent
citizens are often trampled upon in police action against terrorists or
their perceived accomplices. There is indeed a broad-based political consensus
behind the Indian state when it takes strong steps to root out terrorism.
It is therefore all the more incongruous that the political parties in
Tamil Nadu, including the ruling DMK and its principal challenger the
AIADMK have decided to work themselves into a frenzy over the alleged
violation of the human rights of the Sri Lankan Tamils in
the context of the military action against the LTTE. Evidently, the game
plan of the LTTE and its supporters is to rally Tamil chauvinist sentiment
and translate that into pressure on New Delhi to signal its disapproval
to Colombo, thereby weakening its moral authority in the eyes of the Sri
Lankan Tamil community.
There is a strong sense of déjÀ vu, listening to the rhetoric
and speeches of leaders in Tamil Nadu, whose understanding of the Sri
Lankan political situation is mired in a time-warp, their images of the
ethnic conflict drawing primarily from scenes of two decades ago, particularly
the flashpoint of 1983, when the Wellikada prison massacre highlighted
dramatically the plight of the Sri Lankan Tamil community and brought
thousands of refugees to Indian shores. But after the assassination of
Rajiv Gandhi, the Indian national psyche recoiled from a continued engagement
with the Sri Lankan ethnic crisis.
Since the 1990s, New Delhis policy has been to acknowledge the terrorist
character of the LTTE and the imperative of a military confrontation with
that organisation, while continuing to offer moral encouragement to Colombo
to find a political solution that would provide a framework to empower
the Tamil community. Meanwhile, India made clear its utter repugnance
for the LTTE by banning it not just because it was involved in the murder
of Rajiv Gandhi but because it viewed the LTTE as a terrorist movement
that would continuously strive to stimulate the secessionist sentiment
in Tamil Nadu as long as Sri Lanka continued to have ethnic strife.
The situation in Sri Lanka itself has undergone profound changes since
the 1980s, when it was easier to conceptualise purely political solutions
and rule out military responses to the violent dimensions of the conflict.
At that point in time, it was indeed possible to sideline the militant
groups of Sri Lankan Tamil politics by engaging the political interlocutors
in the Tamil community such as the urbane leaders of the TULF, notably
Appapillai Amirthalingam, who recognised the key to political empowerment
lay in the democratic process. But with the ruthless elimination of every
credible interlocutor in the Tamil community by the LTTE which insisted
that it was the sole representative of the Sri Lankan Tamils, the space
for a political solution has narrowed over the years, rendering null and
void the several exercises seeking a devolution of power to the Tamil
community.
Yet the Thirteenth Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution which was
a consequence of the Indo-Sri Lankan Agreement of 1987, envisaging devolution
of power to provincial councils has become a touchstone for the resolution
of the ethnic conflict. The Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, has
made it clear that he remains committed to a political solution of this
sort. In a meeting with the All Party Representative Conference (APRC)
last Saturday, Mr. Rajapaksa emphasised that it was the duty of the Sri
Lankan state to ensure to the Tamil people of the North the same
democratic rights as enjoyed by the people in all parts of the country.
He also took care to explain that the military action against the LTTE
was against terrorism and not against the Tamil community.
The Sri Lankan President has acquired unprecedented political space for
his military campaign against the LTTE. Several factors including the
rebellion of the powerful LTTE commander Karuna and the fact that there
is now in place an elected provincial council in the Eastern Province
have rendered irrelevant many of the points in the earlier Sri Lankan
Tamil political platform. That there is a credible and workable political
solution now in sight has made it easier for Colombo to launch military
operations against the LTTE. It is indeed the sovereign right of Sri Lanka
as it is of India to eliminate any terrorist organisation that poses a
fundamental threat to its survival as a nation.
The parties in Tamil Nadu which have strong ties to the LTTE such as
the MDMK and the PMK are in the forefront of this new campaign which has
sprung to life overnight after decades of silence. Their rhetoric is dated
and wearily familiar. The MDMKs Vaiko, brimming with moral indignation,
has lashed out at the Centre for allegedly sending military assistance
to Sri Lanka which was unleashing a genocidal attack on the Tamil
race. Likewise the PMKs leader S. Ramadoss has alleged that
the situation on the island threatens to eliminate the entire Tamil
race.
That the LTTEs shadow lurks behind this new campaign is evident
in the demand of Dr. Ramadoss that the Union government recognise the
Eelam Tamils struggle for their rights. There is also an implied
acceptance of the LTTEs claim to be the only authentic representative
of the Sri Lankan Tamils in the declaration of Dr. Ramadoss that the LTTE
is acting as a fortress for ethnic Tamils.
As the LTTE has presumably calculated, this binge of competitive chauvinism
has compelled Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi to up the ante on this issue,
adding for good measure, his own dramatic assertion that unless the Centre
cooperates in stopping the attacks on the Sri Lankan Tamils, not only
would the Sri Lankan Tamils perish but so also would the Tamils
in Tamil Nadu. The strategic design behind the campaign to express
solidarity with the Sri Lankan Tamils that is now under way in Tamil
Nadu should not be underestimated.
For the last decade or so, New Delhi has successfully resisted the various
attempts made by the LTTE and its supporters in Tamil Nadu to force it
to intervene in the Sri Lankan ethnic crisis. If New Delhi were to express
its disapproval, even implicitly, of Sri Lankas sovereign right
to recapture its own national territory from the LTTE, it would weaken
the moral authority of Indias own actions in regard to its struggle
against terrorism and the separatist agitation in Kashmir. This latest
campaign in Tamil Nadu masterminded by a desperate LTTE must not be allowed
to undermine the sound policy decision upheld by successive Indian governments
since 1991 to stay out of Sri Lankas internal affairs."
This attestation is a clinically evaluated (for accuracy ) morale booster
for Sri Lanka's cause and the military campaigns of her Army and the Nation's
Administrators who are unequivocally compelled to applaud the huge contribution
it presents which is tantamount to a wonderful dispensation of fair play
and justice which should sink into the craniums of the Tamil Nadu branch
of LTTE sympathisers whilst urging on both India and Sri Lanka towards
their ultimate objective of ridding the Region and the Nation of Sri Lanka
of the scourge of terrorism for good!
|