IS LTTE MONEY INVOLVED IN TAMIL NADU BRIBES ALLEGED IN KARUNANIDHI AND VAIKO GOPALASWAMY CONFLICT NOW?

By Walter Jayawardhana

The prestigious Indian newspaper Hindustan Times quoting Pro-Vaiko Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) sources said its leader Vaiko told Indian Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh that Tamil Nadu’s ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has spent Three Hundred Million Indian Rupees as bribes to take over two of his members of Parliament to break his fledgling political party.

The allegation of bribes once again brought the attention of the world the big role bribes play hidden under fiery slogans shouted out in Tamil Nadu’s race related politics.

The accuser of bribes, Gopalaswamy Vaiko Naidu, who led the South Indian state’s strongly racist politics of his pro-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) political party MDMK, himself has been earlier accused of receiving funds from Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers which it pockets from, the Tamil Diaspora as extortion and aid, drug and gun running and various other illegal money earning schemes.

After spending millions , allegedly on Vaiko Gopalaswamy’s vociferous party who are aligned with Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh’s government, Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers and their proxy party the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) expected to win back slowly, their former position it enjoyed during the time of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in the corridors of Indian power politics and certainly before their disastrous decision to assassinate the scion of the Nehru dynasty, the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. During Indira’s time they received money, military training and weapons from the Indian central government as well as from Karunanidhi’s rival, the late Chief Minister M. G. Ramachandran of Tamil Nadu. They of course fell from grace after they killed Gandhi.

Vaiko many weeks ago invited them to Chennai, entertained them with Thosai and Masalai Vadai but failed to obtain a simple interview with the Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh when they were simply snubbed and sent home empty handed only to be ridiculed back in Sri Lanka.

Tigers knew even buying an ounce of influence in New Delhi is worth millions and with the same boldness they went to Washington DC to bribe State Department officials came to Chennai , with thick stacks of hundred dollar bills hidden in the inner pockets of their three-piece suites, this time more successfully.

The Chennai grapevine is full of juicy stories how the pro-LTTE Father Gasper Raj , formerly of propagandist Philippines Catholic Radio Veritas, put Tamil Tiger representatives in front of the influential daughter of Chief Minister Karunanidhi, the most poetic Kanimozhi and later millions exchanged between the hands of Tamilians of the first world and the third. This time, the once failed TNA delegation came first to Chennai and then to New Delhi saw and conquered.

This time the influence of Karunanidhi was so strong, after a fortyfive minutes discussion, the smiling turbaned gentleman walked back to the door with the honorable proxy LTTE parliamentarians to say goodbye. Karunanidhi has simply shown who’s the boss around in Chennai and in New Delhi. Vaiko who has been shouting pro-LTTE slogans has been suddenly left on the lurch looking like a fool. The wonders mighty dollars could do!

It is not yet clear from where the three hundred millions of Indian Rupees that were allegedly given as bribes to the MDMK dissidents came? Was it DMK money? Or did that money also came from the LTTE expatriates who came from the industrialized West with jackets full of dollar pads? Although, the answers to these questions are worth another three hundred million, Vaiko is unable to spread details of the alleged story any longer. The Hindustan Times said, “In Chennai, the Tamil Nadu government filed a defamation suit against Vaiko for certain remarks which allegedly caused irreparable damage to the reputation of Karunanidhi, besides mental agony to him.”