War and Peace in Sri Lanka: the other battle - part I

C.Wijeyawickrema

Part I: South Indian backyard

"There is no state without a Tamil - but there is no state for the Tamils."
World Confederation of Tamils
(www.tamilnation.org)

"We are helping Tamilnadu to achieve self-rule"
V. Balakumaran, Advisor to Prabakaran, (Jan. 2006)

(Sri Lanka as Tamil Nad's backyard)

Introduction

Recently, there was an interesting exchange of views on the Indian-Tamil Nadu influence over Sri Lanka. First it was Dayan Jayatilleka's essay titled, "Will Sri Lanka be India's Iraq?" (Island, 11/20/2006). E. V. Naganathan replied to it stating, "Not India's Iraq, but South India's backyard" (www.tamilweek.com, 12/16/2006). Then, Bandu de Silva replied to Naganathan by an essay, "Return to avatar of evil," (Island, 1/3/2007). Naganathan implied sarcastically, in my view, that Sri Lanka has two neighbors: Tamil Nadu and Antarctica!

Villagers say that "the best of dancing comes during the early morning hours" (honda honda natum elivena jaametai). With the military defeating the Colombo peace mudalalis' "war is not winnable" theory in the jungles of Vakarai, now we see the best dances ever seen in Sri Lanka. The dance now is to stop the war and negotiate with the terrorists. The purpose of the dance is to create an "F" trap in the island. The intended or unintended consequence of it is the inevitable march toward an Eelam-Tamil Nadu Dravidasthan, sooner than later.

Who are the partners in this dance? Examples are American ambassador Robert Blake, British prime minister Tony Blair and IC, and the previous war is not winnable crowd of the 2005 December election time-UNP candidate and a large number of UNP ex-ministers, PA's CBK, Anura Priyadarshan B and Mangala Samaraweera (tawalama, sudu nelum and put the Sinhala Commission Report to the dust bin of history group). Why are they in this together? What is in it for them? As the American-living anthropology professor H. L. Seneviratne identified this was the Arthika crowd as opposed to the Jathika (Mahinda Chinthanaya) crowd (Island, 11/9/2005).

Some Colombo people benefited immensely by using the Prabakaran war as a beggar's wound. They want a Vadamarachchi II in 2007. They want to leave a little bit of cancer remain in the sick body of terrorism that grew behind the veil of the notorious 2002 CFA. Colombo black whites were always against the interests of the common man [woman]. This was so in 1885 when they opposed to make Vesak a public holiday, or in 1931 to grant universal suffrage or later in the 1940s to provide free education or the movement to dethrone English as the language of the rulers.

When Tony Blair offers his help via the CFA 2002, he must be asked to talk to his fellow countryman Paul Harris. Paul said that CFA 2002 was the "greatest give away in human history." Blair could also consult Anandasangaree or Douglas Devananda or Karuna all living victims of CFA. Before the American ambassador Robert Blake preach in Colombo to negotiate with Prabakaran, he should first obtain clearance from President Bush, because Bush did not want to negotiate with terrorists despite agitation by the democratic party and so many in the republican party to change it. Blair wants his nuclear power revamped despite 90 MPs of his own party opposing it so that he can negotiate with terrorists!

People in Sri Lanka venerate the white Buddhist Henry Olcott, an American, and Rhys Davids, an Englishman, for the services they rendered to protect the 2550 year-old Sri Lankan heritage. But in 2007, when the white man's burden comes in the shape of how to teach human rights to Sri Lanka, there is suspicion whether it has any connection to Pope John Paul's declaration during his visit to India to "Christianize Asia" or to the "clash of civilizations" thesis of the Harvard professor Huntington. Any attempt to impose an "F" merchandize on the people of Sri Lanka will not help the average Tamil but plant the germ to balkanize the tiny island of Sri Lanka and eventually the Indian subcontinent. Warring countries divided on the basis of language are fertile grounds to test Pope-Huntington concepts.

Win the war but lose the battle

With oxygen in the Prabakaran balloon rapidly dissipating Blake-Blair team is on a life-saving mission with Colombo NGO mudalalis in their pockets. GOSL army cannot fight this battle in Colombo where the APRC chairman minister Vitharana is now planning to introduce an "F" marriage in the backyard of Tamil Nadu separatists. Amazingly, between S. Paikiasoothy in an air-conditioned office in Colombo and Prabakaran in a bunker in the Wanni there may be about 2 % of Tamils who think now-a-days about "F" solutions. Karuna said, give us what Colombo people gets. Tamils and Muslims in Colombo are the richest. Karuna may perhaps not know this is the same demand of the Sinhala and Muslim masses living away from Colombo.

APRC in Colombo is not asking the right question-how to end Sri Lanka's present mess and misery. Instead it is in a hurry impose an "F" solution. Is it not possible to achieve aspirations without "F"? Do not ethnic groups live in harmony in the South? People in Sri Lanka want to end terrorism and follow a home-grown method to empower (devolution is a deceiving term) all the people all over the island. The gap between the rich and poor is widening rapidly since 1978 under globalization and free trade. The kolamabata kiri apita kakiri complaint has risen up to a crisis level. Even the prison boss is in fear of his life! Each Grama Sevaka Niladhari (GSN) unit has at least two full-time officers (GSN plus a Samurdhi niladhari type another) and there are over 14,009 of such units. Each AGA division has 100-150 government servants excluding teachers. There are 319 such divisions. What are they doing? Would "F" solve the antho-jata-Bahi-jatas? Tamils and Muslims are better off in Sri Lanka than in any other part of the world.

"F" marriages

Federalism is a political marriage (Island, 1/11/2006; 2/11/2006;1/3/2007). It is a one-way path. Unlike CFA 2002, one cannot reverse the path or return to the original point. It is like scrambling an egg. Once done you cannot unscramble it. What "F" brokers are suggesting in Sri Lanka is not a marriage as happened with all the other 25 or so "F" states in the world. They are telling the parties already in matrimony to go to two separate houses because they quarrel in the bed room!

This brokerage could perhaps work if not for the fact that the party who wants to leave the bed room already has several paramours. Hence, little bit of federal flirting could soon reach the point of no return. This is what APRC members do not understand. It is not Karunanidhi or Jayalalitha. It is not just the world confederation of Tamils. It is 80 millions Tamils living next to a highly porous border with a psycho-historical attachment to the island of Lanka. Separatist Tamil politicians on both sides of the Palk Strait thrived upon such sentiments since 1917. A reincarnation of the Chola glory is within reach.

There is double jeopardy-one from Tamil Nadu, the other from Malaya Nadu. The Englishman Paul Harris as well as the retired geography professor G. H. Peiris has warned us about the Malayanadu threat which the late history professor Tennakoon Vimalananda predicted so accurately in the late 1960s-after India banned separatism in 1963 (Dravida Munethra Kasagam Movement and the future of the Sinhalayas, Anula Press, Colombo 10). The first step has already been taken with the CWC demanding five regional councils including a sub region for upcountry Tamils (Daily Mirror, 3/12/2007). The battle after winning the Prabakaran war will then be with the federal lobby raising its head again in 2007. Any attempt to impose an "F" formula will not help the average Tamil and will plant the germ to balkanize the tiny island of Sri Lanka and eventually the Indian subcontinent.

Future Prabakarans

Ironically, new and future Prabakarans will thank APRC and its chairman minister Vitharana for providing a ladder for a new Eelam despite the monumental failure of first Prabakaran now nearing a Vadamarachchi II. IPRC-sponsored "F" solution is the latest of a series of anti-national theories or mud balls such as:
(1) Sinhala Buddhists [are] Chauvinists
(2) Sinhala government was engaged in genocide against Hindu Tamils
(3) War is not winnable
(4) Sri Lanka is a failed (?) state
(5) Tamils have no security in the south (solution proposed by the majority expert report was lot of local police stations!)
(6) Military is bombing civilian targets
(7) GOSL is helping Karuna to abduct children
(8) GOSL is violating human rights (hence get down the UN forces)
(9) People are disappearing but GOSL is silent
(10) President's brothers are running the country
(11) There was a secret Rajapakse-Prabakaran agreement
(12) If military operation not discontinued IC will stop foreign aid
(13) Military is not winning but entering vacated terrorist camps
(14) Prabakaran is making tactical withdrawals from camps and there will be a blood bath
(15) White van without a number plate is following a dismissed minister
(16) Sinhala only Act humiliated Tamils
(17) Tamils have aspirations (Turkey has an aspiration to become part of EU)
(18) Supreme Court was biased in de-merging N-E Provinces
(19) Sri Lanka has a Jumbo cabinet
(20) There is a secret agreement between defence secretary and USA
(21) SLNavy is killing innocent fishermen and ;
(22) Liberation of Tamils from terrorist control is creating an IDP problem and UN must come in!

Colombo "F" lobby and the Buddhist approach
The Island newspaper reported on 3/9/2007,
"The Most Ven. Tibbatuwawe Sri Siddharta Sumangala Thera told Professor Vitarana, that he was not agreeable to any solution to the present crisis that was put forward to satisfy the LTTE terrorist group. "Any devolution should be proposed to the Tamil people in general and not the LTTE," the prelate urged.
The Thera emphasized that any devolution of political power to the LTTE would not solve the country's problem. "The right thinking Tamils like Ananda Sangaree should be recognized and consulted. Giving power to the LTTE would worsen the situation. The extent and the nature of the devolution should be well studied. If not, the LTTE will abuse the power. The, extremists in connivance with NGOO and INGOO will exploit the situation."
"Even the Provincial Council System as at present has not proved successful. The Provincial Councils are unaware of the extent of political power they are granted and the central government does not know the volume of power the Provincial Councils do have," the prelate stated.
He added that in view of the risk, any devolution proposals should be well studied by, all political parties and intellectuals, before reaching any final decision.
Professor Vitarana looks forward to calling on the prelate of Asgiriya as well."
Interestingly, this was similar to the reply JVP gave to Mr. Ananadasangaree on 3/30/2006 (www.divaina.com).

Derailing Buddhist actions in the past

In the 1930s and 1940s the late Ven. Kalukondayawe Pannasekera Thero started a village development and crime eradication movement with Justice Akbar, Tamils and a young police ASP Osmond de Silva (from a Colombo Seven family). White colonial officers and black white civil servants sabotaged that movement. Osmond de Silva was finally transferred to the Police Training Academy, the only place where he could not have direct contacts with villagers! (The Work of Kings, H. L. Seneviratne, 1999).

Thus when the late Ven. Balangoda Anandamaitreeya Maha Thero said that if Sir D.B. Jayatileke became the first prime minister of Ceylon (he was called "abiththaya" by the Marxists for his childhood associations with the Kelaniya temple) the fate of the island would have been very different from what had happened, he was in line with what the Malwatte Maha Nayake said above to minister Vitharana and also with what the late Ven. Kalukondayawe Pannasekera Thero and other monks tried to do in the 1930s and 1940s. The suriya mal selling, malaria volunteers of LSSP did not realize how they can become "national" by joining with the monks and become Ho Chi Mings of Ceylon. Instead it was like water and oil. It is water and oil even today despite holding posts to float the Mahinda Chinthanaya!

Gondwanaland and the majority-minority complex
The most important reason to defeat the "F" plan is the threat coming from the porous boundary between Tamil Nad and Sri Lanka. India and Sri Lanka were part of the geological Gondwanaland separated millions of years later by a narrow stretch of shallow sea which has been a smuggling lake since the 1960s when separatism was banned in India in 1963. Sri Lanka did not become an appendage of India because of the sea, but the sea was never a complete barrier. Mostly it was a busy highway. The connection between "F" formula for Sri Lanka and the separatist movement in Tamil Nad-which started in 1917, which was never dead, which was thought to be buried in 1963, and which is thriving today in 2007 with world wide support organizations-makes "F" marriage an idiotic proposition for the Sinhala Buddhist heritage in Sri Lanka. In its earlier incarnation the separatist design was identified as a majority-minority complex. Sri Lanka has a minority of Tamils but it has a minority of Sinhalese when 80 million Tamils in Tamil Nad are added to the minority Tamils in Sri Lanka.
When the language-based state reorganization experiment of Nehru to curtail ethnic fragmentation of India in 1956 has been a failure in India itself it is suicidal to follow that path in Sri Lanka in 2007. In 2000 three new states were created and there are almost daily reports of demands for new states based on language or caste. In Tamil Nadu itself there is agitation for two new states based on caste-PMK leader S. Rmados is demanding one for the Vanniyar castes; as a reaction to this the Dalits in Tamil Nadu are also demanding a separate state (Island, 11/13/2006).
Ravana and India's Palestine Wall

The two separatist rivers, one in Tamil Nad and the other amongst the Colombo Tamil politicians, ran parallel mingling with each other from 1917 to 1963. When an amendment to the Indian constitution made it a criminal act to talk about separatism by politicians the poison water from Tamil Nad was transferred to Lanka. After 1978 (beginning of JRJ-IndiraG cow-calf family feud) it was the Lanka river that rejuvenated the Tamilnadu river. In the late 1950s the poison water in Tamilnadu was sprayed on the walls with a Dravida Kazagham proverb, "When you meet a Brahmin and a snake, kill the Brahmin first." For the Lankan river and the Tamilnadu masses the Tamil separatist master E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker twisted the Rama-Ravana story in the Hindu epic Maha Bharatha. Shivaji Ganeshan and MG Ramachandran (born in Kandy) popular even among the Sinhala movie goers then, acted as the folk hero-Tamil Ravana in low budget Tamil movies watched in Madras as well as in plantation areas in the Kandyan region. Naicker concluded, "Rama and Sita are despicable characters…Ravana, on the other hand, is a Dravidian of excellent character." The "boys" in Sri Lanka (of Chelvanayagam, Amrithalingam and A. J. Wilson) with their Chola empire symbols are thus good Ravanas in the eyes of an average Tamilnadu Tamil.

In a losing battle with an active anti-Hindi language movement, Tamilnadu vote-dependent Delhi coalition governments are engaged in a desperate attempt to cutoff the mingling of the two rivers-separatists in Tamilnadu and Sri Lanka's north-by a suddenly activated Sethu Samuduram Canal Project along with the mega Kanya Kumari nuclear power plant. Gwynne Dyer (Island 2/15/2007) gave a list of world walls. For example, Pakistan is building a 1,500-mile fence along Afghanistan border. Since the Tamil terrorists made the sea border between India and Sri Lanka a high way the Delhi government may be planning to use the two federal projects as "India's Palestine Wall' in the south (Map 1).

Red arrows on the map show landward pressure sources on Tamil Nad from its land neighbors and from the Hindi official language department in Delhi. The Pondicherry model is another pain in the neck forced upon it. Federal water projects come with the federal muscle. Then there is the mega nuclear power plant controlled from Delhi. The canal project will upset

tranquility in Prabakaran's lake facing Tamil Nad. On the other hand Lanka to the south is a trouble-free fertile valley of several attractions such as Trinco and Seetha Eliya. A Tamil "F" will rekindle the fire beneath the surface. Chamberlain thought Hitler had only a limited hunger. Language-based "F" state is a growing monster. It needs more room. It cannot grow landward in India. But it can come southward via the shallow lake and become a Dravidasthan.

Panchayathi Raj to the rescue - April 24, 1993

It is true that no one Indian state can face the Indian military Goliath but the Delhi rulers know that a new political reality of "coalition governments" has come to stay. The two major Indian political parties depend on two dozen smaller regional parties for their voting support to stay in power. The Tamil Nadu vote block in Delhi is more powerful than the political power needed to use Direct Presidential Rule. This meant that the Indian F model is a sick model in three ways. (1) it could not stop further fragmentation based on language or caste tribes, (2) Delhi could not control the growing power of regional party blocks at Center politics and (3) Indian masses are still in abject poverty, they cannot eat the "F-model."

The present game of alternatively DMK jailing AIADMK boss and AIADMK jailing DMK boss, with the Indian Supreme Court caught in between has given a little breathing room to Delhi, but such DMK-AIADMK nonsense will vanish if Prabakaran as Ravana (suriya devan) is in power in an Eelam. There are other minor political parties in Tamilnadu (TMC, PMK, and MDMK) who act as Prabakaran's proxies. Perhaps, this is why Delhi thought of a new solution: the Sethusamuduram Canal has suddenly become India's Palestine Wall to cutoff Valvetithurai from Chennai.
"God speaks in five"
In India, after 30 years of failure the Indian politicians suddenly resurrected the Panchayathi Raj system in 1993 by the 73 Amendment to the Constitution. The Panchayathi Raj model is based on the principle, the Vedic tradition of God Speaks in Five. Vinoba Bhave explained the Gandhian ideal of decentralization based on Sarvodaya-the good for everybody-at the village level, "it is a common saying in India that if five speak with one voice, it should be understood as the word of God; that is, our ancients believed in working with the consent of all" (India: the most dangerous decades, Selig Harrison, Princeton, New Jersey, 1960, p.316).
Buddha and Benjamin Franklin
Buddhist politics has an even better concept enunciated in the advice given by the Buddha to Ajathashathru, the King of Magadha. After the advice the king gave up his plan to capture the Lichchavi kingdom of Koshala. "No one can touch the hair of a Lichchavi so long as they meet together to exchange views, take unanimous decisions, do not violate laws, respect the words of their elders, honor their women, attend temples and worship and honor their saints." The Native Americans had a similar system of consensus ruling. In the 1740s Benjamin Franklin suggested the 13 warring states to study the behavior of the Iroquois nations. The Native American ideas of liberty, fraternity, and equality then found their way to Europe to influence social philosophers such as Thomas More, Locke, Montaigne, Montesquieu and Rousseau. These European thinkers in turn influenced American such as Franklin, Jefferson, and Madison, the authors of the U.S. constitution (Lies My Teacher Told Me, James W. Loewen, 1995, p. 111).
In Sri Lanka we have thousand years old Gamsabhawa model based on the trinity of Gama-Wewa-Dagoba [kovil/mosque/church]. Gamsabhawa model fits ideally with global warming and other ecological issues of resource management. Centered on the village water tank it is already in line with the water shed-river basin management model implemented in New Zealand. Why is APRC ignoring all this? Why is it in a hurry to impose its will on the people? What had happened to the 800 or so people's proposals? This then is the other battle before the common man [woman] in Sri Lanka of which the soldiers in the military are helpless.
Chronology of the Separatist Paradigm (Dravidasthan), 1917-2007

In preparing this chronology up to 1963, I relied heavily on a book chapter (chapter10: Religion, politics and the DMK by Robert L. Hardgrave) in South Asia Politics and Religion, edited by Donald E. Smith (1966). Hardgrave was an American academic researcher specializing in South Indian affairs.E. V. Ramaswamy Naicker, born in 1879, married at the age of 13, became a sannyasi 6 years later, started the Dravidian Federation (DK) party in 1944, as a militant (DK members wear black shirts), anti religious (philosophy of Hinduism is false and an opiate), anti-Sanskrit (need to de-Sanskritize Tamil language, Ramayanaya is false, destroy the images of sacred Hindu deities such as Rama and Ganesha) movement. The selection of a poison flower and a cyanide pill by Tamil separatists in Northern Sri Lanka is thus not hard to understand.

(A) 1917-1963

1. August 1917 - South India Liberation Front founded (Justice Party)
Anti-Brahmin not anti-Hindi (power is in the hands of Brahmin 2%)
1921-1924 - Agreement in Ceylon between Tamil and Sinhala politicians for a ratio of 1 Tamil for 2 Sinhala representatives
2. 1925 - Self-Respect Movement
3. 1931 - Naicker's trip to Russia
1936-1937 - Balanced representation (fifty-fifty) demand by GG Ponnambalam in Ceylon.
4. 1937 - Hindi introduced as a compulsory subject in schools (Rajagopalachari of the Congress party)
Anti-Hindi campaign began, Hindi language changed to an optional subject
5. December 1938- Justice Party Convention asked for a separate Tamilnad directly under London
6. 1939 - Dravida Nadu Conference asked for a separate and independent Dravidasthan
7. 1940 - Muslims League's Lahore resolution demanding a Pakistan, mutual support for separate states
1940s - C. Sundaralingam, MP for Vavniya spoke of a Tamil state in Northern and Eastern Provinces in Ceylon.
8. 1944 - Justice Party reorganized as DK- Dravida Federation (remained a quasi-military organization).
1944 -1945 - Soulbury Commission rejected discrimination complaint by GG Ponnambalam.
9. 1947 - Jinna refused to help Naicker to help create a Dravidasthan
July 1947 - SJV Chelvanayagam proposed merger of Tamil Nad and Tamil state in Ceylon.
Nov 1947 - Chelvanayagam's speech at Trincomalee; promised to snatch Trincomalee from the Sinhala enemies and deliver it to Nehru for India's security if Nehru so asked.
10. 1949 - Split in DK. DMK formed by C. N. Annadurai. Reasons: Naicker was a dictator, has no faith in democracy, refused to honor the national flag, boycotted independence day celebrations, rejected Indian constitution; married a 28 year old girl when he was 72 and made her heir to the party leadership.
Dec. 1949 - Tamil state party was formed in Ceylon by SJV Chelvanayagam wowing for a separate Tamil state.
11. 1952 Indian General Election. Anna said DMK was "genuinely communist." Burn Hindi books, painted tar over Hindi signs, burn the flag, burn pictures of Gandhi. (DMK has a tribal mentality-Nehru)
Independence demand at the election
12. 1955 - Hindi became the National (official) language of India
13. 1956 - Reorganization of states on language basis (Naicker abandoned Dravidasthan goal to a smaller Tamilnadu separatism goal)
14. 1957 election - Independence demand
15. 1962 - DMK Election manifesto (long-range goal was the creation of a Dravidasthan Socialist Federation) Independence demand
Kamraj of the Congress party won but DMK won 50 seats in the state legislature. In Feb. 1962 Kamraj changed the state name from Madras to Tamilnad. He wanted Madurai (Pandyan capital) as state capital.
16. 1963 - Separatism proscribed from Indian politics

(B) 1963-2006 (independent Tamil Nad demand modified to a Tamil national rights demand)

The unexpected War with China in 1962 gave Nehru an opportunity to ban Tamil separatism using protect the motherland national feelings. No room in India for any anti-Indian talks. The separatist movement had to be moved to Jaffna to the Ravanas of Naicker. It went back to India after 1978 (JRJ-IndiraG cow and calf feud) and got an open foothold after the 1983 riots in Colombo. Had a set back with the killing of Rajiv G in May 1991.

17. 1965- Anti-Hindi agitation by Tamil Nadu students
18. 1967 election - Anna became chief minister by a landslide. Congress party out from power; (in July, resolution to change the name of the state)
19. 1968 - One day student strike; hoisted independent Tamilnadu national flag.
20. Feb 1969 - Anna died of oral cancer; 15 million attended his funeral (largest in the world).
21. 1969-1976 - M. Karnanidhi as chief minister of DMK
22. April 1974 - Tamilnadu assembly passed a resolution for state autonomy
23. 1972 - MGR's fall out from DMK (one reason Karunanidhi's practice of polygamy). Formed AIADMK.
24. January 1976 - President's rule imposed
25. 1977 election - MGR won (was born in Kandy, Ceylon)
26. February 1980 - Presidential rule imposed
27. 1984 MGR suffered a paralytic stroke
28. mid 1980s - Tamilnadu liberation army formed (TNLA) to liberate Tamilnadu (TN) from Indian rule; TNRT - TN retrieval troops; Thamizhaka Makkal Viduthalai Padai (?).
29. 1985 - RajivG unsuccessfully requested Perunchiththiranar (who started the magazine Thenmoli) to stop Independent Tamilnadu movement
30. May 1986 - Resolution to abolish the legislative council (to become a unicameral legislature, in July 1996 re-introduced the legislative council)
31. 1987 - MGR died; power struggle between wife Janaki and suspected mistress Jayalalitha
32. January 1988 - Presidential rule imposed
33. 1988 - MGR's wife Janaki chief minister for 24 days; Jayalalitha succeeds.
34. 1989-1991 - Karunanidhi won
35. January 1991 - Presidential rule imposed
36. 1991- 1996 - Jayalalitha won
37. 1993 - MDMK formed by Vaiko
38. 1996- 2000 - Karunanidhi won.
39. Dec 1996 - Jayalalitha in jail
40. August 2000 - Veerappan's charter of 10 demands (Veerappan was like Tamil Saradiyel or Robinson Crusoe who supported Prabakaran)
41. 2001 - Jayalalitha became chief minister (without contesting a seat)
42. June 2001 - Defeated Karunanidhi asked Delhi to impose presidential rule
43. June 2001 - Karunanidhi in jail
44. July 2002 - Vaiko arrested by Jayalalitha under Prevention of Terrorism Act for making pro-LTTE speech.
45. August 2002 - Nedumaran arrested by Jayalalitha under Prevention of Terrorism Act for making pro-LTTE speech.
46. 2004 - Jayalalitha's party lost seats in the Delhi parliament
47. July 2004 - Veerappan was killed after 20 years of hiding
48. Jan 2006 - Jayalalitha wants Delhi to take back Kachchativ island from Sri Lanka
49. March 2006 - Vaiko's election pact with Jayalalitha (earlier Jayalalitha kept him in jail for 2 years)
50. May 2006 - Tamilnadu assembly elections, Karunanidhi won
51. August 2006 - Karunanidhi decides to stop training Sri Lankan police officers in Coimbatore.
52. August 2006 - World Tamil Cofederation meets in Salem under police scrutiny (www.thehindu.com)

Politics of film stars

Tamil Nadu is no different from USA with film stars (Ronald Regan and Arnold Schwarzenegger, California governors) becoming politicians. In the Tamilnadu case it's more than past acting in films. The chief ministers themselves were the films with movie scenes such as love and sex, jailing of rival ex-chief ministers and asking the federal government to use Presidential Rule against the rival in power. Sons, daughters or mistresses become political heirs. Senior politicians crawl on the floor to worship and touch Jayalalitha's feet. Tamilnadu politics is so corrupt and centers on two personalities at present, Jayalalitha and Karunanidhi. Both are accused on running a party with iron control. At the state assembly elections these two parties come to power alternatively with landslides. So the previous chief minister ends up in the jail.

There are other third parties such as MDMK of Vaiko and the Tamil National Movement party of Nedumaran who openly support Prabakaran. Veerappan, who evaded arrest for political crimes for 20 years, was a hero to these politicians. Tamilnadu separatist movement is well and alive. The 1963 Indian law has lost its teeth. The annual program of the department of official language (Hindi) in the Indian Home ministry is considered as imposition of Hindi on Tamils in Tamilnad. Tamilnad is the only Indian state to oppose Hindi as a unifying language in this manner. There is a talk of a Hindian homeland in India as opposed to a Tamil homeland.

Tamilnad mindset of a Tamil Ravana from Lanka is not easy to erase. The anger fueled by separatists Tamil politicians against Delhi as exploitation of Tamils by Hindi rulers is conveniently directed at the Sinhala Buddhists "killers." Tamil websites propagate this idea on a daily basis. Sri Lanka has to seek its own solutions to create an island where Tamils, Sinhalas and Muslims all can achieve their aspirations. In this regard we are in short supply of data and factual histories. Sri Lankan university professors and the National Science Foundation in Sri Lanka (social science section) should undertake or promote research (grants for student masters theses?) on Tamilnadu-Sri Lankan affairs. They should study why a famous Malyalee Indian diplomat K. M. Panikkar once said Trincomalee is India's jewel. For example, the chronology above demonstrates that the Tamil separatist movement in Sri Lanka started long before 1956 and that the Tamilnadu and Jaffna separatist movements marched hand in hand.

(C) After the December 2005 Mahinda Chinthanaya victory

Because of the pending election in May 2006, Jayalalitha avoided a meeting with President Rajapakse in December 2005. She was afraid of the impact of Mahinda Chinthanaya on her election prospects. She lost it any way. Since 1991 she was demanding the Delhi government to take back the Kachchativu Island which she reiterated only a few days ago. The news items listed below indicate that Tamil Nadu is a base for Terrorist activities and Tamil Nadu politicians cannot and will not stop it. Prevention of terrorist supply links across the sea (Prabakaran lake?) is a Herculean challenge.

With a Tamil "F" Sri Lanka will be dragged into Tamil Nadu corrupt politics as if Sri Lanka does not have enough garbage in hand on its own. Just think of Jayalath Jayawrdena's statement against SLNavy? He wants GOSL surrender allowing Indian officers on SLNavy boats? Even the Delhi government did not ask it. Delhi is ready for joint surveillance operations suggested by GOSL sometime back.

How could anybody rule out the possibility of terrorists in SLNavy uniforms and killing fishermen to create a new conflict with India? What military or public relation benefit SLNavy could get by killing Indian fishermen unless there are spies or terrorist agents on the navy boat. On the other hand how does one distinguish a terrorist or a fisherman who transports bombs for terrorists from a bona fide fisherman? Why would an innocent fisherman enter a war zone and take a risk to his life when he can avoid that part of the sea? Why do they think all the fish in the ocean rush to the Prabakaran lake?

Think of the kind of questions we will have to answer when "F" status is given to terrorists? If "F" comes without removing weapons from the hands of all, including the underworld gangs in the south, then APRC would have achieved the ultimate mission of handing over the real tiger's tail to the people of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka will become a Lebanon, Palestine or a Haiti.

1/27/2007 - Arms smuggling from Tamil Nadu to Sri Lanka (www.chennaionline.com)
1/28/2007 - LTTE poses threat to Maharastra (www.dnaindia.com)
2/13/2007 - explosives seized off Rameswaran coast (www.hindu.com)
2/14/2007 - Indian Navy bust smuggling of bomb components by LTTE (www.asiantribune.com)
2/15/2007 - Tigers are involved in narcotics - India (www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news)
2/16/2007 - Subramanian Swamy asks Manmohan Singh to dismiss Karunanidhi government (www.asiantribune.com)
3/1/2007 - Jayalalitha demanded sacking Karunanidhi government for turning Tamil Nadu into an LTTE arms base (www.island.lk)
3/6/2007 - Karunanidhi defends daughter's links with LTTE (www.indianexpress.com)
3/12/2007 - DMK rally against fishermen's death