Invoking Gandhi to save the
'Sun God' - making a mockery of non-violence
by Janaka Perera courtesy
The Island October 16, 2008
Indian politics is a plague where Sri Lanka is concerned. Paying homage
to Mahatma Gandhi has often been a cheap political stunt for some Indian
and Sri Lankan politicians, especially Tiger sympathisers. NGO 'peaceniks'
are not far behind. They have the guts to preach non-violence only to
the government. The LTTE, of course , never gave two hoots for Gandhi
at any time. And they never let us forget it. The latest reminder is
the October 6 suicide bomb blast at Anuradhapura.
In India with elections round the corner, both the Congress Party and
the BJP are invoking the Mahatma's name again. Last year they did it
in Gujarat. And last week in Tamil Nadu, the 139th birth anniversary
of this apostle of non-violence was marked with a comedy that Sri Lankans
were not surprised to see. Its cast included four Tamil National Alliance
MPs viz. Maavai Senathirajah, M. K. Sivajilingam, Suresh Premachandran
and V. I.S Jayapalan. They were calling for a halt to violence against
the 'Sun God' and his cohorts in the Wanni.
The drama was scripted and staged by assorted Indian Leftists and jingoists
in Chennai in order to oppose Tamil 'genocide' in Sri Lanka. It would
have been even more entertaining if New Left Front Leader and NSSP General
Secretary Dr. Wickremabahu Karunaratne, too, had been invited. There
is no better 'expert' than him in providing 'Marxist' support for racist
separatists in the name of liberation. No wonder Canada rejected his
visa application.
Now India's National Security Advisor M. K. Narayanan has reportedly
called for a halt to Sri Lanka's military offensive against the Tamils.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is being bombarded with e-mails
urging him to intervene in the crisis here according to the latest press
reports.
All this no doubt has given fresh hope to the local 'anti-war' crusaders
and their lackeys in the press who are praying that India would once
again "teach a Sri Lanka a good lesson" on the Tamil issue
now that "anti-Lankan feelings are gaining ground at an alarming
rate," in Tamil Nadu.
Perhaps, they are looking forward to another parippu drop. Others are
hoping that the Indian coastguard would take over Katchativu (in the
name of protecting Indian fishermen) and issue a warning to the Sri
Lanka navy.
The 'Gandhian' antics in Chennai came a week before the 21st anniversary
of Operation Pawan that the IPKF launched against the LTTE on October
10, 1987.
Now the same regime is being urged again to prevent the Tigers losing
the war.
"This issue cannot be brushed aside as an internal affair of Sri
Lanka. The offensive against the Eelam Tamils will affect India too",
TamilNet quoted Communist Party of India (CPI) National Secretary D.
Raja.
Tamil Nadu's CPI State Secretary T. Pandyan was reported saying that
the hunger-strike and the CPI's support to Eelam Tamils were not a political
manoeuvre for forming an election alliance in Tamil Nadu.
Claiming that: "It is a shame to think about forming political
alliance over the dead bodies of Eelam Tamils", he has urged all
parties to exert pressure on New Delhi in this regard.
Who are these Eelam Tamils? Are they from another planet? Regardless
of who they are, the October 2 event gave the Tiger proxy TNA a grand
opportunity to do their politics in the traditional homeland of over
62 million Tamils across the Palk Strait. Whether or not the Indian
Central Government recognizes these Tamilians as a distinct nation is
no concern of Sri Lanka. But if Tamil Nadu jingoists think of Sri Lankan
Tamils the way Hitler thought of Czechoslovakia's Sudeten Germans, this
is a trend that the GOSL needs to nip in the bud.
Prabhakaran has always been lamenting that 80 million Tamils scattered
round the globe have no state of their own. No doubt most parties that
staged the 'hunger strike' in Chennai last week share his views. After
all, the DMK as soon as it came to power for the first time 41 years
ago (1967), attempted to attract Tamils in Fiji, Mauritius, the Malay
peninsula, Sri Lanka, Mombasa and Tanganyika to form a worldwide United
Tamil Front and organize an international conference to discuss the
issue.
The Sri Lankan delegation to this Tamil Conference comprising 234 members
was the second largest foreign delegation to it, according to historian,
the late Professor Tennekoon Wimalananda. Federal Party stalwart and
former Cabinet Minister M. Tiruchelvam was accorded a special place
at this meeting, which the then DMK Leader C. N. Annadorai named the
'World Tamil Conference'.
Undoubtedly India fighting secessionist guerilla movements in her North-Eastern
states of Nagaland, Assam, Manipur, Tripura and Mizoram for over five
decades has no wish to see a revival of Tamil separatism in the South.
But the question is whether Delhi is expecting Sri Lanka to keep Tamil
Nadu, an integral part of the Indian Govt. coalition, on the boil.
So it is a small wonder that neither Narayanan nor Manmohan Singh were
willing to unveil the memorial erected in Sri Lanka for the soldiers
of the Indian Peace Keeping Force who gave their lives in fighting the
LTTE in 1987-89. Erecting a memorial for them in India is simply out
of the question for Delhi.
But in an interview with Frontline (July 17-30, 1999), the former IPKF
Commander Lt. General A. S. Kalkat said:
"There should be a memorial to commemorate the memory of the soldiers
who left the shores of India to fulfil the country's solemn commitment
to a friendly neighbour and for which they gave their lives and never
returned to their motherland. I would be failing in my duty to the families
of the valiant dead of the IPKF, which I had the privilege to command,
if I were not to speak on their behalf. In a country where memorials
and monuments are put up for all and sundry, no government has seen
it fit to lay even one stone or one brick to commemorate the brave men
of the Indian armed forces who laid down their lives. There is no place
for public recognition for their sacrifices; there is no place where
the families of the dead martyrs can even place a wreath in memory of
their loved ones."
It may be a unique first in world history where a country has refused
to honour her soldiers who fought for her in a foreign land. Even the
United States, which was roundly condemned worldwide for her brutal,
aggressive role in Vietnam from where she had to retreat eventually,
has never hesitated to honour the Americans who fought there.
But to Delhi, erasing the memory of the IPKF's role in Sri Lanka is
better than being reminded that it was branded the 'Innocent People
Killing Force' by the very Tamils who expected the Indian troops to
save them from the 'Sinhala' armed forces. It is also far better than
losing (for both the ruling Congress Party and the BJP) Tamil Nadu votes
in the coming elections.
The irony of it all is that land of Mahatma Gandhi, which wants Sri
Lanka to have only defensive weapons and seek peace with the LTTE, is
asserting itself as a global military power.
Of course, we do not blame the Indians for it. We know Indian foreign
policy is not based on Gandhian principles. Honouring Gandhi, therefore,
is little more than a hollow show for India's ruling entities.
In September last year, the Indian High Commission in Colombo and
the Sri Lanka's so-called Foundation for Co-Existence jointly organized
an exhibition at the National Art Gallery to mark the centenary of Mahatma's
Satyagraha.
According to media reports, India has been buying armaments from US
and other major powers for use in operating far from home: Aircraft
carriers, giant C-130 transport planes and airborne refueling tankers.
It was also reported that India has helped to build a small air base
in Tajikistan that it will share with its host country.
It is reportedly modern India's first military outpost on foreign soil.
If so, then why for heaven's sake is Delhi engaging in 'humanitarian'
blackmail against small Sri Lanka?
The Island October 16, 2008
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