India’s CPI-M cites gagged Eezham Tamils in negating their independence

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 April 2012, 07:06 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Thursday defended its parliamentarian TK Rangarajan saying that Eezham Tamils don’t ask for independence. Citing statements of politicians gagged in the island as authentic expression of the minds of Eezham Tamils and endorsing Rangarajan’s negation of Eezham Tamil independence, the CPI-M state secretary G. Ramakrishnan argued against the current stand of DMK chief M. Karunanidhi and his criticism for Rangarajan. If the CPI-M is truly a party of oppressed people, and a party valuing true democracy, it should first demand removal of the Sri Lankan constitutional ban on talking about secession to help people and their politicians to talk from their heart, and it should support a referendum, rather than imposing conclusions of genocidal Establishments, said an Eezham Tamil politician having no freedom to even reveal his name.

“On any issue, the opinion of the people involved takes precedence,” said the CPI-M press statement, in support of its stand negating independence as solution for Eezham Tamils.

• CPI-M statement in Tamil

According to the CPI-M, the Tamil politicians in the island who met Rangarajan, and politicians like Sampanthan and Suresh Premachandran of the mainstream political party TNA that is engaged in talks with the Sri Lanka government, didn’t ask for independence. They were all talking about solutions within a united Sri Lanka.

The CPI-M consistently stood for meaningful devolution of powers and maximum autonomy for combined north and east, within united Sri Lanka, the statement said, adding that the current needs of Eezham Tamils are reparations, rehabilitation and devolution of powers. Full story >>