A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
(Full Story)
Search This Blog
Back to 500BC.
==========================
Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Friday, March 29, 2013
From a bitter critic to Eelam champion
The
HinduA file photo of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.
From a bitter critic
of the LTTE to a champion of the ‘Tamil Eelam’ cause, the political evolution of
the AIADMK headed by Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has always been a
roller-coaster ride.
Her political mentor
M.G. Ramachandran gave political and monetary support to the LTTE led by V.
Prabhakaran to purchase arms and the militant group was seen as being closer to
the AIADMK than the DMK. But the AIADMK’s sympathy for the LTTE vanished in the
wake of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination.
It was during her
very first tenure as Chief Minister that she had to go after the LTTE which was
entrenched in many forms in Tamil Nadu. It was she who demanded that the Centre
ban the LTTE, which was done in 1992. In her second tenure, she invoked the
Prevention of Terrorism Act against LTTE sympathisers, including MDMK general
secretary Vaiko.
In 2002, days after
Prabhakaran held a much-attended press conference in the Vanni region, Ms.
Jayalalithaa got a resolution passed in the Assembly, demanding that the LTTE
leader be captured and extradited to India to face trial in the Rajiv Gandhi
assassination case. Prabhakaran had in that press conference described the
Gandhi killing as a “tragic incident” that had occurred years before, drawing
condemnation from the Congress and other parties in India.
At one point when the
civil war in the island nation was at its peak and there were reports of
civilian casualties, she remarked that civilians dying was inevitable in a war.
Ms. Jayalalithaa did not give up her stout opposition to the LTTE for years, but
in run-up to the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, which coincided with the last days of the
Tamil Tigers, she spoke of sending the army to liberate the Tamils in Sri
Lanka.
This was a marked
change in her approach to the Sri Lankan issue. Gauging the public mood, she
observed a one-day fast to express solidarity with Tamil civilians and urged the
Indian government to enforce a ceasefire. But she has trod a cautious line when
it came to the LTTE.
Later, when the LTTE
was defeated and its leaders were killed, she said she did not condemn the
annihilation of the LTTE. “What I condemn is the wanton killing of LTTE
activists who surrendered, waving white flags before the Sri Lankan Armed
forces. What I condemn is the killing of 50,000 unarmed civilians coming out of
their bunkers, lured into believing that the war had come to an end,” she
said.
However, in her
present term, she sought the commutation of the death sentence awarded to three
men in the Rajiv case, and an Assembly resolution was passed.
The resolution
calling for a referendum in Sri Lanka to ascertain the opinion of the Tamils
there on a separate ‘Eelam’ is the latest in a series of gestures towards Sri
Lankan Tamils.