By S Sethuraman
The Sri Lankan Tamil issue has been kicked up with an explosive bang on the political scene in Tamil Nadu, keeping the two major Dravidian rivals, ruling AIADMK and ousted DMK, at each other’s throats, in a battle of championship of rights of ethnic kinsmen in the island nation, four years after the Rajapakse Government brutally wiped out the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) demanding a separate “Eelam”.
Beyond trying to consolidate their own strengths using a highly emotive issue, ahead of 2014 Lok Sabha elections, these parties can hardly deliver any political value to lakhs of distraught Tamils in Sri Lanka, where the Rajapaksa Government has cynically disregarded UN calls for independent probes into violations of human rights in the 2009 war, and failed to implement commitments on devolution of powers for the predominantly Tamil areas of North and East.
The Sri Lankan imbroglio has already led to DMK quitting UPA as India could not push the DMK leader Mr Karunanidhi’s high-pitched demands for a UN Human Rights Council resolution for independent investigations into allegations tantamount to genocide against the Tamils in the North. India voted for the US-sponsored resolution acceptable to majority of the Council members and it called for an “independent and credible investigations” into allegations of violations of international human rights.
But, as of now, Mr Karunanidhi has not entirely closed the door for a pre-poll alliance with the Congress for the Lok Sabha election and would keep a neutral stand in the present uncertain times. Meanwhile, Mr Karunanidhi would like to win over the 24-member DMDK led by Capt. Vijaykanth for a possible electoral alliance, taking advantage of growing antagonism between him and the AIADMK Chief Minister Ms. Jayalalithaa.
Capt. Vijyakanth has built up a solid vote base which showed up in the 2009 Lok Sabha election, and his party, in alliance with AIADMK, emerged the second largest in the 2011 Assembly elections with 24 seats at present over DMK’s 23 members. But slowly, policy differences aired by his party over the power cuts and price situation began distancing him from the ruling AIADMK.
Chief Minister Ms. Jayalalithaa’s diatribes and the suspension of six of his partymen from the Assembly are taking the Captain closer to the other side. DMK members led by Mr. M K Stalin, former Deputy Chief Minister, had also been relentless in their criticism of the AIADMK Government for its failure to alleviate power shortages even two years after coming to power.
Electoral politics is gaining momentum though no new political alignments are in the making as yet. But for Ms. Jayalalithaa, the focus remains one of continuously pressuring the Centre on Lanka-related issues, having tasted some successes in confronting the Manmohan Singh Government, as in the case of getting the Cauvery Tribunal’s Final Award notified, with the apex court’s intervention.
Mounting a series of challenges to the Centre on Sri Lankan Tamil-related issues as well as India-Sri Lanka relations, Ms. Jayalalithaa scored initially with her call to keep out Sri Lankan players, umpires or officials from the forthcoming IPL matches scheduled to be held in Tamil Nadu. The IPL Governing Council promptly responded saying it was “bowing” to political pressure from Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, who had written to the Prime Minister in this regard, keeping in view the “sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu”.
Tamil Nadu has witnessed over the last few weeks the largest-ever mobilisation of students state-wide to stage protest demonstrations against the Rajapaksa Government’s treatment of Tamils in the island and the “atrocities” committed during the 2009 war, and demanding that the Central Government take effective steps to ensure international independent investigations and for reprisals against the Rajapaksa Government.
Both the Dravidian majors have tried to play upon their apprehensions and toughen their stance towards the Centre. The students, however, are on their own without looking for any guidance from leaders and the political parties are left high and dry. Shrewdly, Ms. Jayalalithaa is hoping to get the students re-focus on their studies by taking over some of their demands and getting strong resolutions adopted in the T N Assembly. In view of this, she appealed to the students, a rudderless movement, to call off their agitation and let colleges and universities function normally.
The T N Assembly in a resolution on March 27urged that India should table a resolution in the United Nations Security Council calling for a referendum in Sri Lanka among the Tamils displaced across the country as well as abroad, on the question of formation of a separate homeland (Eelam) “for the sake of their future welfare”.
The AIADMK resolution was adopted without the opposition DMDK, which has boycotted proceedings following the suspension of six of their members a day earlier, and in the absence of DMK members some of whom had been evicted for interruptions. The resolution also urged the Centre not to regard Sri Lanka as a ‘friendly country’ any longer and to impose economic sanctions until it ended the “repression of Tamils”.
DMK as well as AIADMK have also written to the Prime Minister that India should boycott the Commonwealth Prime Ministers Meeting due to be held in Colombo in November, unless the venue is changed. Any Indian participation in Colombo would further “incense public opinion and sentiment in Tamil Nadu on this sensitive issue”, they said.
In another move, Ms. Jayalalithaa has called for the abrogation of the 1974 India-Sri Lanka agreement ceding the Katchatheevu island to Sri Lanka, in order to protect the interests of T N fishermen who are being subjected to recurring attacks by Sri Lankan naval units and inflicting hardships on them. Ms. Jayalalithaa has warned that if the Centre did not take steps to protect T N fishermen, she would take the issue to the Supreme Court for the restoration of the traditional fishing rights around Katchatheevu.
The Tamil parties, even while politicising the Sri Lankan Tamils problem for electoral purposes, are trying to enter the exclusive domain of the Centre in the conduct of international affairs with little regard for the country’s regional and strategic interests. However, many international observers see the need for India to actively involve itself in multilateral efforts to secure compliance by Sri Lanka on UN demands for accountability both in regard to alleged violations of human rights as well as implementation of commitments on devolution of political authority.
The Congress which had managed to win seats in alliance with DMK in 2004 and 2009 looks marginalised at present and would have still to bank heavily on continuing alliance with Mr Karunanidhi’s DMK and on his terms. The battle will be fought between Ms. Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK and a DMK-led alliance which Mr Karunanidhi would try to shore up in the coming months in order not to let Ms. Jayalalithaa walk away with a major chunk of the 40 seats in Lok Sabha for TN and Puducherry. (IPA Service)