DELHI’S CYNICAL HANDLING OF THE 2G SCAM – IMPLICATIONS FOR SRI LANKA AND EELAM TAMILS
The Daily Mirror of 25 December 2010 quoting PTI“India to gift military equipment“reported that the Defense Secretary, Pradeep Kumar was gifting military equipment (shoulder-fired IGLA missiles and radars) to Sri Lanka (SL). The missiles are undeniably offensive weapons originally supplied to SL to fight the LTTE contradicting Delhi’s oft repeated categorical denials that it never supplied any offensive weapons to SL during the 2004 and2009 conflict.
IDP returnees have reported that as many as 20 to 30 shells were fired into most of the houses in the heart of Mullativu. Had the Tamils not fled to avoid the advancing SL forces indiscriminately firing they would have been killed and entombed en masse in these house graves. This would have added a few tens of thousands to the 40 000 reportedly massacred in Mullivaykkal. These IDP’s are credible witnesses in any war crimes tribunals on SL.
Delhi’s notorious cover up of the South Block Narayanan/Menon duo beguiling the militants for massacre along with the tens of thousands civilians into the Narayanan’s ‘fire free zone’ (Mullivaykkal) and internment of over 300 000 civilians behind barb wire fenced (Menic Farm) camps will be glorified in the revised versions of the Sinhala Mahavamsa and secular Delhi’s Gita. A comprehensive narrative of the role of the Narayanan/Menon duo is in ‘Delhi more alarmed than Colombo over the Mullivaykkal massacres and Sri Lanka war crimes’ groundreport.com. The precursor to Mullivaykkal massacre was the IPKF’s 1990’s ‘Jaffna teaching hospital massacre’.
More and more revelations on the offensive weapons and personnel that Delhi supplied to SL for use against the Eelam Tamils failed to persuade Delhi from continuing to deny its support for SL. This reveals the UPA/Congress’ sordid congenital trait of resorting to deception most of the time. Gothabhaya Rajapakse hints about the ‘in the loop’ involvement of Narayanan/Menon duo in Mullivaykkal massacres, but Delhi persists that it never supported SL’s offensive to destroy the Tamils. Gothabhaya’s claims in his Olcott Oration in Colombo on 14 November 2009 are corroborated by details in Gokhale’s ‘Sri Lanka – From War to Peace’ (August 2009). It lists the offensive weapons that Delhi covertly gifted to SL. Delhi gifted Five Mi-17 helicopters in early 2006 on condition that ‘these fly under Sri Lanka Air Force colours’ a clear deception. According to Nitin, SL and Indian navies co-ordinated offensive operations to destroy the LTTE’s Sea Tigers. SL Navy Chief Karannagoda acknowledges that Delhi located LTTE’s floating warehouses holding arms for destruction. Delhi supplied Indian warships (2) ICGS Varaha and Vigraha commissioned as SLNS Sagara and Sayurala, were used in offensives against the Tamils.
Indian Navy’s Doniers fitted with powerful radars concentrated in Ramnad in TN flew regular reconnaissance missions over SL providing real time comprehensive battle front intelligence for SL’s offensives pinpointing the movements of militant cadres and leaders. In South Block bureaucrats’ over-enthusiasm to assist SL win its war against the Eelam Tamils they compromised on India’s own security in the Bombay front that allowed LET to launch the 9/11 lightening strike that devastated India’s image and the confidence of the Indian public in NSO. The Times of India pithy comment "Our politicians fiddle as innocents die” summarises the anger the public felt over the callous indifference to the deaths in Bombay in the Sonia proxies pursuing her ‘capricious’ (Chellaney’s) goal, seeking revenge on the Eelam Tamils. Only the then Home minister resigned on account of the Bombay 9/11 debacle but the top NSO bureaucrats (all proxies of Sonia) who misallocated valuable security resources to cause the major Bombay security lapse escaped unscathed. Like most UPA investigations the inquiry into the Bombay 9/11 debacle missed this disastrous security failure and those responsible for it.
Delhi’s stalling the war crimes initiatives in the UN diplomatically are ‘to control the fallout from revelations of Delhi’s deep involvement in the SL Mullivaykkal massacres that led to the Indian security lapse and the Bombay 9/11 massacres. Delhi’s public non-interference is the SL conflict posture produced this sordid scam. Delhi’s reasoning for its posture was its faked concern for the sensitivities of Tamilians in TN. The principal characters involved in perpetuating this scam include PM Manmohan Singh (the public face of the UPA), Sonia with a ‘personal caprice’ – revenge against Tamils for Rajiv’s killing, her proxies, Pranab Mukerjee, Chidambaram and the South Block sectarian bureaucrats: especially the Narayanan/Menon duo. Though details of the scam have unraveled, Delhi’s public credibility has yet to be tested. Bihar’s verdict on the recent UPA scams is most unnerving to UPA and its partners. This is just the beginning.
Delhi resorting to pretences time and again is beginning to back fire on the UPA now over the 2G scam. The Bihar verdict aside, a scam culture flourishing under UPA rule is bound to influence its electoral prospects. Voters are unlikely to empathise with the Delhi style of handling the plunder of public funds. The 2G scam is a pathetic breach of trust of public funds that run into billions of US $. The people as the rightful beneficiaries of these funds that were plundered and stashed away in overseas safe havens are bound to be angered. The absence of concern in UPA for this level of plunder amounts to condoning a scam culture that began with Rajiv’s Bofors scam and is now the hallmark of the UPA rule.
More sinister is Delhi’s diabolical use of the 2G scam to blackmail TN’s DMK leadership into toeing Delhi’s anti-Tamil policies and politically engineering the end of the supremacy of Dravida parties in TN. Congress expects to turn the Congress engineered DMK’s misfortune to its advantage and revive its fortunes in TN at the expense of its loyal partner, a crude betrayal. There was also an affront to Tamilians’ self respect who were manipulated from expressing their legitimate anger over 40 000 Eelam Tamilians massacred in Mullivaykkal. The blame for 2G now seems focused on Raja and the TN CM for acquiescing to the Congress blackmail. Pranab as Sonia’s proxy delivered a blunt ultimatum to the TN CM to toe Delhi’s anti-Tamil line or else the DMK minister face CBI 2G scam investigation. Pranab relishes playing a front man in the UPA Congress bluntly rejecting the opposition’s demand for a JPC investigation. Chidambaram’s agenda on the 2G scam is more sinister. Chidambaram’s office stirred up the 2G scam ordering the telephone tapping and stealthily allowing selective tap leaks. A JPC investigation will explain the reasons for Chidambaram’s selective tap leaks tactics. The leaks were solely to embarrass the DMK leadership to promote his ambitions in TN/Central politics.
The 2G scam’s ramifications both for the UPA politicians at the Centre and State (TN) level are far reaching. Apparently the key players in the Delhi UPA have a hand in the scam pie. Hence the fear in UPA of a JPC investigation and the scramble to hijack the investigation towards producing an outcome that Congress achieved in the Bofors scam. When the going gets too tough for a Raja facing a JPC investigation the risk of key UPA players being implicated in the scam is really high. Congress prefers the pedestrian and protracted JAC type of investigation to produce the Bofors type outcome. Progress on unraveling the 2G scam has been stalled long enough (3+ years) already for the money trail of the loot to almost disappear and replicating the conditions that produced the Bofors type outcome. The inaction in the PM’s office invited a censure from the Supreme Court.
Now UPA squabbling over the oppositions’ request for a more credible JPC investigation is to engineer a Bofors outcome. Congress UPA has the expertise in handling investigations to produce the outcomes they prefer. The intimidating demeanor of a Pranab categorically rejecting a JPC investigation is all the more reason for the opposition to pursue the JPC route vigorously to hold those involved to account, for the UPA scam culture in India to end. The electoral verdict on the Bofors + scams was the stunning defeat of the Congress then.
Congress has also to explain the propriety of using the 2G scam to extract political advantage at the expense of its coalition partners, specifically the DMK. DMK is bound to suffer the most damage politically losing its long standing Tamilian or Dravida credentials. The DMK succumbed to the Delhi Congress’ blackmail over the deeply emotional Eelam Tamil issue for Tamilians. Hence analysts fear ‘Is Tamil Nadu being forced to go the Eelam way”. TN was far too restive as early as September 2008 though TN CM was uncharacteristically silent on account of the 2G issue then. After September 2008, demonstrations involving all Tamil parties (Communist, DMDK, MDM, VCK and AIADMK) gathered momentum and forced the TN CM to speak out for the Eelam issue. Rallies in TN forced massive shutdown throughout TN the most notable being the lawyer’s protests resulting in the shutdown of the courts. The movie industry up staged the protests, roads and railway traffic stopped throughout TN. Human chains several miles long under the smarting sun and self immolation all pointed to an angered and a restive TN that alarmed Delhi.
Delhi reacted harshly at the high levels, with visits by Delhi politicians Pranab and Chidambaram and the South Block bureaucrat like Narayanan to Chennai to browbeat Karunanithi into submission. Pranab and Narayanan proxies of Sonia, apparently flaunted the CBI investigation of DMK minister over the 2G scam. Names of the TN CM’s family members were dragged into the 2G scam. This was enough for the TN CM to surrender to Delhi’s demands though compromising DMK’s core Dravida ideology that appealed to mainstream Tamilians.
TN CM concerned about his political survival skillfully lulled the Tamilians into a torpor when the Mullivaykkal massacres and Menik camp internments occurred. DMK’s grass root organization was intact then to manage the mood of the Tamilians. Delhi and Chennai acted in Rajapakse style on the leading activists like Seeman, Nedumaran, Vaiko using the prevention of terrorism legislation to keep the lid on all Pro-Eelam protests. The surface calm that the TN CM secured to save his office hid the deep resentment below over his betrayal of Tamil/Dravidian aspirations. Analysts predict that the electoral verdict in TN will be a repeat of the Bihar verdict. UPA losing such a pliable coalition partner now a liability is equally disastrous for Delhi, hence the loud chorus that the UPA-DMK alliance is still intact. It is judgment day for TN Tamilians to act to save India by eradicating the UPA scam affliction and deliverance day for Eelam Tamils from Delhi/Colombo genocide tyranny.