Ground Report

A revisit to the Nateri Adigal’s piece is most timely more so to bring to focus the Congress-UPA intrigues to bury the Dravida aspirations in TN following the defeat of Tamil militancy/LTTE in SL. The insights of Adigal an apologist to none is refreshing unlike the outpourings of apologists under contract to the politically connected and related media establishments.

Though Adigal bemoaned the parlous Congress-Chennai politics as early as 2008 when the piece appeared in Merinews there is more to bemoan now with the ominous drifts that is hurting further India’s standing, regional and worldwide, the unity of India itself and intrigues to evict the Dravida movement as a political force in TN, and emerging threats (the China threat) closest ever to India’s security. The hideous schemes of the South Block bureaucrats in Delhi to hurt the Dravida aspirations was to avenge the Dravida social reforms that broke the stranglehold the sectarians once enjoyed in TN. Thereafter on setting up shop in Delhi the sectarians emerged as a dreaded force capable of engineering Congress Delhi’s frequent dismissals of the TN governments

Adigal’s is ominous here. ‘Mercifully, India is too big … Yet, if the fictitious concepts of placing the “country’s interests above human rights, ethnic pride and identity “continues to be promoted for long, it will be a matter of time for India too to meet the fate of USSR or Yugoslavia or now Sri Lanka’.

The South Block with Congress-Delhi’s blessings took the path of undermining the credibility of the Dravida parties’ commitment to Tamil aspirations; their main popular platform as champions of Tamil causes. Congress seeking a political presence in TN in its own right needs to recognize the deep rooted potency of Dravida ethnic identities and pride in TN to resurge when major Tamil issues surface.   Adigal’s ‘The ground reality in Tamil Nadu is that almost every Tamil ..has a primary affinity to other Tamil speaking people …Delhi to them is..in no way above (that) ethnic affinity and pride.. (and the collective Indian identity) personified in ‘Bharat Mata’.. is associated with the unpopular high caste elite who identify themselves among self-styled ‘Aryans’ …ironically (using) ..the Delhi officialdom..to humiliate the Tamil identity and pride’ at every turn.

Sonia shabbily treated the TN Dravida elder who travelled hundreds of miles from to discuss issues of concern to TN offering him just 15 minutes at the airport lounge in Trichy. More hurting to the Dravida historical pride was Delhi Prime Minister Singh sharing the Commonwealth Games platform to felicitate a renowned human rights abuser Rajapakse for his victory over the Tamils; a historical humiliation for the Tamils, TN and worldwide.  Congress’s message to TN leaders and the Tamils is that Delhi disapproves the passion they show over the SL Tamil issue. To counter Congress Delhi flaunts the threat that Congress would disengage from DMK, its UPA partner and go it alone on the SL issue even if that hurts the feelings of the TN Tamils. Hence the pressure on the DMK principally to disassociate it from the SL Tamil issue to dilute the ground level strength of the DMK/AIADMK as champions of Tamil causes.

Congress’s confidence before it embarked on the venture to seek power in TN on its own right follows TN DMK government succumbing to Delhi’s browbeating to distance itself from the SL Tamil cause when emotions over the Mullivaykal massacres and Menik farm concentration camps atrocities were running high. This distancing is a major error in judgment the DMK has to regret for, for a long time to come. The Congress also exploited when ‘.. DMK ..(was).. weakest..ever in TN… (and).. surviv(ing) on “outside” support from the Congress’ to compel the DMK to agree to muzzle TN opinion to prevent a repeat of the groundswell of 2008 anger re-emerging over the Mullivaykal massacres and Menik farm concentration camps ‘..and condemn(ing)   Delhi’s connivance in the massacre(s)..’. Adigal reminding the 2008 groundswell is to prevent Delhi and TN Congressmen against underestimating the potential for a Dravida resurgence in TN at any time. Failure would take Congress back to its darkest 1960 years in TN.  

Thus Delhi slighting TN’s anguish over the SL genocide on the SL Tamils (and awaiting the TN CM’s letters to act ) is callous indifference to TN Tamil sensitivities not likely to improve the electoral prospects for the Congress in TN. Equally the Rajapakse ridiculed Delhi’s expressions of ‘grave concern and unhappiness’ over the SL Tamilian civilian casualties and counsel to SL to negotiate a peaceful settlement are unlikely to translate into electoral support for a Congress as these lacked earnestness and Congress’ recent record of insincrerity on its promises to TN and Tamils. Will the absence of earnestness ever earn for Congress the ‘Bharat Mata’ mantle in the eyes of TN Indians? Most dismal is Delhi’s response to the regular SL navy killings and harassments of Tamil fishermen; Delhi’s reasoning to prevent TN fishermen encouraging LTTE infiltration into TN is being treated with sheer amusement.  

The Rajiv killing still peddled by ‘high-bred’ Tamils (Menons and Moillys) to justify Delhi indifference to the Tamils’ suffering under SL genocide is being challenged by many, including Jayalalitha a former TN- CM and once a vocal anti-LTTE critic. Adigal’s CM’s quote ‘We are distressed that a former Indian Prime Minister was brutally assassinated on Tamil soil as a fall out of this struggle’ does not implicate LTTE in it anymore.  Adigal’s adds ‘..There are not many takers for the hush-hush trials by a TADA court that admitted extracted confessions for condemning,’ in the Rajiv case.

 Prof T S Gobi Rethinaraj of the premier National University of Singapore adds more to the skepticism of the relevance of the LTTE Rajiv killing factor. ‘Within India ..a carefully orchestrated.. singular episode (killing served as).. basis for India’s Sri Lanka policy..condemning Sri Lankan Tamils to eternal suffering.. But ‘India (was) shameful(ly) remiss in failing to take the Sri Lankan navy to task over the issue of frequent killings of (hundreds of them ethnic TN) Indian fishermen’.  The continuing killings of ethnic TN fishermen fail to attract Delhi’s attention unlike a Rajiv’s killing 18 years ago. Would this occur had a Congress Delhi’s ‘Bharat Mata’ tenet respected the identities of all ethnicities equally? The basics to forge the collective Bharat Mata identity is to treat all ethnic identities equally. This is sadly missing in the Congress Delhi’s mindset especially when TN Tamils are the victims.

The Congress’ Menon and Moily may drum up the Rajiv factor 18 years late, ‘with a story ..to frame Prabhaharan (LTTE) for the mysterious suicide attack that killed former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi does not wash anymore’ Adigal October 2008. Will it wash now after the much admired Prabhaharan perished bravely in the SL massacres more so that Delhi partnered in May 2009. Would this earn any TN Tamil votes ever for a Sonia as the surrogate ‘Bharat Mata’?

Delhi’s policies since 2008 hardened the most to secure the total elimination of the Tamil militancy and Delhi striving harder and harder to keep up its pathetic pretences to the contrary. Delhi’s shameful hands off stance in the face of the Mullivayal massacres and Menik farm concentration camps earned the ‘deafening silence’ condemnation from The Elders. 

There are compelling reasons for Delhi’s predicament. Delhi hands are as stained as SL’s in the massacres of tens of thousands in Mullivaykal in the closing days of the conflict and the internment of hundreds of thousands behind barb wire fenced Menik concentration camps. This explains the haste with which Delhi launched its relentless diplomatic offensives to stall the UNHRC crimes initiatives in May 2009. Gothbhaya’s incriminating ‘in the loop’ sessions between the Delhi-Colombo trio hint leading up to both Mullivaykal massacres and Menik farm internments have unraveled fast thereafter. Gothobhaya’s hint was the first SL’s stab in the back that Delhi had to bear up with albeit silently. Corroborating was General Fonseka’s revelation that Colombo succumbed to Delhi’s pressure to end the war in May instead of August causing the heavy civilian casualties in Mullivaykal. Delhi had thereafter to placate SL at whatever cost including its unprincipled role in the May 2009 UNHRC vote that killed off the west’s war crimes initiatives.

SL holding Delhi to ransom over the pressure Delhi recklessly exerted through Narayanan/Menon ‘in the loop’ sessions to speed up the end of the war to May 2009 causing the Mullivaykal slaughter was to sabotage US plans to prevent the slaughter of the LTTE leadership that the Sonia family wanted. These revelations on Delhi’s involvement are incriminating that SL is taking full advantage of to pressure the Indian PM into publicly join in, to rejoice the glorious victory over the Tamils.

On the ‘Indian interests’ Delhi thesis, T S Gopi Rethinaraj wrote ‘A credible case could be built that an independent Eelam will be –for ethnic, linguistic and religious reasons – friendlier towards India than the Sinhalese dispensation harbouring a deep contempt for India and its interests.’ Are those ‘Indian interests’ large enough for Congress-Delhi to observe a ‘deadly silence’ when atrocities that stirred the whole world occurred at its doorstep to the brethren of TN Tamilians. This is indeed ‘India’s moment of shame’. Congress Delhi opportunistically uses the slogan “country’s interests above human rights, ethnic pride and identity “to explain the enigma of “India’s current military assistance, understandably low key for domestic reasons ..at a time when some western countries have begun to take a more nuanced position on the ethnic conflict in light of gross human right violations committed by the Sri Lanka state against Tamils”. Gopi Rethinaraj (April 2008).   Will Delhi ever follow the enlightened world at least now for the good of humanity?