Karunanidhi takes cautious stance on Sri Lankan issue

by N. Sathiya Moorthy

By asking the Central Government in India to take "appropriate steps" to restore peace in Sri Lanka, and calling for efforts to halt the "loss of innocent lives through mine blasts and serial bombings, which in turn has led to the influx of refugees", octogenarian M.Karunanidhi, the DMK Chief Minister of the south Indian State of Tamil Nadu, has done the kind of 'balancing act', whose message is far-reaching.

Through another resolution, the six-party meeting of the ruling combine, called by him on return from a week-long sojourn in the neighbouring Karnataka State capital of Bangalore, on Monday, 19 June 2006, touched upon the problems being faced by the Tamil Nadu fishermen, at the hands of the Sri Lankan Navy, now that violence has erupted in the island-nation all over again.

Only a day earlier, a Tamil Nadu fisherman was injured in a shootout by the Sri Lankan naval personnel, it was reported.

Cautious and comprehensive approach

Karunanidhi's approach to the 'Sri Lankan issue' is both cautious and comprehensive. His invitees on Monday included not only the Congress and the Communist allies who have a definite disinclination to backing the LTTE, or any separatist/militant group of the kind nearer home. There was also the leaders of the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and the Dravidar Kazhagam (DK), two pan-Tamil outfits that have often been over-enthusiastic in their espousal of the 'Sri Lankan Tamil cause'.

It was not an all-party meeting called by the State Chief Minister, but an alliance meeting called by the octogenarian leader in his capacity as president of the DMK party. To the extent, Karunanidhi managed to ensure that the State Government was not seen as parroting any particular line on a sensitive issue affecting bilateral relations with Sri Lanka on the one hand.

It was also a reminder of the scars left behind by the purported pro-LTTE stand of the DMK in the past. It was the 'pro-LTTE image' of the party that gave the DMK its worst-ever electoral drubbing in the aftermath of the 'Rajiv Gandhi assassination' in 1991. With the result, today, neither is Karunanidhi the leader, nor is the DMK the party, to stake all on issues, over the solution of which they have no control any more.

The twin resolutions are significant precisely for the same reason - of Karunanidhi wanting to separate the 'Sri Lankan issue' from the problems being faced by the Tamil Nadu fishermen in the aftermath of renewed action in Sri Lanka. Within the 'Sri Lankan issue', three clear distinctions too have approached in the approach of major political parties in Tamil Nadu since the 'Rajiv Gandhi assassination' in particular.

This pertained to their respective position on the problems faced/caused by refugee-influx, the larger issue of 'Tamils rights' in Sri Lanka, and support/sympathy for the LTTE and its line. That way, the DMK-inspired resolution did not refer to the 'Sri Lankan Tamils' by name, but stopped with mentioning 'loss of innocent lives' (on either side), instead.

What more, by referring to the 'mine blasts' (by the LTTE?) and 'aerial bombings' (by Sri Lankan armed forces?), and to the 'loss of innocent lives' in both, the DMK-led initiative equated the Tamils and the Sinhalese, and their lives in equal terms.

It was possibly for the first time since 'ethnic violence' broke out in Sri Lanka in 1983 that any political party in Tamil Nadu, particularly 'pan-Tamil outfits' like DMK, PMK or the DK, were taking a similar stand. Obviously, participation in the Union Government, that too, one led by Rajiv Gandhi's Congress Party, of which his widow, Sonia Gandhi, is the president, has tempered and moderated the past stance of the PMK, too.

Yet, there seems to be a misconception ruling many Sri Lankan minds on the role and influence of 'pan-Tamil' politics in Tamil Nadu, and its impact and influence on the Indian Government's approach towards the 'Sri Lankan issue'.

It was thus that a section of the Sri Lankan media and political opinion linked the pan-Tamil MDMK's alliance with the then ruling AIADMK in the State for this year's elections to the Tamil Nadu Assembly as capable of influencing New Delhi's decisions on the Sri Lanka front. At the end of the day, neither the alliance, nor the elections, influenced the Government of India in the matter.

Proactive approch by India

If anything, it was possibly for the first time since the early Eighties that elections in Tamil Nadu passed without any reference to the 'Sri Lankan issue' during campaign time. The AIADMK under then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa needed to weaken the morale of the rival DMK-led alliance, which looked invincible.

Though the symbols of the State Government were not appended to the DMK-initiated resolution on the Sri Lankan issue, it was also the first time that a collective appeal was made from the State, for the Government of India to take "appropriate steps" to restore peace in Sri Lanka. It implied a call for a 'pro-active' approach by India in helping to solve the 'Sri Lankan issue', but Karunanidhi, with his years of political experience, made sure that New Delhi's hands were not forced by extreme positions, or more direct suggestions, flowing from the ruling dispensation in Chennai.

Earlier references to Indian help in the matter in recent weeks had stopped with appeal to individuals. Visiting former Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is also the Leader of the UNP Opposition in the national Parliament, for instance, had called upon philosopher-guide, Sri Ravishankar, when he called on the guruji at Bangalore, again last week.

Karunanidhi also used the occasion to reiterate his position that the "Centre's stand is also the stand of the Tamil Nadu Government" on the 'Sri Lankan issue'. He had made this observation while on his maiden visit to Delhi after taking over as Chief Minister earlier this month.

On the occasion, he referred to his meeting with former Sri Lanka Minister and leader of the 'Tamils of Indian Origin', Arumugan Thondaman in Chennai a week earlier. Sri Lankan diplomats stationed in Delhi and Chennai accompanied Thondaman to the meeting. Earlier, TULF leader, Anandasangaree had written to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, and the pro-LTTE Tamil Nationalist Alliance (TNA) also appealed to him for intervention in the 'ethnic issue' in Sri Lanka, but Karunanidhi chose not to respond to either.

Helping to restore peace in Srilanka

In contrast, Karunanidhi spoke about his meeting with Thondaman, for the first time while in Delhi. "I told him as much," he said on the occasion, seeking to synchronise the State Government's views with that of the Centre.

To the extent, the six-party resolution is an 'improvement', as it seeks, if not hints at, the need for 'Indian involvement' in helping to restore permanent peace in Sri Lanka - without outlining any parameters of any kind.

For all this however, Karunanidhi is only on a tight-rope walk on the 'Sri Lankan issue'. A week earlier, a statement by the Opposition AIADMK in the State had provoked the residual pan-Tamil sentiments in him, to rebut the charge that he was 'against the Tamils in Sri Lanka'.

Carrying the image of the senior-most leader of the "Tamils of the world" and also the scars left behind by the 'Rajiv Gandhi assassination' at the same time, he is also faced with more direct political demands for 'Indian intervention' in the island-nation. While pan-Tamil MDMK leader, Vaiko, was quick to ask the Centre to despatch an all-party delegation of Parliament members from India to Sri Lanka, equally LTTE-sympathetic leaders like Thol Thirumavalavan of the Dalit Panthers of India (DPI) joined Vaiko in organising State-wide demonstration in the second week of June.

All major Tamil newspapers carried the air-strikes on Tamil localities in Sri Lanka last weekend, as their 'lead story'.

A day earlier, they had given adequate coverage to the Anuradhapura bus-blast, in which the Sinhalese were the victims. None of them however chose to play up the week-long fast by Nalini and her husband Murugan, both convicted in the 'Rajiv Gandhi assassination case' and in prison still, during the same period. They carried the news story after an English language newspaper had 'scooped' them to it. The fast was to press the demand for an Indian visa for their daughter (born in prison) to pursue her higher studies in the country.

Though separated, the four issues relating to the Sri Lankan problem pertaining to Tamil Nadu have the dangerous tendency to get submerged in one another without anyone noticing it, if the ground situation does not improve on each one of them, across the Palk Strait.

Constant excesses against Tamil Nadu fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy, or stories of excesses brought to India by the Tamil refugees, or even the increasing number of refugees in the coming weeks and months, could pressure the Chief Minister and the State Government into reviewing their present position. For now, the State Government has urged the Tamil Nadu fishermen not to cross the international boundary into Sri Lankan waters, whatever the reason.

The Chief Minister has reiterated that the State police has been given "clear instructions to allow only genuine refugees" into Tamil Nadu... Severe action will be taken if any militant tries to sneak in, despite our vigil".

Yet, neither the State Government, nor the Centre, could ensure 100-per cent compliance against a trained and determined terrorist group like the LTTE, which in turn will require to keep the innocent Tamils away from the battle-front, and also provide medical help to injured ranks, if and when war revisited the island-nation in a big way, all over again.

Courtesy Tamil Week