Parsing Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s statement on Friday, asking the government of Sri Lanka to continue the ceasefire in the no-fire zone in northern Sri Lanka was not particularly hard.
India pointedly did not seek a general ceasefire: only in the no fire zone. Where the appeal was coming from was also clear. On Thursday, a four-member team of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in Delhi, led by R Sambandan, met National Security Adviser M. K. Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon, seeking India’s intervention in the conflict in Sri Lanka.
The Foreign Minister statement was India’s response to the TNA plea. Mr. Mukherjee made it quite clear that India considered the Tamils of Sri Lanka citizens of that country. However, he also said India wanted to continue to actively help the civilian population with medical relief.
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| Vaiko and Jayalalithaa addressing a joint news conference in Tamil Nadu |
In order to protect internally displaced persons (IDPs) from the the fighting, the halt of hostilities over the Sinhala and Tamil New Year must be continued, he said.
As the war drags on in north Sri Lanka, so does a general election in India. Passions are high and voices are raised. Decibel levels are especially high in Tamil Nadu, where an election is due on May 13, and the results will be out on May 16. The government statements must be seen against this background.
Statements and counterstatements in the course of the campaign have a certain predictability about them. V. Gopalaswamy (Vaiko), self-proclaimed conduit between LTTE chief Prabhakaran and India, has warned that “rivers of blood” will flow if anything happened to Prabhakaran.
His statement is rather odd, because the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)-led alliance, of which he is a part, subscribes to no such sentiment, and leader Jayalalithaa’s antipathy to Prabhakaran is well known (she is given the highest level of security –Z plus) because of a threat to her life from the LTTE.
Equally disingenuous are the statements of the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK): for four years and 11 months, the PMK was part of the central government and found no fault with India’s Sri Lanka policy. Now, with the elections on, it has suddenly decided to harp on “genocide” in the North.
The Congress Party is also trying to influence the course of the war in the North, although its statements are more nuanced.
Home Minister P. Chidambaram, fighting the election from Sivaganga, said the government of India had decided to ask for a ceasefire in Sri Lanka immediately.
“It [the ceasefire] is not a demand or an appeal but a need of the government of India,” he said, presumably referring to the flow of refugees. Interestingly, he appeared to endorse the de-merger of the North and East when he said Tamils should be given equal rights in all respects. “A separate state could be formed for the Tamils. If needed, there could be two states,” he is quoted as having said.
The fact is, there may be some amount of public sympathy about the killing of Tamils in the North, but there are many issues in Tamil Nadu itself that take precedence in the election.
The crisis in Karunanidhi’s family and the anxiety over forging alliances in both DMK and AIADMK are less overt and public. But development issues in Tamil Nadu – water, power, roads – are being hotly debated. Parts of Tamil Nadu go without electricity for up to 14 hours at a stretch.
The state is industrialised – which was a boon until the slowdown and retrenchments began to take place, especially in export hubs such as Tiruppur. Those who went to Gulf countries are returning without jobs/, and having earned much less than expected. There is no dearth of problems: agrarian distress, especially the plight of sugarcane farmers in a global glut in sugar production and the resultant crash in the global sugar prices.
Against this background, the crisis in north Sri Lanka is like a boil on the side: painful only when touched. This is election time so a lot of people want to keep touching it. New Delhi keeps playing a defensive bat to prevent the boil from getting inflamed. But Sri Lanka is not the central election issue in Tamil Nadu – certainly not.
Lanka issue dominates AIADMK manifesto
Chennai (PTI): Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK in its election manifesto on Thursday night said if devolution of powers in Tamil-dominated provinces of Sri Lanka failed to give equal status to Tamils it would press for a "separate Eelam".
"Tamils should be accorded equal status with the Sinhala majority with devolution of administrative power in the Tamil-dominated provinces of Sri Lanka," the manifesto, released during AIADMK-led front's election campaign here, said.
It said, "If these moves fail, then AIADMK will press for a separate state of Eelam to ensure that Tamils in the island live a life of dignity."
It called for an immediate cessation of war between Sri Lankan Army and LTTE in northern parts of the island nation and an immediate end to "killings" of civilian Tamil population.
A grant of Rs 10,000 crore would be provided for the restoration and development of the Tamil areas of Sri Lanka after the devolution was completed, it promised.
The manifesto, released by Jayalalithaa, said AIADMK would work for stringent anti-terrorism law with adequate safeguards to prevent misuse, setting up of commando units in every state, and initiate dialogue and a special package to address genuine demands of Naxalites if they lay down arms.
It said the defence budget would be increased and India's "antiquated war machinery" modernised on a war footing.
On Ram temple issue, AIADMK said it would seek to solve it through negotiations involving all the parties concerned.
"If such an initiative fails, the decision of the apex court on the matter shall be deemed final and respected". – (PTI) |
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