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LTTE still very much alive in Tamil Nadu
The hospitalisation of Tamil Nadu (TN) Chief Minister (CM) Jayaraman Jayalalithaa, and the resultant uncertainties has brought to light one shocking revelation. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the infamous and dreaded terrorist organisation, which was fighting for the formation of an independent Eelam, is alive and a-kicking in India. Senior BJP leader and Member of Parliament, Dr Subramanian Swamy, in a letter to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday, warned that the LTTE was active in TN. The former professor of economics at Harvard University, asked Mr Singh to put the TN legislative assembly in suspended animation and impose the Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA) in all the southern districts of TN, as well as Chennai, for a period of six months.
This is the first time in TN history, a demand of this nature is being made. Interestingly, Dr Swamy’s demand for AFSPA and the revelation, that the LTTE is active in TN, came immediately after the Apollo Hospitals in Chennai issued a release on Thursday night, stating that, Jayalalithaa, who is undergoing treatment in the hospital since September 22, may have to stay in the hospital for a longer period.
Though the hospital release said that Jayalalithaa’s health was progressing well, the panel of doctors attending on her, opined she may have to stay in the hospital for longer period, which is an indication that the CM is not in the best of health. The release also said that Jayalalithaa was on respiratory support system.
Dr Swamy, who has the distinction of being a former member of India’s Cabinet committee on Security affairs (a super Cabinet), said in his statement that, the sleeper cells of Islamic State (IS) functioning in Southern TN has been activated. He was referring to the arrest of more than a dozen IS activists from the State early this week, by the elite National Investigation Agency.
Some members of the coterie around CM Jayalalithaa have been found to be close associates of the LTTE leadership. M Natarajan, husband of Sasikala, the live-in partner of Jayalalithaa, has come out in the open many times, in support of the LTTE. He is credited with the construction of a memorial for slain LTTE chief Veluppilliai Prabhakaran.
The Dravida Kazhakam, Naam Tamilar, MDMD led by Vaiko, are some of the political outfits which survive in TN by flaunting Prabhakaran’s name. Interestingly, all these political outfits including the AIADMK and the DMK, want to release the seven convicts sentenced to life imprisonment, for their role in the 1991 Rajiv Gandhi assassination.
As a fallout of Dr Swamy’s demand, TN governor, C. Vidyasagar Rao summoned the state’s chief secretary and two senior ministers of the Jayalalithaa cabinet, and asked them details of arrangements made for the trouble-free governance of the State.
Intelligence agencies’ sources said that LTTE activists are active in TN. “Though there are no visible arms and ammunition procurement like that of the early 1990s and 2000s, the LTTE has big influence in all spheres of life. They are active in the social and cultural spheres of TN. There are many LTTE volunteers producing and directing Tamil movies to propagate the ideology of the organisation,” said a senior intelligence official.