Karunanidhi defines Tamil Nadu role in
Sri Lanka [Tuesday, June 6, 2006 -
10.00 GMT]
(Reproduced from
Indianews.com)
New Delhi - In one stroke
of a sentence, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi has made
it clear that he has no intention of whipping up passions over violence
in Sri Lanka or the refugee flow from that country to his state.
On May 25, Karunanidhi, freshly
elected to power in Tamil Nadu, home to the largest concentration of
Tamils in the world, held a 15-minute one-to-one meeting with Arumugam
Thondaman, leader of the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) and a special
envoy of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
On Monday, after calling on Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh and separately meeting Congress president Sonia
Gandhi in New Delhi, Karunanidhi revealed to reporters what he had told
Thondaman: ‘The central government’s policy (on Sri Lanka) will be the
state government’s policy.’
This is what he said. What he
left unsaid was: if New Delhi considers the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE) a terrorist outfit or draws a distinction between the Tamil
people and the Tigers, then that will be Tamil Nadu’s view too.
In other words, unlike the 1980s
when Karunanidhi competed with his arch rival and AIADMK founder leader
M.G. Ramachandran in expressing support to the Tamil cause, Tamil Nadu
will now let New Delhi frame and execute India’s Sri Lanka policy.
Although Tamil Nadu’s two
dominant parties, the DMK and AIADMK, had stopped supporting the LTTE
after the 1991 assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, this
is the first time Karunanidhi is publicly making his stand so
forthrightly clear. It also shows his confidence level and his
understanding of the popular psyche in Tamil Nadu.
This is significant and comes as
escalating violence in Sri Lanka is sending a fresh wave of Tamils into
Tamil Nadu as refugees and after pro-LTTE Tamil politicians in the
island hailed Karunanidhi following his election victory in May.
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Last Updated
Date: June 6, 2006 -10.00 GMT |
