A government that cannot protect its people has no right to rule
– L.K. Advani, Home Minister
This is precisely what we, in Tamilnadu, have been crying ourselves hoarse over ever since religious fanatics took control of the State to bomb at will. And it is not just coincidence that the State slipped into their grip immediately after the advent of the DMK government.
One close look at the dubious history of the ruling party would have made the fact of their affinity to and acquiescence of such elements apparent. From pioneering pillage, as documented by Justice Sarkaria, to championing the cause of the blood thirsty Tigers and finally gravitating to tolerance of religious fanatics backed by the nation’s enemy the DMK has indeed grown with the trends in criminal chronology of the world.
If corruption today is a cottage industry, the DMK was the torchbearer, having perfected it to scientific precision. There are yet to be parallels, and thankfully so, for a government of the State in a sovereign land openly abetting and allowing roomspace to foreign militants even when the country itself was fighting those very same terrorist groups across the shores. The DMK government of 1989 holds this unique record.
And in no other State barring Kashmir have the Pakistani sponsored terrorists infiltrated as they have in Tamilnadu. Pray, how and when did this happen? To be precise, from the moment the DMK regime, in a fit of misplaced minority concerns, released a score of such elements who were jailed by the earlier government on considerations of national security.
As a corollary, it follows that the ruling party never entertained such concerns and their election promise of releasing them was deemed as more important than the oath taken at the time of assuming office. It was these very same elements and several others, allowed to move about freely in the State, who came back to bombard Kovai. Just as a Sivarasan, who escaped after killing Padmanabha and 14 others, under the ‘watchful’ eyes of the then DMK regime came back to mastermind Rajiv’s assassination.
By Advani’s standards as evident from his latest bout of conscientious outbursts, the DMK regime should have been despatched to oblivion immediately after the BJP came to power. The Kovai blasts and the events leading to them can neither be simply wished away nor whitewashed by White Papers. For it was not merely a case of casual inaction, but an even greater offence of criminal negligence as borne out by overwhelming evidence of the DMK’s affinity to those elements that perpetrated the outrage.
The BJP itself is in possession of well documented facts about the extent of ISI infiltration into the State and the Home Minister himself was a witness to what happened in Kovai, where it was he who was targetted. But is it not strange that such a Home Minister, a survivor of the blasts and a sworn Pak-baiter, has not thought it fit to make even a single visit to this troubled State which by his own party’s admission and his own knowledge, has long back become the backyard of Pakistani-backed terrorists?
Does the HM, who lands in Kashimr or Punjab in no time on hearing a single gunshot, feel it unwarranted to visit the State where bomb blasts triggered by the nation’s enemy have become the order of the day? If the lawless land of Laloo and the Bengal behind the CPI(M)’s iron curtain merit the Home ministry’s attention, does not Tamilnadu under the DMK, the traditional playground of terrorists of the likes of LTTE, Al-Umma et al, evoke even an iota of concern in Advani’s scheme of things?
Or is he too committing the familiar folly of ignoring whatever happens in India beyond the Vindhyas? But then, is it not a fact that the very lifeline to his government originates from this region? The BJP’s convoluted logic on the use of Art.356 and the differing voices emanating from its leaders vis-a-vis AIADMK only point to a disconcerting lack of cohesion within the ruling party. The use of Art.356, thanks to the BJP’s dithering, has become a topic of such a hot political debate that the real merits of the demand for dismissal of the DMK government have been totally lost sight of.
Advani’s inaction on the TN front neither serves the nation’s interest nor his and his party’s enlightened self-interest. The nation has already paid a heavy price in the form of precious lives, property and its security. It is probably the time for BJP to pay a price if they do not watch out. That is, assuming that it is not already too late!
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