What was all the while clandestine is official now, with none less than the CM of the state himself acknowledging it in his own style — by presenting yellow shawls! They are all now one big happy family relishing their last laugh and wallowing in all the attention and appreciation that is flowing their way unabated.
And I am not alluding, as you may all believe, to actor Rajkumar’s kith and kin who, in any case, must be actually more relieved than happy to have their revered annavuru back in their midst, shipshape. Rather, the reference is to Nedumaran’s awesome family tree, the roots of which are firmly implanted in the northern part of the island across the palk straits, watered and nurtured by wanted criminals of the sovereign State of India, and extending into this country, its leafy shades –or is it shady leaves? — to all those sharing their common dream, a dream greater than even Eelam.
And my word, what a huge family it is? Nedumaran, the local karta, it appears now, was just the visible tip of the iceberg, while a whole lot of active, explosive, well connected members bided their time underneath, or rather, underground. They have all now surfaced, not to be booked, mind you, under the national security laws of the country as they deserve to be, but to take their ‘rightful’ place in the hall of fame, which has been surrendered to them by an inept, impotent and a blissfully ignorant, but all the same, a rational regime.
Kolathur Manis, Shanmugasundarams, Ranganathans, Dr. Bhanus and we know not who else, but the network is indeed incredible, their modus operandi, ingenius and their veil of secrecy, impenetrable. Characters who were once hunted and hounded for their dubious role in one of the worst crimes of the century are now heroes with each having played his or her part to perfection in the current drama as they did ten years earlier when Rajiv was shredded.
Obviously, from Rajiv to Rajkumar, little has changed for them with all their criminal links, instincts and contacts remaining intact over the decade and if anything only gaining in strength and substance. Alas, now they have been imparted sanction and credence too, what with the State itself cedeing its lawful obligations to the whims and diktats of self-confessed separatists who deem any means as justified to achieve their aowed goals.
And how easily, Nedumaran and Co have engineered this transfer of power? Opportunity was not just knocking, but literally banging on his door, when V sought him out to play a role in the sordid affair. The comic interludes of the earlier emissary having drawn a blank with V, who had by now quit poaching and taken to preaching, the stage was set for a higher level of intellectual interaction that the eminent editor was incapable of.
The journo could see only moustache to moustache with V, but Nedumaran, with all his commitment to Tamil nationalism and such other fads , could rise a little above and see eye-to-eye! Also V’s new found patrons were no strangers to Nedumaran and differed only in methods and not in their shared madness. And so it was that the ideal rogue and the idealogue became comrades in arms and possibly, ammunition too, for the cause of Tamil and Tamilians, particularly those behind bars.
But when Nedumaran’s dubious links were raked up, as expected, it offered yet another opportunity to him, this time to gain wide-spread acceptability for his candidature. His feigned sulk had its desired impact with every VIP in town lining up in front of his house, pleading and cajoling him to take up the errand.
None less than the Defence Minister of the land, who allegedly used all his past connections (oh, god!), had to speak to him to make him undertake the trek, which in any case he would have, for reasons that were only too apparent. Why should a person, who claims to be driven by humanitarian motives, take umbrage at the remarks of his critics?
Is the milk of human kindness so thin that it could evaporate so easily? Clearly Nedumaran wanted as large a spectrum of sanction as he could extract and he certainly got much more than the expected pound of flesh. Even the Almighty’s local rep, Arunachalam was there to thank him!
Unfortunately, the hype and halo that has now engulfed Nedumaran has also brought into the limelight, his rabid views on Tamil nationalism besides offering him extensive media bandwidth to air them.The man promptly has gone to town in every available fora, harangueing non-stop on themes that clearly violate national integrity and security, but who would dare raise a finger against him now?
Is he not a messiah who delivered, when even the lawfully elected governments and its chosen emissaries failed to even scratch the surface? Veerappan has turned out to be a wonderful window for men of Nedumaran’s ilk to reach out to the world at large as there was a huge audience always staying tuned to the brigand’s wavelength.
And for V, who’s flesh has turned weak owing to relentlessly hacking people, it was an opportunity that his spirit has been yearning which also incidentally will improve his status from being wanted under the IPC to being under the purview of NSA, a well deserved promotio. Anyway, it does not need much of a training to mouth platitudes on chauvnistic lines and V, known for imitating animal sounds to perfection, could parrot this with ease.
Evidently, V has achieved for Nedumaran what endless press releases to newspaper offices which only found their way to the nearest dustbin, unopened and unread, could not achieve. Surely, Nedumaran wouldn’t want the STF on V’s trail so early, till atleast he had had his fill! In fact, he has just begun.
And so it happened, the grand convergence of the exponents of extremism with the champion of crime, of die-hard preachers of separitism with petty poachers of forest wealth, of mis-guided chauvnism with unadulterated criminalism and of fugitives of various genre with one another in the unguarded thickets of the western ghats.
The convergence, undoubtedly, represents a perfect made-for-each-other scenario. There is brain and there is brawn. There are master-minds and merceneries too. There is no dearth for either guts or guns. If the manic killer could imbibe a bit of ‘tamil spirit’, so could the mentors have some criminality rub on them.
The stage, it appears, is clearly set for a larger of dose of violence and increased terrorist avtivity owing to this convergence, but can anyone complain? Afterall, is it not our own elected government and its leaders who, by abdicating their lawful duties, invited the devils to rule over our fate? Obviously, It is not the idle minds alone, but even idle governments could become devil’s workshop. Only, God can save Tamilnadu from its ‘saviours’!
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