Self-respect and rationalism are expendable ideologies. If found inconvenient they can always be sacrificed at the altar of political expediency. The DMK and its leader are now in the grip of one such predicament and have typically sought to give their cherished ideals a silent burial.
The rational leader and a national daily have made a valiant attempt to bury the LTTE pumpkin in a pot of half baked rice of disinformation and distortions. The helpful interview is full of leading questions and it appears that the CM ‘invited’ the interviewer more to keep company rather than to ask questions. On the contrary it was the interviewee who was raising the questions with the interviewer coming out with helpful tips and reminders on what happened when. Still the ‘arrangement’ did succeed in presenting the point of view of the man who has been, to quote the CM, sorry, the interviewer, more sinned against than sinning, though Justice Jain would beg to differ. However the striking point is that the sole leader of the Tamil race thought it fit to seek the patronage of the media, of which he still claims to be a member, to bail him out. And so it is Mohammad who went to the mountain, eventually. To hell with self-respect, that too when the ship is sinking.
The next casualty of course is rationalism. To put it bluntly the CM’s averments defy logic and flies in the face of established facts. Nor do they lay claim to consistency which is another hallmark of a rational mind. Short of saying that he had never heard of the LTTE, the CM goes hammer and tongs on his erstwhile partners in a shared dream of a ‘Larger home’. Obviously the perils of tiger riding have dawned on the riders a bit too late. The blatant and shabby attempt by the CM is only to get himself disentangled from the LTTE web because the embrace has now become a strangle-hold and is slowly but surely tending towards taking the life out of the party, for the second time.
The prospect of doom now looms large which explains the frantic attempts at face saving through friendly media to drive home the ‘truth’ that the DMK regime was actually averse to militancy and whatever acts it committed were at the behest of the Centre and only in continuation of the national policy. The torrent of lament, however, fails miserably to evoke any understanding or sympathy for the simple reason that too much blood already has flown under the bridge.
It is nobody’s case that the Central government under Indira and Rajiv and the state under MGR did not help the LTTE. Nor does former Chief Minister Ms. Jayalalitha deny that she issued statement calling for dialogue with Prabhakaran. Even the Jain panel reportedly dwells on the issue at length. But it is vital to draw a line between the above and the DMK’s support which is what the Jain report has done.
There was some logic behind the Centre wooing the LTTE for talks. The LTTE was the major warring group and after the Accord, the only warring group. It, therefore, held the key to peace in the strife torn island which cannot be achieved unless the LTTE is made to come to the negotiating table. There was basically nothing wrong in making peace overtures to the LTTE even while the IPKF was fighting them, because the intent was to put a stop to the blood letting. War and diplomacy to end the war can go on side by side, and history is replete with such instances. But the same cannot be said of the DMK’s dalliance. The Jain report, in fact, says that though the LTTE and the other militant groups did receive encouragement from the government of India and the Tamilnadu government, it was only after the DMK took over the reins of power in 1989 that the LTTE slowly began to consolidate its clandestine activities in the State.
Also, it would be of interest to know if the CM was towing the Centre’s line when he refused to receive the IPKF, when they landed in Madras after the operations were called off. The Jain report itself has called the CM’s bluff on this count. The panel has reportedly referred to the CM’s assurance to the then External Affairs Minister V.C.Shukla in 1991 that he would go by the national policy that the Indian territory would not be used for subversive activities by any other country. On this the Justice is said to have commented that Karunanidhi’s above statement do not’ appear to be correct’ viewed in the light of the statements of some top ranking LTTE cadres and other documentary evidence in the form of Intelligence Bureau reports etc on record.
Therefore, Karunanidhi’s attempt to equate his and the DMK regime’s acts of connivance to suggestions for peace from other leaders is nothing but a vain bid to divert the issue. Clearly DMK’s affinity to the LTTE transcended the realms of sympathy and solidarity and sought to tread on the dangerous territory of anti-nationalism. To suggest that they did it unwittingly, only to advance the cause of the Tamils and they were unaware of the LTTE’s potential for mischief is nothing but an exercise in deception. Such a naivety is indeed unbecoming of the paragons of rationalism. But then such hypocrisy is also the quintessence of their brand of politics.
Winston Churchill said that the at times of war truth has to be defended by a bodyguard of lies. It is always wartime for the DMK, it appears for, how else can one explain the pack of unadulterated, well orchestrated lies that have been let loose through a condescending media. Some statements are clearly outrageous, like for instance the suggestion that the DMK only had a soft corner for the LTTE, like several others. The Jain report, on the contrary vouches for the fact that softness was an infectious disease with the DMK, so infectious that it even afflicted the State police and the official machinery, which preferred to look the other way when the militants prospered. The softness was so all pervading that the militants could operate with impunity and kill at will and still get away only to come back for more blood.
We can now expect a few more such salvos from the ‘armoury of rationalism’. For instance there may even be a suggestion that by inviting the LTTE for talks Rajiv invited his death and so it is a case of suicide! Or that Justice Jain did not belong ‘their’ lot and hence the accusations. Who knows to what depths panic would make them stoop.
We do understand the CM’s anguish at the indictment, despite his deposition which he expected to be taken at face value, just as a national daily has now done. But we understand Justice Jain even better.
e-mail the writer at [email protected]