For a second it seemed as if we were treading the streets of LTTE held Jaffna. It is only with a sense of disturbing incredulity that one is forced to believe that the scene actually belonged closer home, to our good old Chennai, capital of Greater Eelam that never was. Frenzied rallyists wielding placards, shouting slogans glorifying Rajiv’s assassins and even holding aloft their photographs, made one wonder how at all this motivated mob was first allowed to hit the streets, let alone parade through them.
Perhaps, a few rational hearts in high places still bleed for a cause that can no longer be openly espoused. Old habits never die and in any case, they can be camouflaged under yellow towels. In the event, the rally passed off very peacefully and quite securely too. It is only the likes of Rajiv who have to feel insecure in their own land.
There is absolutely no problem for those whose mercenary souls have already migrated to foreign lands, sans passport or visa. A curious cocktail of democracy, freedom of expression, official insensitivity and covert political patronage have for long ensured that such activists can carry on their mission with gay abandon!
The familiar figure of the chief protagonist, Nedumaran, at the head of the procession evoked a nostalgic flashback to twenty years back, when the same man got his skull damaged, and then bandaged, when he poked his head in the path of a stone intended for Indira Gandhi at the Madurai Railway Station.
He became a hero overnight as the chivalrous saviour of India’s hope and since then Nedumaran has come a long way, ending up now in the streets of Chennai for a cause that is downright reprehensible. Of course, these days no one bothers to pelt stones in his direction for two reasons: Very few know him and secondly, those who know him dare not cross his path, in genuine consideration of the might of his sponsors. And ironically, the man who readily offered his head for the ‘family’ is now in the forefront seeking clemency for the assassins of that family’s scion.
Apart from the usual suspects, there was no dearth of takers for this holy cause with a wide spectrum of people ranging from out of work politicians to human rights activists throwing in their wieight behind those tell-tale photographs. Of course, it is possible that a few of the eminents would have just joined the procession out of habit in a sort of Pavlovian response to the sight, sound and smell of political limelight.
But the question that begs a straight answer is why the sudden upsurge of sympathy for those awaiting the death penalty and the euphoric debates on the pros and cons of capital punishment when quite a few criminals have made it to the other world through the hangman’s noose in the last few years. Let alone such VIP assassins as Godse or Beant Singh, there was our very prolific Auto Shankar who died virtually unsung by these champions of ‘humanity’, as they have christened themselves.
Why did not Nedumaran and his cohorts deem it necessary to take out rallies…of course, with the appropriate photographs…in support of clemency for Auto Shankar, who is by no means a lesser mortal, his being a ‘life’ too?
Well, you and I and surely Nedumaran too, know that that would not have been possible nor necessary, for the current rallyists–responsible souls that they are– never identified with causes for which that eminent serial killer lived and died. But Rajiv’s assassins are different in that they are martyrs who died or are about to die for a ‘cause’.
In a way the rallyists were engaged in an infructuous exercise because those awaiting death would have very gladly opted to perish along with Rajiv, if only providence and proximity had obliged. Indeed, they would have deemed it an honour, given their group’s utter disregard for human life and a chilling preference for violent self-destruction.
Again, the killers themselves were never coy about their hatred for Rajiv, who had also unwittingly signed his own death warrant the day he inked the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord. The rallyists could not have taken to the streets so passionately had they also not seen eye to eye with the ‘imminent logic’ behind Rajiv’s assassination which was deemed a compulsion for the survival of their sponsors.
Frankly, one cannot be faulted for concluding that Nedumaran & Co feel that Rajiv’s assassination was justified and as a corollary, his killers have to be granted clemency! To put it bluntly, or rather, to call a gun a gun, the banner-bearers at the rally care a hoot about capital punishment, so long as it is not meted out to one of their ilk who was only doing his duty! Period!
And that precisely is the sinister detail about this sudden groundswell of support albeit amidst a few ingrained groups who deem it their natural obligation to raise the banner of solidarity with killers who were actually targetting the nation and challenging its integrity by murdering Rajiv.
Though it is obvious that only liberal intakes of sodium chloride can evoke such a deluge of gratitude and camaraderie, it is a matter of grave concern that the salty stuff dished out by foreign ultras to their very Indian bretheren has found several consumers spanning a large spectrum. Apart from the vociferous sloganeers who thronged the procession in defence of ‘humanity’, there also appears to be several non-rallyists who had found common cause with the pro-clemency school of thought.
While loose canons like Ramadoss deem it a privilege to flaunt their ‘overseas connections’, the infectious fad has not spared the rational thalaivans too, who prefer to maintain a non-committal but studied stand on the issue though it is not difficult to guess which shore of Palk Straits seems greener for them.
If the rallyists do achieve their goal of getting the death penalties commuted to life sentences, given the trend, one can expect them to take to the streets again, this time demanding that the prisoners be released– to go back to their old ways– on the first auspicious day that comes by, say, even Rajiv’s Birthday! That would be a wonderful demonstration of Indian humanity in all its glory that can pale even Sonia’s concern for impending orphans!
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