Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu: Trampling upon each other’s toes
8-July-2012
By Col R Hariharan
Sri Lanka air force personnel who had completed part of their technical training at Air Force Station, Tambaram, Chennai were taken off the course and sent to Bangalore after Ms Jayalalitha, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, raised a hue and cry over their presence in Tamil Nadu. The irrepressible chief minister will no doubt count this as a small victory in her ongoing political confrontation with her bête noir M Karunanidhi of the Dravida Munnetrda Kazagham, a favoured partner of the ruling coalition in New Delhi.
This is not the first time the Tamil Nadu chief minister has used the Tamil issue in Sri Lanka to settle scores with the Congress and DMK. (Knowing the mood in Tamil Nadu, I don’t know why Ministry of Defence continues to get entangled in avoidable controversies over such an issue repeatedly.) Nor it is going to be the last time because the Sri Lanka Tamil issue which was on the sidelines of Tamil Nadu politics has now been brought to centre stage.
With political patronage it is taking strong anti Sri Lanka overtones. Since the Eeelam War IV ended in 2009 coinciding with the parliamentary poll, Ms Jayalalitha has used its adverse fall out on Sri Lankan Tamils as one of the important issues to boost her political space in shaping national affairs – she wants to have a say in shaping India’s Sri Lanka policy although it is in New Delhi’s domain. She has demonstrated it in her other actions also: proposing PA Sangma as a candidate in the presidential poll and protesting against the increasing erosion of state’s powers by the centre by objecting to the creation of the National Counter Terrorism Centre. By such actions she probably hopes to influence government formation in New Delhi if an opportunity arises after the 2014 parliamentary poll.
There are four issues in her Sri Lanka agenda on which she wants New Delhi to act: holding of a referendum for creation of Tamil Eelam, international action against Sri Lanka army personnel and political leaders for alleged war crimes against Tamils, pressurize Sri Lanka for a political solution to bring equity to Tamils, and impose economic embargo on Sri Lanka till it complies.
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8-July-2012
By Col R Hariharan
Sri Lanka air force personnel who had completed part of their technical training at Air Force Station, Tambaram, Chennai were taken off the course and sent to Bangalore after Ms Jayalalitha, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, raised a hue and cry over their presence in Tamil Nadu. The irrepressible chief minister will no doubt count this as a small victory in her ongoing political confrontation with her bête noir M Karunanidhi of the Dravida Munnetrda Kazagham, a favoured partner of the ruling coalition in New Delhi.This is not the first time the Tamil Nadu chief minister has used the Tamil issue in Sri Lanka to settle scores with the Congress and DMK. (Knowing the mood in Tamil Nadu, I don’t know why Ministry of Defence continues to get entangled in avoidable controversies over such an issue repeatedly.) Nor it is going to be the last time because the Sri Lanka Tamil issue which was on the sidelines of Tamil Nadu politics has now been brought to centre stage.
With political patronage it is taking strong anti Sri Lanka overtones. Since the Eeelam War IV ended in 2009 coinciding with the parliamentary poll, Ms Jayalalitha has used its adverse fall out on Sri Lankan Tamils as one of the important issues to boost her political space in shaping national affairs – she wants to have a say in shaping India’s Sri Lanka policy although it is in New Delhi’s domain. She has demonstrated it in her other actions also: proposing PA Sangma as a candidate in the presidential poll and protesting against the increasing erosion of state’s powers by the centre by objecting to the creation of the National Counter Terrorism Centre. By such actions she probably hopes to influence government formation in New Delhi if an opportunity arises after the 2014 parliamentary poll.
There are four issues in her Sri Lanka agenda on which she wants New Delhi to act: holding of a referendum for creation of Tamil Eelam, international action against Sri Lanka army personnel and political leaders for alleged war crimes against Tamils, pressurize Sri Lanka for a political solution to bring equity to Tamils, and impose economic embargo on Sri Lanka till it complies.
Full Story>>>
