THE PLIGHT OF PAKISTAN-2

The Malakand division in the North West Frontier Province, the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan, is known for its skying resort (at Malam Jabba in the Swat valley) and emerald mines. However, the region has been in the news today for some other reason. For the last two and half years it has been a hot bed of terrorist activities of the Taliban.
The Taliban earned the support of the local people by acting against the local landlords. They also allowed the people to mine emerald on condition that they must give one third of what they take to the Taliban. Earlier the government had the monopoly of the emerald mines in the region. Having won the support of the locals, the Taliban sought to consolidate its position there and to spread out into Pakistan slowly and gradually. The Pakistani army and the government who were aware of the developments looked the other way .However, on 17 February 2009; the ANP led provincial government signed an agreement with Tehreeke Nifaze Shariate Mohammadi (TNSM). What authority Sufi Mohammad enjoyed to sign an agreement on behalf of the people of the Swat is not known .As per the terms of the agreement the Taliban won the right to introduce Shariah in the Malkand Division. The Peshawar High Court will act as Darul Qaza (Shariah appellate court). According to the terms of the ‘Malakand Accord’ the government is to withdraw the army from Swat. The government also agreed to release the Taliban prisoners and revoke the criminal proceedings against them. The Taliban on its part agreed not to unleash violence to achieve its goal. It also agreed not to spread out into the adjoining areas. On 14th Aprilthe National Assembly of Pakistan endorsed the agreement The President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari then put his signature to the regulations..
Journalists, who visited the area after the accord was signed, reported that the valley was peaceful. The curfew was lifted and people began to go out. The shops were open till midnight. But it was an uneasy calm. Though the shops were open women were conspicuous by their absence.
The Pakistani Prime Minister, Yousuf Raza Gilanisaid, said on 17 April that “Talibanisation or militancy or terrorism is a threat for the country and we all have to fight extremism and terrorism jointly”. He also said that the strategy to fight terrorism included political dialogue, development and deterrence.
The Taliban later moved on to the neighboring areas such as Buner and Shangia though it had agreed to remain in Swat and not to spread out. When the Western nations expressed alarm at the developments, the Taliban said that they had entered the area before they signed the agreement and now after the agreement has been signed they are pulling out of the areas. The decision to withdraw was, it was reported, arrived at a meeting between Qari Muhammad Khan, Muslim Khan, both Taliban leaders and Syed Muhammed Javed, the Divisional Commissioner of the Malakand region. However, Ashfag Kayani, the chief of Pakistan Army declared that the Pakistani army is “determined to root out the menace of terrorism from society”. The Prime Minister said in the National Assembly that “If anyone casts an evil eye on Pakistan, it will be over our dead bodies”.
Within a couple days the army was forced to start its operation. On 26 April the army launched attacks on the rebels’ positions at Islampura, and Lal Quila in Dir districts. The army used Gunship helicopters to pound the militant camps. The paramilitary frontier corps and army troops also took part in the operations. People are leaving the areas en masse.
Under intense pressure from America the Pakistani authorities intensified their firth with the Taliban. The New York Times reported that Pakistan had moved thousands of its troops from the Indian border to the western border with Afghanistan.
On 2 May, the frontier government announced “The North West Province government announces the setting up of Darul Qaza, or an Islamic appellate court in Malakand”.Mian Iftikhar Hussain told reporters that two judges had been appointed to serve on the court and with that the government has kept its promise. However, the Pakistani troops continued their attacks against the Taliban.
On 4 May a spokesman of the Taliban announced that the Taliban had ‘dissolved’ the peace deal with the Frontier government. The government of Pakistan asked the people of Mingora, the main town of Swat, to vacate the area which was under the control of the Taliban. Heavily armed Taliban fighters moved about the roads and attacked army personnel, whenever they spotted them. They bombed the police stations, demolished the schools (reports say about 200 schools), took away medicines and equipments from the hospitals and occupied the residences of the locals. Just before Zardari, the President left for the US for a meeting with Obama, Pakistan army launched a heavy attack on the rebel forces.
By 6 May people began to stream out of the area not to get caught in the cross firing. The army claimed to have killed 35 militants. The military spokesman also spoke about some civilian casualties. The chief administrator told reporters that “More than 40000 have migrated from Mingora”.
When the goings became really tough for the militants, Taliabn vowed to ‘eliminate Zardari and Gilani’. The News daily reported a Taliban commander as having said that “We thought that being a member of a religious family, Gilani will support our demand of implementing Sharia in the Malkand division but instead he has announced an all-out war against us”. It was the address Gilani gave to the nation on 7th May over the television that angered the Taliban. Gilani had said that the army would wipe out Taliban from Swat and the adjoining areas. The commander said that they had planned to “eliminate the top leaders of the ruling alliance, including the President, Prime Minister and their close family members and aides”.
The Pakistan President on 9th May declared that India is not a threat to Pakistan. Zardari was the first Pakistani ruler to say that India was not a threat to Pakistan for the first time. He said in a television interview “I have always considered India a neighbour with which we want to improve our relationship”. He sounded serious when he spoke, though he must have said that under pressure from America. It is believed that President Obama and the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had urged Zardari not to view India as an enemy and to gather all the might of his country to fight the terrorists in Pakistan. He went on to say “We have had some cold times and we have had some hard times with them. We have gone to war thrice, but democracies are always trying to improve relationships”. He was responding to the question, which was the greatest threat to Pakistan, the militants or India.
Meanwhile the Human Rights Watch expressed concerns about the displacement of the civilians from Mingora. It stated that the Taliban has been using people as ‘human shields’. It also said, Pakistan “appeared to have taken insufficient precautionary measures in aerial and artillery attacks that have caused a high loss of civilian life”. According to the UN refugee agency, about 1.45million people have been displaced since May 2.
On May 21, the House of Foreign Affairs Committee of the US approved The Pakistan Enduring Assistance and Cooperation Enhancement Peace Act 2009. According to the act America decided to give $1.5 billion annually to Pakistan on condition that Pakistan would not allow its territory to be used by the militants to carry out terrorist activities against the neighbouring countries.

These are the events as they unfolded in and around the Frontier area between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The real questions are will America be able to wipe out the menace of Taliban? Can they trust Pakistan to help them achieve their goal? Or will Pakistan use the present crisis as an excuse to amass arms to fight India?

THE NEW CABINET

The results of the 15th Lok Sabha elections have come out. The ruling UPA has come back to power. Sonia Gandhi, the Chairman of the Congress Party has made it clear again that Dr. Manmohan Singh will be the next Prime Minister. It has also been reported that the Congress will keep all the important portfolios such as Finance, Home, Defense, Foreign policy. There is also a possibility of Mr.Rahul Gandhi finding a berth in the council of ministers. As of now it is not clear how many new faces will be there or how many of the old hats will be out. The NDA which was expected to come to power by some has not been able to improve its performance as expected.Of course they have improved their tally without the TDP and the JDU. The most pitiable plight is that of the Left parties. The third Front they cobbled up in the 11th hour has got nothing to show off. Not only that the CPM has received a severe jolt. It has been made to bite the dust in Kerala and West Bengal its fortresses. A visibly up set Prakash Karat said that they admit defeat and will look into the issue soon.
Dr. Manmohan Singh has again sworn in as the Prime Minister.Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan are not in the cabinet.The D.M.K.has demanded six ministries in the cabinet. It is to be seen what Manmohan Singh is going pacify the DMK.And the people are anxious to know the details of the MPs and the ministers. It is hoped that there will not be any bargaining and horse trading this time. All the same Manmohan Singh will have to satisfy the aspirations of the different groups in the party as he will need the whole hearted support of all his ministers to carry on.
Factionalism is the hall mark of almost all our political parties. There are many leaders in a party, who are not happy with what the leaders at the top do. To influence the leaders at the top, the ‘leaders’ at the bottom form groups with their own men. These groups bargain for seats, constituencies and candidates of their choice. More often than not, a candidate is decided after prolonged quarrels among the groups. Thus the candidate owes his candidature to his group. He is selected not for his education or efficiency or for his readiness to serve the people at large. He is selected for his readiness to work for the interests of the group.
Such candidates will not be able to function as the representatives of the people, keeping the interests of the country always in mind. They have to keep the interests of their groups in their minds. Thus they cease to be the representatives of the people and become the representatives of groups and parties. Apart from these issues, how many of our candidates represent us? In what sense do they represent us? These days it is taken for granted that the MLA’s and MP’s are to take care of their own constituencies alone. What if a particular issue that will benefit a particular area proves harmful to another? As per the current wisdom people belonging to one area need not to bother about the impact of the issue on the country as a whole. According to this view we are to elect a person who fights for our interests irrespective of its consequences for the nation as a whole.
I do not subscribe to this view about our representatives at all. I would rather subscribe to the views of Edmund Burke, who always maintained that the representative must have the interest of the nation as a whole in his mind. It should be the guiding principle of each and every legislator .Burke supported the cause of the Irish people in the British parliament. He stood for the cause of the Americans at another time. And he was accused of being an anti-national. Nevertheless he did not change his views. He told the people of Bristol who had elected him as their representative that “Certainly gentlemen, it ought to be the happiness and glory of a representative to live in the strictest union, the closest correspondence, and the most unreserved communication with his constituents. Their wishes ought to have great weight with him, their opinion, high respect; their businesses, unremitted attention. It is his duty to sacrifice his repose, his pleasures, his satisfactions, to theirs; and above all, ever, and in all cases, to prefer their interests to his own”. But what he says after that is the point that we must bear in our mind. He continued, “But his unbiased opinion, his mature judgment, his enlightened conscience, he ought not sacrifice to you., to any man, or to any set of men living. These he does not derive from your pleasure, no, nor from the law and the constitution. They are a trust form Providence for abuse of which he is deeply answerable. Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment, and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifice it to your opinion”

THE PLIGHT OF PAKISTAN-1

At last Joe Biden, the Vice President of the US has publicly described Pakistan a “badly fractured country”. He was referring to what Pakistan has become today. Who wields the political power in Pakistan today is anybodies guess. Whoever it is, it is clear that they have no idea as to how to steer the country out of anarchy. The state has not been able to contain the bomb explosions and the suicide attacks that has become almost the order of the day. The army seems to be waiting for a chance to take over the country again.
Indeed when Nawas Sherif and Asif Ali Zardari joined hands to overthrow Musharraf they had nothing in common except their hatred for the military ruler. Indeed it raised the expectations of the people. Once they dethroned Musharraf, differences surfaced one by one. Once Zardari became the President, he began to ignore, at times to snub Sheriff. At last Sheriff pulled out of the coalition and took the fight to the streets. The army served a warning and advised Zardari to come to terms with Sherif. America also exerted pressure on Pakistan to accommodate Sheriff. Finally Zardari reinstated Ifthikar Chaudhry the former Supreme Court judge as demanded by Sherif. By that time the damage had been done. However a temporary truce came into effect. But things have not improved much after that. There has been no let up in the explosions and suicide attacks. The ‘peace accord’ the Pakistan government signed with the Taliban betrays the inability or lack of will on the part of the Pakistan government.
Instead of taking steps to deal with the deteriorating situation, Pakistan has been blaming its neighbours, especially India for the chaos. Last week Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State, America, asked the Pakistan government to take stern action against the Taliban elements in its soil. She also said that the US is aware of the lack of will on the part of the Pakistanis to act against Taliban. By signing a peace accord with the Taliban, to bring peace to the Swat Valley, the Pakistan government legitimized the Taliban. However under pressure from Obama the Pak authorities launched a heavy attack on the Taliban which on its part declared that the peace accord was no more valid.
And Taliban on its part has introduced its version of Sharia in the region. Women and girls have been ordered to stay in and not to venture out. Many shops especially music shops that Taliban think ‘unislamic’ have been shut down. Girls are not allowed to attend schools. They have also destroyed many schools in the valley. They do not allow women to go out even to buy provisions.
What has happened to Pakistan? Jinnah, the father of Pakistan, had stated in the Constituent Assembly “It (religion) has nothing to with the business of the state…. There is no discrimination, no distinction between one community and another. We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one State”. He claimed “you will find that in course of time Hindus will cease to be Hindus and Muslims will cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual but in the political sense as the citizens of the nation”. However it must be kept in mind what the same Jinnah, had said before the creation of Pakistan, to a journalist who asked him what was the basic principles of the State of Pakistan, He said “In five words”: ‘the Muslims are a nation’”. Elaborating the principles he said “Islam is not merely a religious doctrine but a realistic and practical code of conduct. I am thinking in terms of life, of everything important in life”. In spite of Jinnah’s comment, the Constituent Assembly stated “the Muslims shall be enabled to order their lives in the individual and collective spheres in accord with the teachings and requirements of Islam as set out in the Holy Quran and the Sunna”. And the country was named, Islamabad.
With the arrival of, Zia ul-Haq, things took a serious turn. To keep the political power and keep Benazir Bhutto at bay General Zia embarked on a mission to Islamise Pakistan. It did not stop with the death of the General. That landed the country where it is today.
If Pakistan wants stability it must give up its enmity towards India and define it’s identity in positive terms. What is needed is as they say a change of attitude. As Biden, an authority on Pakistan said, “There’s got be an overall culturally difficult thing to happen, a realisation that India is not the enemy. It is FATA, it’s Baitullah Mehsud, it’s the al-Qaeda influence, it’s the Taliban,”
Do the authorities in Pakistan hear this?

THE DEATH OF THE TIGER

The Sri Lankan State Television reported that Mr. Velupilli Prabhakaran has been killed in a militery encounter. He was trying to escape in an ambulence,the report said.
Andt the 4th Elam War has ended and its founder and guide Velupilli Prabhakaran who was born on 26th November 1954 in Jaffana has been killed. The Lankan government confirmed that Veluppili Prabhakaran was killed in a shoot out between the LTTE and the army. He was the youngest of four children. Son of one Thiruvenkada Velupillai, a government servant and Parvathy was interested in action movies in his childhood days. It is said that he had a catapult with which he used to shoot mangoes, wood apples and animals such as squirrels.
Interested in reading novels of great Tamil warriors, Praabhakaran derived inspiration from the life of Subhas Chandra Bose, the founder leader of INA during India’s struggle for freedom. The Chola king Karikalan was his hero, whom he adored. It is widely believed that it was Venogopal, one of his teaches at the school who instilled the idea of Tamil nation in his mind.
The 4th International Tamil Research Conference was held in 1974. The Sinhalese disrupted the conference and nine persons were killed. The very next year on 29th July 1975 Prabhakaran shoot and killed the Mayor of Jaffna. Someone set the Jaffna Public Library on fire in 1981. That also left a deep impression on him.
In 1983 Prabhakaran met Mathivani whom he married later. She was a university student then. They have two daughters and a son. The son Antony has also been killed along with Natesan, Pulidevan and Ramesh.(Prabhakran did not allow anyone to marry and have family).
When MGR was the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Prabhakaran was in India. In fact MGR is believed to have given him money to collect arms and ammunitions. Prabhakaran left India in 1987. He has not been to India after that.
Reports from Lanka also speak of the surrender of the Tigers. The Tiger’s website, Tamilnet has also reported that they are conceding defeat. It was Pathmanathan, the head of the international relations of the LTTE, who stated that they have decided “to silence their guns”. However, he also claimed that they are silencing their guns out of concern for the Tamil civilians”. He has said in his post “We have decided to silence our guns. Our only regrets are for the lives lost and that we could not hold out for longer period”.
The President, Mahindra Rajapaksha also declared that war with LTTE is over and the LTTE has been defeated. The President was in Jordan attending a conference. He cut short his visit and returned to the island. He said that the LTTE has been defeated militarily. He also claimed that about 50,000 people have fled from the war zone.

The european Union said in a statement that it was appaleed at the humanitarian caualties in the island.It called upon the government to let the UN to undertake humanitarian works in the war torn country.
With Prabhakaan and his aides dead and the LTTE beaten what would be the next move of the next move of the Lankan government?

FALL OF THE LEFT IN KERALA -2

Apart from the rout of the LDF, a notable outcome of the recently concluded Lok Sabha election is the victory of the IUML. Observers and common people alike watched the developments in Ponnani and Malappuram constituencies.
CPM, especially its state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan thought that they had wrested the two seats from the IUML for good. The only job remained was to consolidate their hold over them. To consolidate their position they joined hands with Abdul Nasser Madani who had claimed that he had 50000 votes in his kitty. Pinarayi went out of his way and certified that Madani had nothing to do with terrorist activities and he was innocent. He said time and again that no court in the country had convicted Madani. No one else who mattered in the party or outside shared his views. However, no one in the party opposed him with he sole exception of Achudanandan. Achudanandan even refused to share the dais with Madani at Ponnani. The central leadership left everything to the state unit. But many other well wishers of the party felt that the association with PDP would prove costly. The CPI also opposed the alliance with Madani. Though the CPI at first said that it would field its own candidate it did not do so. Pinarayi was adamant. He put all his faith in Jaleel a former SIMI activist. It was Jaleel who suggested fielding Dr. Hussein Randathani at Ponnani.

When the results came the IUML candidate E.T.Muhammed Basheer was declared the winner in the Ponnani constituency.There were 13 candidates in the field.Basheer scored 3,85,127 votes while Dr.Hussein scored 3,02,362 votes. The margin of 82,765 is quite impressive.Only in the Trithala Assembly segment could Randathani score 2,677 votes more than Basheer. In all the other six segments Basheer had the upper hand. Basheer was the Education Minister of Kerala from 1991 t0 1996 and again from 2004 to 2006.
The BJP candidate Jayachandran got only 57,409 votes. In the last election the party had got 71,609 votes.
The Left Ekopana Samithi candidate Dr.Azad got just 2,626 votes.
Reacting to the verdict, Mr.Basheer said “The dream of the CPM state secretaryPinarayi Vijayan has fully collapsed in Ponnani. He must learn that arrogance can never conquer the heart of voters”.
On the other hand, CPM district secretary, M.Ummer said that “There are suspicious elements those paved way for the victory of the UDF candidate in Ponnani and we will cross-check each of the elements in the coming days”.

In Malappuram also the IUML beat the CPM and its candidate won the seat with an impressive margin of 1, 16,467 votes. While E.Ahmed of the IUML scored 4, 27,940 votes, T.K.Hamsa of the CPM scored 3, 11,473 votes. Last time the LDF candidate Hamsa had won the Manjeri (Malappuram now) seat, defeating KPA Majeed with the help of the A.P faction of the Sunnis. Ahmed always won with huge margins. His performance in all the seven segments has been quite impressive. At the Mlappuram segment he had a margin of 23,875 votes.
N.Aravindan of the BJP secured 35, 985 votes. Last time it was 84, 149.
EA.Aboobaker of the BSP got 6929 votes.

FALL OF THE LEFT IN KERALA-1

No body is surprised at the dismal performance of the LDF, especially the CPI (M) in Kerala. That they will be made to bite the dust was a foregone conclusion. However, their poor performance at the national level has really been surprising.
In Kerala the LDF got just four seats, fourteen seats less than what they got last time. No deep analysis is required to find out the reasons for the debacle. Their failure can be attributed to four major reasons.

v The Lavalin case
v Their big brother attitude towards their partners
v Their association with the PDP and others
v And the factionalism in the party

The Lavalin case came up to the public view in 2005 when the Comptroller and the Auditor General stated that the state incurred a loss of Rs. 374.50 crore as the renovation of three power stations in the state was a total failure. The Canadian company Lavalin had been given the job of renovation of Panniyar, Chenkulam and Pallivasal power projects. The present CPM State Secretary Mr.Pinarayi Vijayan was the Electricity Minister at that time, in 1997.The Auditor General observed that the expenditure of 20.31 crores were avoidable. He also pointed out that the state had received only Rs 10.62 crores of Rs 100 crores Lavalin had promised. Lavalin had, as part of the contract, promised to donate Rs 100 crores to The Malabar Cancer Institute. As of today the company has paid only Rs 10.62 crores.
The CBI had been asked to look into the case. The CBI after a prolonged enquiry submitted a report. The CBI requested the government to let it prosecute Pinarayi Vijayan. The government sent the CBI report to the Advocate General and asked to advise the government whether to allow the CBI to prosecute Vijayan or not.
It seems that the people of the state had concluded that there was something more than meets the eye to the case and that Vijayan had many things to hide. Moreover, the Chief Minister was saying that all corruption charges will be looked into. The Chief Minister did not show much enthusiasm when Vijayan traveled from Kasarkode to Thiruvanathapuram to show that the people are still behind him. Indeed, the Chief Minister addressed the gathering at the Sangumugam beach. But it was obvious that he was trying to avoid an open confrontation with the party.

The manner in which the CPM especially the secretary, Pinarayi Vijayan, treated their partners betrayed its big brother attitude. Whether it was the RSP or CPI or PDP, the CPM wanted all of them to fall in line and obey Vijayan’s dictates. The only voice that mattered in CPM was that of Vijayan as if he was the only person that mattered in the party. The central leadership did not intervene to bring about some sort of agreement among the warring groups. It left everything to the leaders of the state to sort things out. Although the RSP declared that it would leave the front unless the Kollam seat was given to it, it did not do so. It just obeyed Pinarayi and gave up its claim for the seat. The UDF candidate Mr.Peethabara Kurup won the Kollam seat by a margin of 17,531 votes. He defeated P.Rajendran of the LDF who had won the seat in 2004 with a margin of
1, 11,071 votes. CPI also had to accept the dictates of the CPM, especially at Ponnani. So fed up were Veliyam Bhargavan, K.E.Ismail and Panniyan Ravindran that they walked out of the A.K.G centre when the CPM stuck to its position that it would decide the candidate for the Ponnani constituency. As he walked out Veliyam had said “We will decide the candidate for all the four seats. It will be solely our decision s to who will contest from the four seats including Ponnani”. However in the end the CPM had its way and Hussein Randathani was fielded at Ponnani. Hussein is a follower of Kanthapuram A.P. Abbobacker Musaliar. E.T.Muhammed Basheer of the Muslim League won the Ponnani seat with a margin of 82,684. Only M.P.Veerandrakumar of the Janata Dal dared to defy Pinarayi. When Veerandarakumar made it clear that he could not go along with the LDF, Pinarayi ridiculed them saying that they are walking out just for one seat. But he should have kept in mind that they had just one seat. When the results came out, in Kannur, Wayanadu, Vadakara and Kozhikode the LDF candidates lost to the UDF. The immediate reaction of Mr.Veerendrakumar was that the drubbing the left received at the hands of the people of Kerala was a fitting reply to the haughty behaviour of Pinarayi.

Although almost everyone, apart from his cohorts, opposed the association with the P.D.P and its leader Abdul Nassar Madani, Pinarayi went of his way to share public platforms with Madani. He thought he could snatch the Muslim votes from the Muslim League and make the party irrelevant in Kerala. When many pointed out to him that Madani had served a prison sentence in the Coimbatoor blast case, Pinarayi retorted that no court in the country had convicted him. Not only had that he went to the extent of certifying that Madani was a secular leader of the Muslims. For quite some time Pinarayi has been behaving as if he knew the pulse of the people more than any body else and that he is the best strategist around in the party.

Factionalism is as much a bane of the C.P.M, as it is of all the other parties. The fact that the Chief Minister Achudanandan, and the State Secretary of the party Pinarayi Vijayan do not see eye to eye is public knowledge. Achudanandan is seen as an orthodox leader, while Pinarayi is seen as the moderniser who wants to tread a different path. In fact Achudanandan was denied a ticket to contest the election three years back. But later the party had to bow to the sentiment of its cadre. Whatever the Chief Minister did, it was interpreted as a move to checkmate the secretary. And the secretary always tried to belittle the Chief Minister and convince the people that power rested with him not with the Chief Minister. Unfortunately, many of Achudanandan’s cabinet colleagues sided with Pinarayi in the fight between the Chief Minister and the Secretary. The central leadership did nothing to iron out the differences between the two leaders. It seems that it was helpless. That dealt a heavy blow on the ability of the party to perform its duty by the people.
And the people, when their turn came, handed out the party the drubbing it deserved.

JAYALALITHA'S TURN

Not to be out done by her arch rival M.Karunanidhi, the chief minister, Jayalaitha, demanded the other day that a separate country must be created for the Tamils in Sri Lanka. Karunanidhi had earlier said that Prabhakaran was his friend and that as he is not a terrorist Prabhakaran cannot not be a terrorist. Jayalalitha’s earlier stand was that devolution of power could solve the problems of the Tamils.
Meanwhile the LTTE has declared a ceasefire in Lanka. According to the outfit, it declared the ceasefire in deference to the request of the countries such as the U.S.A, the U.K, the E.U and others including India. It has also taken note of the “unprecedented humanitarian crisis”, says the tigers. However, the Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakssa rejected the truce offer by the LTTE saying that “It is an attempt by the LTTE to deceive the world and get time for them to regroup .There is no meaning for a ceasefire at this time with a losing like the LTTE”. He termed the peace offer a “joke”.
Indeed the plight of the people trapped in the war zone is pitiable and calls for urgent steps to get them out. There must be many people over there. But to trust the LTTE’S claim that about 1.65 lakhs Tamil civilians are still in the area would be sheer foolishness. Moreover, since when did the Tigers begin to respect the humanitarian crisis and the human rights? Those who have been following the Lankan crisis know that withdrawing and declaring cease fire is a ploy of the Tigers. Whenever they needed time to replenish their supply of arms and ammunition, they used to declare ceasefire. And once they acquired the weapons, they would themselves break the cease fire and launch an attack killing innocent civilians. When they killed the people by millions they did not pause to ponder over their right to live.
Prabhakaran always wanted to be the sole spokesman of the Tamils in the island. He claimed that only the LTTE can find a solution the problem. And the only solution, according to him, was the creation of a separate country for the Tamils. And in the 1970’s he embarked on a murderous journey to achieve his goal. Prabhakaran never accepted a view that was different from his own. He never tolerated someone who dared to differ. Thus he did away with the organizations that fought for the rights of the Tamils one by one. Look at how he did away with Arunachalam Thangadurai who was the Tamil United Liberation Front Member of Parliament from Trincomalee district in 1997. Tangadurain was returning after a function at Sri Shanmugananda Ladies College. As he was getting into his vehicle, a grenade was hurled at him and opened fire. Five people were killed and fifteen were injured. Besides Thangadurai, the principal of Sri Shanmugananda, Rajeswary Thanabalasingham; the president of the school development society; Joseph, the head of another school in the area; and Jeevaratnam, the vice-principal of the Vivekananda College in Colombo, were also killed. Thandurai’s body guards, five engineers working in the building projects and four school girls were also killed.
Reporting the incident, the Frontline, said that “Although there is no definite evidence about the assassins, the police, the press and most politicians in Sri Lanka point at the LTTE”.The fact that the attack was carried out near an educational institution speaks volumes about the LTTE’s concern for the human rights.
This time things are different. The Lankan army has made the LTTE bite the dust. And they know that they have been defeated completely, though not wiped out. So they find an opportunity in the concerns expressed by the people around the world. And on the pretext of heeding to the requests of the international community they are trying to wriggle of complete humiliation that is awaiting them.

POOR THING

Although there is nothing new in the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi’s comments the other day, it does serve as a reminder. D.M.K. has always supported the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka, whatever be the reason.. No body in the party has ever hidden the party’s sympathy for the outfit, even after the assassination of Mr. Rajiv Gandhi.
However, Karunanidhi’s reasoning has been shocking. He says, “Prabhakaran is my good friend. I am not a terrorist”. He said that he did not see Prabhakaran as a terrorist either. As a citizen he has a right to his opinion. But he happens to be the chief minister of a state. The way in which he seeks to exonerate Prabhakaran is ridiculous. He, concedes, “Those in Prabhakaran’s group may have taken to terrorism”.. But “It is not Prabhakaran’s fault”. It is obvious what it means. Yet I wonder, as I cannot believe that he actually said that, does he mean to say that it is not the leader Prabhakaran but his followers in the organization that are responsible for the large scale massacres of the innocent people of the island? It is no body’s case that the Tigers have no grievances at all. The political power has always been in the hands of the Sinhalese majority. And they have always neglected the interests of the Tamils in the island.
Prabhakaran never trusted anyone, even the other peoples and the parties engaged in the fight against the island’s government. He did away with all the parties just because they refused to see him as the final authority. He always wanted to be the sole spokesman of the aggrieved Tamils. And he wanted everyone to accept his strategies to get political power. Whoever dared to disagree with him was done away with one by one. Indeed Karunanidhi said sometime back that he did not agree with Prabhakaran on that. However, he seems to think, like Prabhakaran himself that the other parties let the poor Tamil population in the island down by refusing to stand behind Prabhakaran. Karunanidhi has said, “I will deeply regret if Prabhakaran is killed in the ongoing offensive. For it would be because of lack of unity among the Tamil groups”. But who is responsible for the lack of unity among the Tamil groups? Karunanidhi has modified his comment little bit. Nothing substantial. He now says that Prbhakaran was not a terrorist when he began his political carrier. So what?
It seems that Poor Prabhakaran is not able to control his own cadres. If he is not responsible for the brutal killings of his organization who else is? Is he the leader or a prisoner of his organization the L.T.T.E?