I am not referring to the LLRC of the Sri Lankan government . I am referring to the the Lessons learnt by DMK and Congress because of their inaction at a crucial time during April /May 2009 SL war. Now both parties are trying to make amends to the irreparable damages caused by them . Now both parties are trying to rebuild their image and get some acceptance among the Tamil people whose sentiments were hurt . I called their efforts to mollify the Tamil sentiments as LLRC(Lessons Learnt and Rebuilding Commission ) more as a pun. Nevertheless I don't know if they are serious in their efforts .Because every move by a political party will have an hidden agenda . For DMK ,withdrawal of support to UPA is a face saving action , to claim they are the real champions of the Tamils. Else they would be wiped out in the ensuing 2014 elections . For congress it is a question of survival of the UPA government . Having been reduced to a minority government ,with DMK pulling out its support , congress is now trying to save its government by passing a resolution in parliament and also trying to make last minute amendments to the UNHRC resolution.
Sonia Gandhi now talks about her concern for the plights of Tamils in SL. Congress now says the intended resolution in parliament is for Tamils and not for DMK. DMK says there is no going back on its decision to withdraw support to UPA .They insist on including the word genocide in the resolution . Look how politically expedient these two parties are ! Soon after the war when Rajapakshe said he 'fought India's war ' publicly,strangely these two parties reactions were marked by silence. Compare it with the Bangladesh war . India fought Mujibur Rehman's war then. Congress was in power at center then also . Indira Gandhi was hailed as 'Durga matha ' by Bengali's in India and Bangladesh. Why did India use a different yardstick this time ? .This stand of India at the time of the war is really inexplicable .Congress knows for sure ,if it does not act now, it is going to draw a blank in the 2014 elections in TN. Even cadres of the DMK and congress in TN were unhappy with stand of their parties . But they were tongue tied,because of their party's stand. This is evidenced by the bursting of fire crackers by DMK cadres soon after DMK pulled out of UPA . Though congress cadres in TN did not show their happiness so explicitly they were also relieved that this could pave way for some explicit commitments by these two parties on the SL issue.
There is no denial of the fact there had been excesses by the SL army during the war. It needs to be probed by a dispassionate international body. More than that ,the rehabilitation of Tamils in the island treating them with dignity,equal opportunities in education and employment ,and an official status for the Tamil language are what the Tamils demand. Almost 4 years have elapsed since the 2009 war ,but no respite for the Tamils is in sight. This makes even an unbiased observer to think there is a sinister design in the actions of the SL government.It seems there are neither plans for reconciliation nor any lessons have been learnt even after constituting an LLRC by the SL government.
The TN fishermen are killed or attacked by the SL navy with impunity at regular intervals when they are fishing in Indian waters. It is surprising that the Indian government has not so far issued any stern warning to its so called friendly neighbor so far on this issue. It is disgusting that the fishermen are always referred to as TN fishermen and not as Indian fishermen. Are they not Indians ?.It is high time GOI should assert itself as a major power in the South Asia and stop looking at these issues with geo political concerns or strategies. Another important lesson to be learnt by DMK and Congress is that any party or government that doesn't care a hoot about the popular sentiment will be thrown out unceremoniously by the ballot power . One hopes the spontaneous uprise in TN will make the GOI see reason and look at the UNHRC resolution on SL as human-centered and not as a strategic issue. This is another lesson to be learnt by, our foreign policy makers .
There is a serious debate going on as to whether the SL Tamil killings can be termed as genocide . I have given below the definition of genocide given by the 1948 United Nations convention on prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide.
ReplyDelete"Any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."
SL government is guilty of all these crimes . All the civilians were not members of LTTE . Children and women were also not spared . On the plea of diplomatic niceties ,if India fails to deplore the genocide perpetuated by the SL government ,the Indian government would be doing an unpardonable offense to the Tamils . Treating Tamils this way will surely alienate them from the national mainstream .Congress should proceed on this tricky issue cautiously and with prudence .Any hasty action by India would alienate a section of its own citizen's against the congress.