CHENNAI: Cementing the Tamil political plank she occupied in 2009, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa continues to deny any breathing space to her bête noire and DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi. For too long, the old man of Gopalapuram was basking in the glory of his courtiers hailing him as the ‘leader of the Tamils’. And, it required a Jayalalithaa to demystify this with the pro-Tamil groups acting as the perfect foil.
Ever since she emerged as the icon of the pro-Tamil groups and the diaspora alike with her transformation as a champion of the Sri Lankan Tamil cause, there is no looking back for the AIADMK supremo. Last week, the chief minister moved a resolution, passed unanimously in the State Assembly, seeking an international inquiry into the war crimes during the military offensive in the island nation that saw the decimation of the LTTE. Coinciding with the release of the report of the United Nations Human Rights Council on war crimes, the resolution also called upon the Centre to take necessary diplomatic efforts to scuttle Colombo getting away with a domestic probe with support from the United States.
Besides the pro-Tamil parties at home, the diaspora has been elated and so was Sri Lanka’s Northern Province Chief Minister C V Wigneswaran, who hailed it as a timely one. It has given a renewed thrust to the demand for justice for the war-torn Tamils. For Wigneswaran, it has come as a shot in the arm at a time when some newly-elected parliamentarians in Jaffna have been gunning for him for taking a similar line on the issue. It goes without saying that with this, Jayalalithaa has ensured that the opposition in Tamil Nadu too rallied behind her.
Karunanidhi could hardly sing a different tune as the party’s credibility on the Sri Lankan Tamil issue has taken a severe beating. With none to rival her, the chief minister continues to use this emotive issue as a convenient handle to beat the DMK. “No wonder, she had taken the wind out of the DMK’s sail. The party might find it hard to reclaim the Tamil political space, even if it intends to do so. And for her part, Jayalalithaa could not be expected to allow that to happen in the near future,” says political analyst Aazhi Senthilnathan.
On the pro-Tamil lobby dumping Karunanidhi despite trying to make amends, Senthilnathan’s reasoning was that with Jayalalithaa, it is a win-win situation for them. “While the pro-Tamil lobby is not ready to forgive the ‘betrayal’ of Eelam Tamils by Karunanidhi, for Jayalalithaa, it is political necessity to deny any reprieve to the DMK. And, ahead of the forthcoming Assembly elections, it is advantage for Jayalalithaa,” he says.
The AIADMK supremos’ change of heart with regard to the plight of the Eelam Tamils came during the Eelam War in 2009, when Lok Sabha elections too were held. The farcical ‘breakfast to lunch’ fast by the wily Karunanidhi has only helped her to lap up the pro-Tamil mantle. From then on there was no looking backward. On winning the 2011 Assembly elections, she got the House to pass a resolution seeking economic sanctions on Sri Lanka, accusing the Rajapaksa regime of genocide. Not only that, she went to the extent of demanding New Delhi to strive for a UN-sponsored referendum to establish Eelam, a separate homeland for the ethnic Tamils.
Significantly, hers is a major voice from a mainstream political party which has not been lost sight of by the Tamil diaspora as is evident from the praise showered upon her in the cyberspace. That this should not stop with being an exercise to deny the DMK political space but taken up in earnest is the hope.