Mumbai roasts the Mahavir rhetoric

We are conducting this struggle with the unrelenting support of the Tamil people, the world over. Besides, our struggle does not contravene the national interest, geo-political interest or economic interest of any outside country.

The inherent aspirations of our people do not in any way hamper the national interests of any country or people. At the same time, it may be noted that during the long history of our struggle, we have not conducted any act of aggression against any member state of the international community.” - that was Velupillai Prabhakaran addressing the world on the Mahavir (Heroes) Day (27) that just followed his birthday.

This is just on example of the distilled falsehood that runs through the entire speech that can be seen as one of desperate moves to regain the international support that the LTTE once had in many countries of the world, with the wrong impression and belief that it was a liberation movement fighting for the just aspirations of the Tamil people of Sri Lanka.

It is necessary, at the outset, to get to the core of the message of this speech. That the “struggle” the LTTE is conducting is being carried out with the Tamil people, the world over. There is ample evidence to show that whatever many Tamil people who are abroad may be still feeling about this struggle, there is little support within Sri Lanka, in the territory of Sri Lanka that Prabhakaran and the LTTE claims to be the land of Eelam, as opposed to “Sinhalam” (to use his word) for this “struggle” that is marked by violence against the people, including Tamils, Muslims and Sinhalese.

It is interesting to recall what the LTTE leader said in his Mahavir Day speech in November 2000, after the LTTE had gained what are now considered its spectacular military successes that included the capture of Elephant Pass and Pooneryn, and only fell short of retaking Jaffna. Here is the relevant excerpt from that speech by the great liberator of the Tamils of Sri Lanka.

“Only when the public at large joins our liberation struggle does it elevate itself to the political status of a Peoples’ Struggle. The participation of the people in our Armed struggle should be ever on the increase. Only that will make a major turning point in our struggle. Only that will end the enemy occupation of our soil and hasten us to our goal of liberation”.

What is evident in that statement is that it came at a time when the LTTE was virtually knocking on the doors of Jaffna to retake it, and after its successes in overrunning the military camp at Mullaitivu, capturing the military base at Elephant Pass and taking over the strategically important Pooneryn, the Tamil people were not with the LTTE. His analysis was correct then as it is today. It is that the participation of the Tamil people in the struggle of the LTTE should ever be on the increase, and it is only such people’s participation that can make a major turning point in its struggle against the Sri Lankan state. To emphasise what he said in 2002 riding in the crest of military success: “Only that will end the enemy occupation of our soil and hasten us to our goal of liberation” .

What is evident today, as it was in 2000, is that the Tamil people at large are neither supportive of the LTTE nor its goal of ‘liberation’. This was shown in 2000 in the manner in which they returned to Jaffna (Return Exodus) after their forced evacuation by the LTTE in 1995, and their remaining in Jaffna with the Armed Forces, despite repeated calls by the LTTE to leave, when they planned the take over of Jaffna in May/June 2000. This was ample proof that the people of Jaffna were not interested in being part of any “People’s Struggle” the LTTE sought to launch or lead at that time.

Apart from all the threats, intimidation and forced recruitment of youth, children, and even senior citizens, suffered under LTTE control for the years. Another important reason why the Tamil people did not wish to be part of this ‘People’s Struggle’ of the LTTE, was the number of civil leaders, intellectuals, democrats and elected leaders among the Tamils were killed by the LTTE since the beginning of its armed struggle, and the total ban on any form of dissent imposed on the Tamil people by the LTTE, which involved closing down of newspapers and the killing of journalists.

All of this holds true today as well, despite all the ravings by Prabhakaran about the ultimate military victory of the ever dwindling forces of Eelam. It is evident today that the Tamil people are not with Prabhakaran and the LTTE, as clearly seen by the fact that those who are still living in areas that are being held by the Force of arms of the LTTE, they do so because of being forced by their so-called liberators to do so, and the forcible prevention of their coming to areas that are held by the forces of the legitimate Government of Sri Lanka. To use Prabhakaran’s own logic and strategic understanding of 2000, when it was in a much stronger position, the absence of the active support of the Tamil people in its struggle today, has not made it possible for the LTTE to make a major turning point of advance in its military campaign, but has only helped to make continued non-strategic retreats in the face of the Advancing Forces of the legitimate forces of Sri Lanka.

International support

Most of his Mahavir Speech this year is devoted to the need for international support and recognition. It is a call to the countries that has banned it, to reconsider their decision, because the LTTE’s struggle has not posed a threat to any foreign country. It is clear that the time the countries of the world believed that the threat from the LTTE to Sri Lanka is now over, and in the context of the global ramifications of terror, most countries have learnt the reality of the LTTE’s threat to their own countries, if not by way of armed action (which too is becoming more of a problem in fights for turf control), but in the many scams carried out by the LTTE agents and supporters in those countries that have proved threats to their financial systems and social organisation. It is obvious that the Sun-God in the Vanni will have to wait with great expectation and very little chance of success to see a change in this tide of banning the LTTE as a terrorist organisation, which it has clearly demonstrated to be.

And we now come to the farcical aspect of Prabhakaran’s speech. Let me quote: The inherent aspirations of our people do not in any way hamper the national interests of any country or people. At the same time, it may be noted that during the long history of our struggle, we have not conducted any act of aggression against any member state of the international community.” - There is much in the speech that amounts to a plea for India to re-think its stand on the LTTE, and also there are great paeans of praise sung to the people and politicians of Tamil Nadu for their support to the cause of Eelam, as the LTTE sees it. Whatever Prabhakaran may say, and irrespective of the attitudes of Tamil Nadu politicians, the Indian establishment clearly sees the LTTE as a threat to the national interests of India.

That is why it has now deployed more vessels and aircraft to patrol the southern coast of India, to prevent LTTE escapees and infiltrators from Sri Lanka entering India territory, and also why New Delhi has not given in to the pressure from sections in Tamil Nadu to be more active in bringing pressure on Sri Lanka to stop its military operations against the terror of the LTTE.

It is certainly no easy task for the leader of the organization that masterminded and carried out the assassination of a former prime minister and a recognised political leader with national appeal in India, namely Rajiv Gandhi, (who incidentally had given his own bullet proof vest for Prabhakaran to wear at the time the Indo-Lanka accord was signed and Prabhakaran falsely agreed to give up arms), to believe the sainted statement by Prabhakaran that in all its activities it has not carried out any act of aggression against any member state of the international community. One does not need whole armies to carry out acts of aggression. The killing of a national leader, who was a prime minister, and most likely if not assassinated on Indian soil by the LTTE, would have been prime minister again, was an act of aggression by itself. That is the reason why both Prabhakaran and his Intelligence Chief Pottu Amman are still wanted in India to face justice for this assassination. The pleas for Indian assistance and the claims of the most friendly attitude towards India fall flat in the face of such reality, that the LTTE is compelled to live with, as long as it is engaged in the type of violent politics it is involved in today, and possibly even after it accepts reality and decides to enter the path of democracy, without Prabhakaran.

LTTE - TN axis

These are further excerpts from Prabhakaran’s speech that show how much the LTTE sees the need for Indian assistance and are taking courage from the axis it has built up with sections the political establishment in Tamil Nadu to further its cause of separation in Sri Lanka.

“Today, there are great changes taking place in India. The dormant voices in support of our struggle are re-emerging aloud again. There are also indications of our struggle becoming accepted there. The positive change in environment gives us courage to seek renewal of our relationship with the Indian super power. The earlier approach and interventions of India were injurious to the people of Tamil Eelam, as well as to their struggle.

“It was because we were firmly committed to our conviction and freedom for our people, that friction erupted between our movement and India. However, at no stage did we ever consider India as an enemy force. Our people always consider India as our friend. They have great expectations that the Indian super power will take a positive stand on our national question.

“Notwithstanding the dividing sea, Tamil Nadu, with its perfect understanding of our plight, has taken heart to rise on behalf of our people at this hour of need. This timely intervention has gratified the people of Tamil Eelam and our freedom movement and given us a sense of relief. I wish to express my love and gratitude at this juncture to the people and leaders of Tamil Nadu and the leaders of India for the voice of support and love they have extended. I would cordially request them to raise their voice firmly in favour of our struggle for a Tamil Eelam State, and to take appropriate and positive measures to remove the ban which remains an impediment to an amicable relationship between India and our movement.”

Unfortunately for Prabhakaran and the LTTE, the timing of his Mahavir Day speech could not have been more inopportune this year. As much as the speech failed to make the international headiness, through the manipulations of news agencies and networks that see only a source of a “story” and nothing deeper in the activities of the LTTE, the speech came at a time when the media was more interested in the reports of the success of the Sri Lankan forces in the North, and of their determined approach towards Kilinochchi, that so-called “de facto” capital of the one putative and now wholly unrealistic state of Eelam.

Mumbai burns

If that was bad enough, the attempts to draw India to this “struggle” of the LTTE through Tamil Nadu are not likely to have much success today. This is not only because the Opposition parties in Tamil Nadu are not with its Chief Minister Karunanidhi in his threat to fast - unto death or not one never knows - and various other means to pressure New Delhi to look at the LTTE and its leader through the favourably tinted glasses of the DMK.

But things have been made much worse by the LTTE’s soul-brothers in terror, who carried out the devastating terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the financial capital of India, the centre of Bollywood that has so much impact the world over, and by the acts of hostage taking of foreigners, in addition to the many lives that have been lost and the hundreds more who have been injured in what was clearly a well organised terrorist plot to destabilise India.

It is necessary to realise that those terrorist attacks in Mumbai, would seem from a terrorist point of view, especially from the Vanni, to be the perfect birthday celebrations of Velupillai Prabhakaran, and also as the ideal prelude to his Mahavir Speech the next day. But what all those violent pyrotechnics in Mumbai has done is to undermine any hopes that Prabhakaran may have had of India softening its stand on terrorism, not only across the Palk Strait, but elsewhere too.

It is now much more than an uphill task, but a veritable impossibility for the LTTE to expect India to forget the threat that terrorism poses to its own economic, political and social structures as to view the LTTE with the sympathy it craves for in its hours of desperation. The fires that engulfed Mumbai from the night of Prabhakaran’s birthday and continued through the next day of his Mahavir Speech, will now define the Indian reaction to terrorism all its forms and manifestations, and towards all of its leaders and manipulators, wherever they may be.