The Justice fails as lawyer of Tamils too

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 September 2013, 07:07 GMT]
NPC Chief Minister candidate Mr C.V. Wigneswaran on Sunday defended him over the interview that appeared in The Hindu on Thursday, by further elaborations and by blaming The Hindu for selective projection of his answers and omission in that too. But he didn’t deny the crucial point he had made through The Hindu, aimed at discrediting and silencing the voices coming from Tamil Nadu for the independence of the genocide-affected nation of Eezham Tamils. “We are facing problems in our discourse with the government in our country, because parties in foreign countries, especially the parties in South India, keep telling that separation is the only solution,” Wigneswaran reiterated in a press meet in Jaffna, held for explaining the TNA election manifesto.

CV Wigneswaran

Wigneswaran’s target is the diaspora and Tamil Nadu, the only factors that remain free to some extent in coming out with the voice of the Eezham Tamils gagged at home, and he speaks the very same language of the parties as well as genocidal partners in foreign countries that now engineer a self-annihilation ‘discourse’ for the nation of Eezham Tamils through him, commented a Tamil activist for alternative politics in Jaffna.

Further comments from the activist in Jaffna:

The actual discourse is not with the government in Colombo, but with the Establishments in the outside that keep upholding a genocidal State and keep denying the right to self- determination of Eezham Tamils.

We faced genocide and are now facing a massive-scale structural genocide on a daily basis, mainly because the Establishments outside keep guaranteeing the unity and integrity of the genocidal State.

This is in fact the main problem we face in our discourse with the government in Colombo too, because no genocidal state will concede anything when its existence is not countered but guaranteed.

Today the world is imperceptibly engulfed into the Third Imperialist War, after the First World War, Second World War and the Cold War of the 20th century. Unlike in the previous wars, all the Establishments armed to the teeth are on one side, waging a war on the peoples all over the world. It is a silent war on some peoples but explicit war on some other selective peoples.

In such a war, State military all over the world is indispensable to the Establishments that lead the war. They would never stop pampering the Sinhala State military that is occupying the country of Eezham Tamils, unless challenged by people’s power in the region.

When a people’s struggle with strength, along with natural allies, is the only course available to Eezham Tamils, a word has been put through Wigneswaran’s mouth in a carefully calculated move to pre-empt the power of the people of Tamil Nadu casting its weight in favour of the liberation of Eezham Tamils.

Even after the genocide, if Tamils can’t understand from where the war is actually waged, who else could?

Wigneswaran in his press meet on Sunday said that in his censored part of The Hindu interview he had appreciated the struggle waged by the youth in ‘South India,’ without political party affinities.

But this struggle upheld the right to self-determination of Eezham Tamils and it was this struggle that made the Tamil Nadu State Assembly to unanimously pass a resolution for a UN referendum, after the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister saying that independence to Eezham Tamils is the solution.

What does Wigneswaran mean when he appreciates the youth struggle but condemns the call for independence? Is it a way of hijacking and silencing the people’s uprising?

Many wonder why Wigneswaran has come out with what he had said at this juncture. It was totally unwarranted for him unless he is the lawyer and operative of somebody else.

His blame on The Hindu is eyewash. He must have been fully aware of the orientation of The Hindu– what it would highlight and how it would highlight.

He didn’t sound logical even in defending the husband and wife analogy of him.

Intelligence circles in New Delhi worry over their ‘Kautilyan’ moves on the island being thwarted by Tamil Nadu polity, informed sources say. For six decades Eezham Tamils have seen what the ‘Kautilyan’ moves meant for them. Unless the ground reality of a people’s power free from engineering gets at them, justice will never come from the Kautilyas.

The former Justice C.V. Wigneswaran tilts the balance of people’s power and geopolitical ground reality to go against the people from whom he seeks a ‘mandate’ and he even fails as a lawyer in arguing their case from their point of view.

http://soundcloud.com/tamilnet

Relevant part of Mr C.V. Wigneswaran’s press speech in Jaffna on Sunday, explaining his interview to The Hindu:

The reporter from The Hindu, Meera Srinivasan, posed more than 10 questions to me. I gave answers to all her questions.

But, only the reply to one of the questions has been picked up. For what reason, I don't know.

Further, she has censored some parts of my response even to that question.

One of my significant responses to her was that we were very happy to see the struggle waged by the South Indian youth. Their struggle has positively benefited us a lot. Especially, the way they expressed their emotions and their way of uprising without political party affinities has brought about a positive environment for us.

While elaboration all this, I also told her that the political parties over there should not exploit our plight for their selfish interests. They are behaving like tennis players, using our plight as their ball, I told her.

I also told her that the behaviour of those, who are outside the island, pronouncing separation as the only solution, is like a third person intervening in a dispute between a husband and wife to suggest divorce as the solution. My analogy was not intended to mean the Tamils and the Sinhalese as husband and wife. Rather, my focus was on the attitude of the intervening third person.

We are facing problems in our discourse with the government in our country, because parties in foreign countries, especially the parties in South India, keep telling that separation is the only solution.

Other than that, I have no issues with the Tamil-Speaking people in South India.

As a member of Kampan Kazhakam for 15 years, I have interacted with scholars and intellectuals. I have taken part in several conferences in South India and I have many friends over there.

We need the support, facilitation, help and consolation of the South Indian people.

Apart from these, we also have other needs. For example, there will be future opportunities for the provincial council to receive South Indian assistance and benefit from such interaction on several fronts.

I am saddened at the appearance of the report [which has made it look like] as if I was forgetting all these and vulgarising the support extended by the South Indian Tamil people.

Chronology:

16.09.13  The Justice fails as lawyer of Tamils too

13.09.13  Wigneswaran bares agenda of his sponsors

Wigneswaran bares agenda of his sponsors

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 September 2013, 14:28 GMT]
Mr C.V. Wigneswaran, the Chief Minister candidate the TNA was prodded to field by the Establishments, found The Hindu on Thursday to bare open what would be his political agenda once given with a ‘mandate’ by a choice-less people, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island. Speaking to The Hindu, and comparing the island situation to a husband and wife fight at home, Wigneswaran addressed to Tamil Nadu that “We will fight, but sometimes we come together. The next-door neighbour must not come and say ‘you must divorce, you must divorce’. That is not your business.” Will the former justice come out with a similar stricture on Washington, New Delhi and Beijing in complicity with the spouse murdering dominant spouse, asked the activists.

Like telling to Tamil Nadu that it is none of its business to talk about secession, will the Justice be able to equally tell especially the West and India that it is none of their business to tell a nation to stop talking about independence, the activists asked.

According to Wigneswaran, when politicians in Tamil Nadu say separation is the only solution, the Sinhalese masses – many sections of which fear that Tamils would collaborate with India and form a separate State – get very annoyed.

“We get affected by what is being said there,” Wigneswaran told The Hindu, as though the genocidal Sinhala State would keep quiet if nothing is said in Tamil Nadu.

Wigneswaran echoes the orchestration that is being carried out at the behest of the ultimate culprits of Tamil genocide, the activists for alternative politics said.

They cited at the Norwegian Ambassador in Colombo telling exactly the same thing to the diaspora two weeks ago, which was denounced by the democratically elected Norwegian Council of Eezham Tamils. Wigneswaran now comes to the defence of the orchestration by addressing the same thing at Tamil Nadu, the activists commented.

Wigneswaran has the courage to talk in this way, because he is confident to the core that the Eezham Tamils in the island trapped by the guided polity of the TNA, have no choice other than voting for him. But actually there is not much difference between him and Mr Douglas Devananda, who some times back proclaimed that ‘collaboration’ is the trend of the times, the activists said.

Mr. Sumanthiran and Mr Sampathan were chosen for a long time to lay such a trap, and Wigneswaran has been planted at a right time. If even before getting elected Wigneswaran is talking like this, imagine how he would make himself useful to the agenda of the Establishments when he could cite the votes casted for him as a ‘mandate’, commented the activists.

In the judgement of the Establishments, Colombo-centric minds are the best bet for their agenda. Right from the colonial times the West was quite familiar and comfortable in handling the Colombo-centric minds among the Tamils. We had a Sir. P. Ramanathan who never wanted the Tamils in the island to get involved with the freedom struggle in India, saying that the situation in the island was different.

Even after ditched by the British and the Sinhala leaders, Ramanathan was still hanging on to the Colombo-centric hopes. A Youth Congress had to come to challenge his polity. People appreciated the Youth Congress but they were not mobilised. Had we actively participated in the anti-imperialist Indian liberation movement along with Tamil Nadu, we would have been in a better position to negotiate at the time of the so-called independence, the activists for alternative politics said.

After Independence Tamil people looked upon India, but leaders were Colombo-centric and orientated to the West. Through some elements the legacies continued even within the militant struggle. People were ditched by India in 1987. India and West ditched both the people and the leaders in 2009.

When Tamils without a State are a targeted people by all the imperialists, and when we have to wage a global struggle as global Tamils, here we now go again with a silk-clad Wigneswaran, the activists said.

Perhaps two factors that were not there earlier are the diaspora and Tamil Nadu. It depends much on how the two factors, especially the younger generation of them, are going to respond to the challenges of the times, the activists further said.

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30.08.13   Norwegian ambassador in Colombo bares agenda in Oslo
26.08.13   Fundamentals diluted behind the scene in Colombo
31.07.13   Wigneswaran seeks mandate for ‘IC-facilitated’ Northern Prov..
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External Links:

The Hindu:

TN politicians exploiting Lankan Tamils issue: C.V. Wigneswaran

Behind China’s Hindu temples, a forgotten history

Ananth Krishnan

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• 
  The Hindu A panel of inscriptions of the God Narasimha adorns the entrance to the main shrine of the temple, believed to have been installed by Tamil traders who lived in Quanzhou in the 13th century. Photo: Ananth Krishnan 

  In and around Quanzhou, a bustling industrial city, there are shrines that historians believe may have been part of a network of more than a dozen Hindu temples and shrines

  For the residents of Chedian, a few thousand-year-old village of muddy by-lanes and old stone courtyard houses, she is just another form of Guanyin, the female Bodhisattva who is venerated in many parts of China.

  Click here for video

  But the goddess that the residents of this village pray to every morning, as they light incense sticks and chant prayers, is quite unlike any deity one might find elsewhere in China. Sitting cross-legged, the four-armed goddess smiles benignly, flanked by two attendants, with an apparently vanquished demon lying at her feet.

  Local scholars are still unsure about her identity, but what they do know is that this shrine’s unique roots lie not in China, but in far away south India. The deity, they say, was either brought to Quanzhou — a thriving port city that was at the centre of the region’s maritime commerce a few centuries ago — by Tamil traders who worked here some 800 years ago, or perhaps more likely, crafted by local sculptors at their behest.

  “This is possibly the only temple in China where we are still praying to a Hindu God,” says Li San Long, a Chedian resident, with a smile.

  “Even though most of the villagers still think she is Guanyin!” Mr. Li said the village temple collapsed some 500 years ago, but villagers dug through the rubble, saved the deity and rebuilt the temple, believing that the goddess brought them good fortune — a belief that some, at least, still adhere to.

  The Chedian shrine is just one of what historians believe may have been a network of more than a dozen Hindu temples or shrines, including two grand big temples, built in Quanzhou and surrounding villages by a community of Tamil traders who lived here during the Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1279-1368) dynasties.

  At the time, this port city was among the busiest in the world and was a thriving centre of regional maritime commerce.

  The history of Quanzhou’s temples and Tamil links was largely forgotten until the 1930s, when dozens of stones showing perfectly rendered images of the god Narasimha — the man-lion avatar of Vishnu — were unearthed by a Quanzhou archaeologist called Wu Wenliang. Elephant statues and images narrating mythological stories related to Vishnu and Shiva were also found, bearing a style and pattern that was almost identical to what was evident in the temples of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh from a similar period.

  Wu’s discoveries received little attention at the time as his country was slowly emerging from the turmoil of the Japanese occupation, the Second World War and the civil war. It took more than a decade after the Communists came to power in 1949 for the stones and statues to even be placed in a museum, known today as the Quanzhou Maritime Museum.

  “It is difficult to say how many temples there were, and how many were destroyed or fell to ruin,” the museum’s vice curator Wang Liming told The Hindu. “But we have found them spread across so many different sites that we are very possibly talking about many temples that were built across Quanzhou.”

  Today, most of the sculptures and statues are on display in the museum, which also showcases a map that leaves little doubt about the remarkable spread of the discoveries. The sites stretch across more than a dozen locations located all over the city and in the surrounding county. The most recent discoveries were made in the 1980s, and it is possible, says Ms. Wang, that there are old sites yet to be discovered.

  The Maritime Museum has now opened a special exhibit showcasing Quanzhou’s south Indian links. Ms. Wang says there is a renewed interest — and financial backing — from the local government to do more to showcase what she describes as the city’s “1000-year-old history with south India,” which has been largely forgotten, not only in China but also in India.

  “There is still a lot we don't know about this period,” she says, “so if we can get any help from Indian scholars, we would really welcome it as this is something we need to study together. Most of the stones come from the 13th century Yuan Dynasty, which developed close trade links with the kingdoms of southern India. We believe that the designs were brought by the traders, but the work was probably done by Chinese workers.”

  Ms. Wang says the earliest record of an Indian residing in Quanzhou dates back to the 6th century. An inscription found on the Yanfu temple from the Song Dynasty describes how the monk Gunaratna, known in China as Liang Putong, translated sutras from Sanskrit. Trade particularly flourished in the 13th century Yuan Dynasty. In 1271, a visiting Italian merchant recorded that the Indian traders “were recognised easily.”

  “These rich Indian men and women mainly live on vegetables, milk and rice,” he wrote, unlike the Chinese “who eat meat and fish.” The most striking legacy of this period of history is still on public display in a hidden corner of the 7th century Kaiyuan Buddhist Temple, which is today Quanzhou’s biggest temple and is located in the centre of the old town. A popular attraction for Chinese Buddhists, the temple receives a few thousand visitors every day. In a corner behind the temple, there are at least half a dozen pillars displaying an extraordinary variety of inscriptions from Hindu mythology. A panel of inscriptions depicting the god Narasimha also adorns the steps leading up to the main shrine, which houses a Buddha statue. Huang Yishan, a temple caretaker whose family has, for generations, owned the land on which the temple was built, says the inscriptions are perhaps the most unique part of the temple, although he laments that most of his compatriots are unaware of this chapter of history. On a recent afternoon, as a stream of visitors walked up the steps to offer incense sticks as they prayed to Buddha, none spared a glance at the panel of inscriptions. Other indicators from Quanzhou’s rich but forgotten past lie scattered through what is now a modern and bustling industrial city, albeit a town that today lies in the shadow of the provincial capital Xiamen and the more prosperous port city of Guangzhou to the far south.

  A few kilometres from the Kaiyuan temple stands a striking several metre-high Shiva lingam in the centre of the popular Bamboo Stone Park. To the city’s residents, however, the lingam is merely known as a rather unusually shaped “bamboo stone,” another symbol of history that still stays hidden in plain sight.

Bombay High Court allows litigant to record evidence in Tamil

Staff Reporter

Maharashtra

Mumbai

The Bombay High Court has allowed a litigant who said she was not familiar with Marathi, Hindi or English to depose in Tamil during the recording of evidence. It also granted her permission to use an interpreter.

Koothayee Adimulam Harijan had moved the High Court after the sessions court rejected her request to record her evidence through an interpreter since she only spoke Tamil.

Justice R.P. Sondurbaldota, in her order, said Ms. Harijan’s long stay in Mumbai may have given her some working knowledge of Hindi. “But when she has to depose in a court of law, in proceedings initiated on her complaint, it is necessary that she gets an opportunity to depose in a language she is most comfortable in.”

Ms. Sondurbaldota said section 277 of the code of criminal procedure, 1973, made a specific provision for the purpose. “Sub-section (b) thereof requires that if a witness gives evidence in any language other than the language of the court, it may, if practicable, be taken down in that language.” If it that was not practicable, a true translation of the evidence in the language of the court should be prepared during the examination of the witness. “Such translation is required to be signed by the Magistrate or the presiding judge, which would then form part of the record,” she said.

The accused told the sessions court that Ms. Harijan had appeared before other courts earlier and communicated in Hindi. The judge too noted that the applicant had been residing in Mumbai for the last 23 years and it was highly improbable that she did not know the language. Moreover, she had written to the Malvani police station in Hindi. Ms. Harijan’s counsel Mahesh Vaswani told the High Court that the letter was written by another person she had merely signed it.

Keywords: Bombay High Court, evidence recording, Tamil language usage, Koothayee Adimulam Harijan

More In: Other States | National | News

Comments(1) Recommended Post a comment

It is a welcome development and the judiciary in the entire country
should emulate this example. In fact, The Supreme Court should even
given a directive to all the courts to allow the people to depose in
the language in which they are familiar with. The interpreters could
be used, though the process may be time consuming and cumbersome.
When the members could speak in the language of their choice in the
Parliament, though they are conversant with Hindi & English, there is
no reason why the litigant public should not be allowed to depose in
the language in which they are familiar. It is certainly unfair to
force them to depose only in the local language of the state or hindi
or in english.
Hats off to justice R P Sondurbaldota for her positive and a
trendsetting approach .

from:  K V Laxmi Prasad

Posted on: Jul 4, 2013 at 22:27 IST

Tamil teacher to participate in Wikimania

S.P. Saravanan

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S. Parvathi

She will be one among the 10 persons selected from the country and one among the two persons selected from the State for participating in Wikimania 2013, an annual international conference of the Wikimedia movement, to be held in Hong Kong, China between August 7 and 11.

S. Parvathi, a Tamil teacher at Panchayat Union Middle School, Kandampatti in Salem rural block, has contributed 500 articles, edited 10,500 articles and wrote three books for children in the Tamil language edition of Wikipedia and was selected for her continuous contribution to the portal.

Talking about her journey in the knowledge world, she said that while searching for projects for class eight students in the website, she could not find suitable documents in Tamil and that made her mind to contribute something to the growth of development of the language. “It is the passion towards Tamil that started contributions in 2001. An article on Onam festival was published as main story and it motivated me,” she said.

The Tamil Wikipedia currently has 52,000 articles when compared to 12 lakh in English. It is the second largest Wikipedia among Indian languages by article count and 59{+t}{+h}largest in the world. Ms. Parvathi along with Sengai Podhuvan from Chennai were selected for contributions to Tamil while the rest eight were selected for their contributions in Oriya, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi.

Her contributions were in subjects dealing with noble laureates, scientists, Tamil literature and grammar apart from general issues. “Penetration of internet is increasing and more articles in Tamil are becoming essential nowadays,” added the teacher.

Though there is no financial incentive for posting articles and editing works, she is happy about the contributions to the growth of Tamil language. She wanted more women to contribute for the Tamil Wikipedia and be a part of knowledge sharing society.

About 2,500 people representing 200 languages are expected to take part in the conference that would help them to learn and share experience and come out with new knowledge initiatives across the world.

Pattanam antiquity authenticated by radiocarbon dating

A. Srivathsan

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• 
  In this 7th excavation season, only one trench was excavated at Pattanam. Photo : Thulasi Kakkat
• 
  A stone mould for making rings with intricate pattern was discoverd and DNA tests are under way. Photo : Thulasi Kakkat
• 
  DNA tests are underway for human remains (bone fragments). Photo : Thulasi Kakkat

TOPICS

arts, culture and entertainment

archaeology

It validates timeline proposed by archaeologists and Muziris links with Roman trade

Science validates history at Pattanam, located 25 km north of Kochi and identified as Muziris, lost port town frequented by Roman traders. Nuclear physicists have confirmed what archaeologists had proposed: the 3,000 year timeline of this village and its trade connections with Rome. Doubts, if any, about the antiquity of Pattanam appear settled.

Molecular biologists too are at work in Pattanam. Their DNA analysis of excavated human remains would answer questions about the origins of Pattanam inhabitants. Did Dravidians, Europeans and Africans live in this village near the Kerala coast?

Archaeologists of the Kerala Council for Historical Research (KCHR), over the last seven years, had unearthed thousands of artefacts in Pattanam.

Based on a careful analysis of the material evidence and a close study of the stratigraphy (layers of deposits), experts had suggested that Pattanam was inhabited from Iron Age (10th Century BCE to 5th century BCE) and Roman trade peaked between 1st century BCE and 4th century CE.

However, the KCHR did not undertake a comprehensive carbon dating of the objects so far. This had raised questions about the accuracy of proposed chronology. Suggestions about the multicultural setting of the lost city also needed supportive evidence.

Last year, the KCHR decided to corroborate their findings. They sought the help of G.V. Ravi Prasad of the Center for Applied Isotope Studies (CAIS), University of Georgia, U.S. The CAIS, using Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, analysed 13 organic samples that included bone fragments, charcoal bits and frankincense taken from different layers of two trenches.

The results validated Pattanam’s timeline and its links with Romans.

A sample of frankincense, probably brought from Saudi Arabia and found at 4.2 metre depth, is among the oldest objects. This, as carbon analysis reveals, is datable to 356 to 196 BCE and predates the Roman phase.

A piece of charcoal, found along with carnelian stone beads, gold filament and amphora shreds, at 3 metre depth is dated to 111 to 40 BCE when trade with Roman empire was active in Pattanam.

The only note of discordance between carbon and archaeological dating is regarding the layers containing bone fragments. The carbon analysis has found the bone fragments older than what archaeologists think.

Dr. Prasad, in a brief note provided by the KCHR, explained that this difference, which is about 300 years, could be due to the nature of the sample material.

“The carbon isotopic composition of a bone can be different after burning due to exchange with the fuel used for burning,” he said.

Study on skeletal remains

Niraj Rai, molecular biologist with the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, is studying the skeletal remains excavated in Pattanam.

“The morphological features of the remains suggest that they are of human origin,” he said. The samples, about 13 of them, would be tested at the advanced DNA laboratory dealing with ancient human skeletal materials in the CCMB.

“DNA would be extracted from the samples and the mitochondrial DNA would be sequenced and matched with both published and unpublished DNA data base of modern human beings throughout the world,” Mr. Rai said.

“Depending on the mitochondrial sequences and their match, we can ascertain whether the human remains are that of Romans or Dravidians or Africans.” The results of this analysis would be known in a couple of weeks.

P.J. Cherian, Director, Pattanam Excavations, said “this exercise, which corroborates the chronological assumptions derived from the excavation data, reiterates the importance of archaeo-science and need to invest more in this field. We expect the Archaeological Survey of India and Oxford University to directly participate in the excavations in future.’

Keywords: Pattanam antiquity, 

More In: National | News | History & Culture | Friday Review

11

Comments(2) Recommended Post a comment

These areas were part of ancient Tamil country!!

from:  Venkatesan

Posted on: May 22, 2013 at 12:54 IST

Great finding. There were some opposition from some historians like MGS.Narayanan, which now seems to have turned false.

from:  Roopesh P Raj

Posted on: May 22, 2013 at 10:55 IST

Indian intelligentsia led by The Hindu, CPI-M, failed Tamils: Thirumurugan with video

Indian intelligentsia led by The Hindu, CPI-M, failed Tamils: Thirumurugan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 March 2013, 04:23 GMT]
Talking about the two sides of Indian intelligentsia, and from where the struggle in Tamil Nadu is gaining its ideological support, Mr Thirumurugan Gandhi of the May 17 Movement said, the Indian intelligentsia that is mostly Left-orientated and goes with the CPI-M has failed Tamils in the past. The CPI-M, for its information, depends on The Hindu or NGOs like the Observer Research Foundation that is liaising between the Establishments in Colombo and New Delhi, said Mr Thirumurugan in an exclusive interview to TamilNet in last November.




Excerpts of further observations by Mr Thirumurugan Gandhi:

On the question of Sri Lanka, The Hindu, The Front Line and The Economic and Political Weekly, have links with the CPI-M ideology that is corrupt and depends on pro-Sri Lanka outfits.

On the Eezham Tamil question, there is no open and frank intellectual discussion in India, participated by all sides.

The Maoist intellectuals have recognized the need for the creation of a State for Eezham Tamils in recent times. But they were late.

The CPI-M, which is ideologically corrupt, non-committal and narrow-minded, didn't recognise the Tamil nation or the need for the creation of a Tamil nation in the island.

The CPI-M intellectuals avoid discussions in public. They don't talk about nationality question, which is very important in Asian politics. It is not just Eezham. It is about Kashmir, there is a North-Eastern question, Tibetan question, Baloch question and Kurdistan question and even the Palestine question.

They have a phobia that the moment Tamil Eelam is created, India would disintegrate.

This is the problem with the Delhi-based or Mumbai-based civil society activists. But, if you look on the other side, there are intellectuals like Vara Vara Rao, S.A.R. Gilani or Jagat Mohan Singh. They are sympathetic to Tamils and understand what went on in Sri Lanka, in Eezham. They stand with Tamil Eelam people. They understand it because they have their own problems in their community.

How come the capitalist USA, the Marxist CPI-M, the Indian government and the Sri Lankan government viewed the Tigers as terrorists [at the same time]?

After 2009, the IC wanted to kill the idea of Tamil Nation. We thought that the IC would honestly go for a political solution and settlement on the basis of what the Tamil people wanted.

But, why are they quick to kill the idea of Tamil Nation is the question. I think that the IC didn't put enough thinking on what the other side is doing or could do.

If you kill the idea of Tamil Nation, you are not just making the Sri Lankan government more comfortable in completing its genocide. Sri Lanka will become a powerful State with a racist and chauvinist intent with its geopolitical and strategic location and with a history of manipulating the Powers – a trend not only identified today but also for years in the past.

This State with a 200,000 strong military would destabilize the entire region. You will end up with inability to handle it if you continue with [the outlook of conceding geopolitical concessions to Sri Lanka].

Any racial regime throughout the history, be it [Fascist] Italy, be it Nazi-Germany or [imperial] Japan, will be a difficult factor to handle over a period of time. Once you allow, it will become the destabilizing factor of the entire region.

How to handle it? Only the Tamil people know how to handle the Sinhalese throughout the history. Only the creation of Tamil Nation could enable engaging Sri Lanka in a positive way to sustain peace in the region.

I don't think the international think tanks have got the point: be it defence think tanks, political think tanks or even the International Crisis Group is missing that point. They are quick to kill the idea of Tamil Nation with their attitude of you can't talk about Tamil sovereignty, you can't talk about referendum or Tamil Nation.

Seeing the character of the Sri Lankan State is therefore crucial.

We are not begging the IC to create Tamil Nation. It is a forgone conclusion that Tamil Nation would get created on its own. It is a historical reality. It has to happen. You can't kill that idea.

Chronology:

20.03.13  Indian intelligentsia led by The Hindu, CPI-M, fai..

20.03.13  Conscious inequity: The Hindu’s “Mindless solidari..

05.09.12  Genocide partners talk about people to people rela..

03.08.12  The Hindu finds David to defend genocidal culprits

23.04.12  Veteran Tamil activist and humanist reaches 88 in ..

11.04.12  The Hindu envisages India building business over T..

15.03.12  Ram journalism faces criticism in JNU for pro-Sri ..

05.11.11  11 Tibetans commit self-immolation protesting Chin..

03.09.11  The Hindu misquotes TamilNet

30.08.11  Tamil Nadu Assembly, Madras High Court, make prece..

30.08.11  Tamil Nadu tensed over execution of death sentence..

12.08.11  Sikhs condemn New Delhi’s stand against nations in..

06.05.11  Powers, corporate interests behind personal wars i..

18.08.10  The Hindu review accuses LTTE for failure of peace

02.11.08  Dismissive to Sunday Times, acceptable to Hindu

16.10.08  Attack on media: freedom, arrogance and playing wi..

Conscious inequity: The Hindu’s “Mindless solidarity”

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 March 2013, 01:28 GMT]

As the peoples’ mobilisation in Tamil Nadu is surging up to question the junta of the Establishments that was ultimately responsible for the genocide and on-going genocide of Eezham Tamils, The Hindu that played a leading part in the media game seems to be ‘missing’ the LTTE. “With the terrorist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam no longer in the picture, large sections of the people in Tamil Nadu have begun to openly sympathise with the plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka,” said the editorial of The Hindu titled “Mindless solidarity” on Tuesday. The Hindu, perhaps because of its base in Chennai and perhaps because it represents the interests of a particular class (not exactly caste) suffers from the defect of cat’s eye view when it comes to the question of Eezham Tamils, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo.

TamilNet political commentator continues:

“India’s approach toward Sri Lanka cannot hinge entirely or even primarily on domestic politics in Tamil Nadu,” said The Hindu editorial, detracting the very foundation of the geopolitical assertiveness of the people of Tamil Nadu in facing an international injustice hitherto unseen by Tamils in the history of their civilisation.

Whether The Hindu argues that India’s approach should primarily or entirely hinge on the interests of the corporates run by a particular echelon in India that is in the fray in the island joining hands with the genocidal State, is the question.

The Hindu’s interests in this regard in the ‘unity’ of the island is yet to be fully comprehended and brought to discussion even by the Sinhalese, if not by the Tamils in Tamil Nadu.

“Those in Tamil Nadu talking of a separate Tamil Eelam as a solution seem to have no clue about the human costs that would be involved in partitioning a country and a people,” The Hindu was shedding crocodile tears.

For adamantly keeping the unity of the genocidal State, India has abetted the killing of over 200,000 Tamils in the last three decades.

In what way it is justifiable for The Hindu that the nation of Eezham Tamils could be left to face the genocide, just because they are Tamils, and the ‘human cost’ could be one-sided forever, not only physically and materially but also psychologically for generations to come, just because of the interest of a section in which The Hindu is a part, in seeing the congenitally genocidal State united?

“India must look beyond Tamil Nadu while bringing to bear diplomatic pressure on Sri Lanka and working in coordination with other countries to ensure full and equal rights for Tamils as citizens of a united Sri Lanka,” The Hindu editorial concluded in unrealistically detracting the geopolitical importance of the extreme south of India where it is based.

* * *

The Hindu editorial on Tuesday has come out with a long preamble, shedding tears for “extremist outfits” in Tamil Nadu carrying out violent attacks on Mihin Lanka airlines offices and student monks from Sri Lanka, to set stage before pricking the support for Tamil Eelam with the fang of venom.

Mihin Lanka’s connections with Mahinda Rajapaksa’s name and family are well known.

The attack on the Sinhala-Buddhist monk, who was part of a student group coming from an institution in Poona, Maharashtra, deserves condemnation without any reservations, even though the monk had the audacity to visit Tamil Nadu at this time.

Unconfirmed reports say that the monk was earlier placed as curator of archaeology in Jaffna immediately after the genocidal war, but he was seen as a JVP sympathiser and a critic of the SL military, especially of the way the SL military had conducted the war against Tamils. He was also seen as against the Rajapaksa regime and reportedly because of his differences with the SL government he went for higher studies in archaeology, finding a placement in India. Whatever the case may be, the attack on the monk was unfortunate.

However, The Hindu that is writing an editorial on the student-monk issue cannot be silent on the plight of thousands of Eezham Tamil boys and girls selected to the universities in the island getting harassed, beaten up and even robbed by their fellow Sinhala students, when they are forced to go for the obligatory in-camp orientation programmes conducted by the Sinhala military that has military to military relationship with India. These unfortunate students have nobody to write editorials.

Talking of ‘mindless solidarity’, when the genocide on Eezham Tamils was conducted, the Establishments followed a policy of ‘do it now, let's deal with the consequences later’, and The Hindu never opposed it.

* * *

Tamil culture in its long history has a particular way of extracting justice from those who have committed injustice. The best-known case has become an epic in the name of Chilappathikaaram.

Thirumalai Naayakkar, who executed Madurai Veeran coming from an oppressed class, was forced to construct a shrine for him inside the Madurai temple and propitiate him as a deity.

The Saiva saint Thirunaa’laip-poavaar (Nanthanaar), who was refused entry into Chithamparam temple by Brahminism and was perhaps burnt alive, has found a place inside every major Saiva temple as part of the 63-saints, whom the Brahmin priests of today have to propitiate 6 times a day.

The Hindu is not extra-terrestrial to escape from realising the realities of the land where it is based in.

Chronology:

20.03.13  Indian intelligentsia led by The Hindu, CPI-M, fai..

20.03.13  Conscious inequity: The Hindu’s “Mindless solidari..

05.09.12  Genocide partners talk about people to people rela..

03.08.12  The Hindu finds David to defend genocidal culprits

23.04.12  Veteran Tamil activist and humanist reaches 88 in ..

11.04.12  The Hindu envisages India building business over T..

15.03.12  Ram journalism faces criticism in JNU for pro-Sri ..

05.11.11  11 Tibetans commit self-immolation protesting Chin..

03.09.11  The Hindu misquotes TamilNet

30.08.11  Tamil Nadu Assembly, Madras High Court, make prece..

30.08.11  Tamil Nadu tensed over execution of death sentence..

12.08.11  Sikhs condemn New Delhi’s stand against nations in..

06.05.11  Powers, corporate interests behind personal wars i..

18.08.10  The Hindu review accuses LTTE for failure of peace

02.11.08  Dismissive to Sunday Times, acceptable to Hindu

16.10.08  Attack on media: freedom, arrogance and playing wi..

Related Articles:
09.09.12   Outlook attacks The Hindu’s Sri Lanka deception


External Links:

The Hindu:

Mindless solidarity

Tamil-Brahmi script discovered on Tirupparankundram hill

T. S. Subramanian

• 
  The picture shows the estampage on the Tamil- Brahmi script discovered on January 20, 2013 on a step leading to a pond on top of the Tirupparankundram hill, near Madurai. Photo: R. Ramesh
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  Handwritten copy of the Tamil-Brahmi script discovered on January 20, 2013 on top of the Tirupparankundram hill, near Madurai. The script, in two lines, reads “Muu-na-ka-ra” and “Muu-caka- ti.” The script is datable prior to the first century BCE. Photo: M. Prasanna

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The lines read as “Muu-na-ka-ra” and “Muu-ca-ka-ti”

Young archaeologists M. Prasanna and R. Ramesh like to climb the hills around Madurai, which have pre-historic rock art, Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions on the brow of natural caverns, beautiful bas-reliefs of Jaina “tirthankaras” and beds cut on the flat rock surface for the Jaina monks to sleep on. These hills include Mankulam, Keezhavalavu, Tiruvadavur, Varichiyur, Mettupatti, Anaimalai, Kongar Puliyankulam and Muthupatti.

The duo aspired to discover a Tamil-Brahmi script on the hills. While Prasanna is an assistant archaeologist in the Archaeological Survey of India, Ramesh works in the University Grants Commission-Special Assistance Programme under Professor K. Rajan of the Department of History, Pondicherry University.

On January 20, 2013, they climbed the Tirupparankundram hill, where three Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions, datable to the first century BCE, were discovered many decades ago. As they climbed the several hundred steps leading to the Kasi Viswanathar temple, they wondered whether they would be lucky this time. Behind this temple are bas-reliefs of Jaina tirthankaras on the rock surface. There are also recently carved images of Ganesa, Muruga, Bhairava and others. Near the temple, there is a pond and a shrine dedicated to Machchamuni (matsya muni), meaning fish god. The pond is full of fish. There are steps cut on the rock, leading to the pond.

As they were scanning the rock surface, their eyes fell on the steps leading to the pond and they saw what looked like a Tamil-Brahmi script in two lines. Excited, they turned the pages of the book titled “Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions,” published by the Tamil Nadu Archaeology Department in 2006. They read the pages on the earlier discoveries of the Tamil-Brahmi script at Tirupparankundram and found that this was a new discovery. They rang up Dr. Rajan who confirmed that it had not been documented earlier.

The lines, each having four letters, read as, “Muu-na-ka-ra” and “Muu-ca-ka-ti.” The first line has a trishul-like symbol as a graffiti mark at its end. The first letter “muu” can mean “three” or being ancient or old. “In the present context, the meaning of ancient is more probable,” Ramesh and Prasanna said. The na-ka-ra/na-kar-r represents a town or city. So the first line could be read as “ancient town,” probably meaning Madurai, they suggested. In the second line, the first letter “muu” again stands for “ancient or old.” The remaining three letters, ca-ka-ti/ca-k-ti may represent a “yakshi,” they said. (Yakshis are women attendants of the 24 Jaina tirthankaras). “So the inscription can be read as goddess of the ancient city. But it is open to different interpretations,” they said.

V. Vedachalam, retired senior epigraphist, Tamil Nadu Archaeology Department, said the first line stood for an elderly Jaina monk and the second one could mean “motcha/moksha gadhi.” So the script could stand for a Jaina monk who, facing north, went on a fast unto death there. That is, he attained nirvana. This is the first time that a Tamil-Brahmi script, referring to a Jaina monk who fasted unto death, had been discovered. Other Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions referred to donors who cut beds on rocks for Jaina monks or sculpted rock-shelters for them.

A. Karthikeyan, Professor, Department of Tamil Studies in Tamil University at Thanjavur, suggested that the inscription could be read as “the attainment of liberation or salvation (moksha) of a female monk (saadhvi), namely elderly naakaraa. “Moksha gadhi” could be changed into muccakati. “It is difficult to assign a date to this inscription but it can be dated prior to the first century BCE,” said Dr. Rajan.

UPA resigns itself to FDI vote

Special Correspondent

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PTI Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath and his MoS Rajiv Shukla address the media after a meeting with Leaders of Opposition Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley at Parliament House on Wednesday.

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Numbers were “not a worry”, says government; only way to gauge sense of the House is through voting, says Sushma

The government is now reconciled itself to the prospect of a voting motion in Parliament on the issue of foreign direct investment in multibrand retail, after all its efforts to avoid it failed. However a clear picture would emerge on Thursday morning when the presiding officers of both Houses meet the floor leaders of all parties.

In a last ditch attempt, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath on Wednesday met Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and her counterpart in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley here and requested them not to press for a voting motion.

However, the BJP leaders conveyed to the Minister in unambiguous terms that they would settle for nothing less than a motion under Rule 184 in the Lok Sabha and Rule 167 in the Rajya Sabha. Given its precarious numbers in the Rajya Sabha, the government would like to avoid a vote in the Upper House.

After the meeting, Mr. Nath told reporters that though the government was opposed to a voting motion, it decided to leave it to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari to decide on the rule to ensure smooth functioning of Parliament.

Earlier, he also met the Lok Sabha Speaker and on Tuesday the Rajya Sabha Chairperson.

Parliament could not transact any business in the current winter session due to the logjam on the FDI motion. The government was opposed to a voting motion as some of the UPA allies like the DMK and supporting parties like the Samajwadi Party have reservations about allowing FDI in retail.

Besides, the government did not want to set a ‘precedent’ of a voting motion on an executive decision. But the Opposition pointed out that in 2001 the Lok Sabha had taken a vote on disinvestment of BALCO.

Sensing that the Opposition was in no mood to relent, the ruling party managers got into the act last week to prevail upon its allies and supporting parties not to go with the rivals.

That the Congress succeeded in securing the support of the DMK became evident when DMK chief M. Karunanidhi issued a statement in Chennai on Tuesday on the decision of his party to rally behind the government in the event of a voting motion, in the interest of the stability of the government.

The position of the Trinamool Congress, whose no-confidence motion failed due to lack of support from the rest of the Opposition, that it is not enthused by the voting motion on FDI has come as a bonus to the UPA.

The Samajwadi Party has not spelt out its stand publicly but indications are that it would not like to be on the same side as the BJP if it comes to voting even on an issue like the FDI.

Asked whether the government resisted a voting motion as it lacked the numbers, Mr. Nath maintained: “From day one, I have said we have the numbers.”

Namma Madurai: History hidden inside a cave

S. S. KAVITHA

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• 
  The Hindu RELICS OF JAINS: Bas-relief sculptures. Photo:R. Ashok
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  The Hindu RELICS OF JAINS: Bas-relief sculptures. Photo: R. Ashok
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  The Hindu RELICS OF JAINS: View of the cave. Photo :R. Ashok

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Deciphering the upside-down letters engraved in the Keelavalavu Jain cave

The otherwise serene village of Keelavalavu is often in the news for the wrong reasons, usually simmering caste fanaticism and granite quarrying.

Somehow, the village has managed to preserve the Jain beds that testify to its association with a 2500-year-old religion.

A left turn on the Tirupathur road from Madurai leaves you on a country road that in turn leads to the Jain caves, once the abode of monks and a residential school that dates back to the 2nd century BC.

Neatly cut steps on the hillock make climbing easy.

And the natural cave with uniformly designed rock beds and sculptures of Jain monks has withstood the ravages of time. But now, this 2000-year-old monument faces a threat from mammoth cranes and dynamites.

Though the Archaeological Survey of India is maintaining the monument, the ongoing quarry work in nearby places is certainly posing a threat to the structure, evidence of the rich culture and tradition of a bygone era.

Keelavalavu cave is one of the earliest Jain caves found in and around Madurai.

The other caves belonging to the same period are at Mangulam, Arittapatti, Thiruvadavur and Varichiyur.

The cave has a drip-ledge on the brows that keeps rainwater out. On the brow, there are deeply cut rectangular holes that provided space for erecting thatched sheds whenever necessary.

One unique feature of the Keelavalavu cave is the presence of Tamil Brahmi letters which are upside down.

The inscription says that ‘a person hailing from Thondi made these beds.’ “Similar upside-down message is found written at Kundrakudi beds,” says C. Santhalingam, retired archaeological officer. “These letters are deciphered using a mirror.”

Painted sculptures

In total there are nine sculptures in the cave belonging to 9th and 10th century AD: three in the centre and six on the left side.

The 24th Thirthankara Mahavir is sculpted in a sitting posture (Arthapariyanga asana) and Parsuvanathar is in a standing posture (Kayothsarga asana). There is a sculpture of Bagubali, also known as Gomatheeswarar.

Green, red, yellow and black paint colours the sculptures, and the fresco technique has been used. “Bas relief sculptures are covered with well-ground lime coating. Paintings are drawn on the coating before getting dried,” says Santhalingam.

“These features indicate that Jainism flourished in the 9th and 10th century AD in these areas,” says Santhalingam.

According to Madurai Mavatta Tholiyal Kaiyedu, the Vattezhuthu inscription found here reads that one Sankaran Sri Vallabhan made one of the sculptures, donated 50 goats for lighting a perpetual lamp and served food offerings while performing pujas at the cave.

“The hillock also has some geometrical shapes drawn with red ochre,” says Santhalingam.

“These paintings indicate that the hill might have been a residential area of ancient tribes.”

The other part of the hillock has a 10th century Vattezhuthu inscription referring to Sri Katti and Sri Kaalan Aratti and the grinding stones (kal ural) donated by them.

The Keelavalavu cave lies on the Chola–Pandya trade route. The connecting trade route is Alagarmalai, Mangulam, Arittapatti, Keelavalavu and Kundrakudi.

Melavalavu

Perhaps it is not wrong to refer to Melavalavu as Keelavalau’s twin village. Though Melavalavu does not possess Jain caves, it, too, has some remnants from the past.

Nestled between rocky hillocks named Somagiri malai and Muri malai, encompassing Parambu kanmai flecked with storks, the water body that gave the village its ancient name, Melavalavu looks heavenly.

An inscription (dated 1238–1239) found at a sluice narrates that during the regime of Later Pandya king Maravarman Sundarapandian I (1216-1238), a person named Alwaan Sakkarakaiyan hailing from Kovur worked on raising the bund of the water body. It also reads that the village was known as ‘Parambu alias Narayana Mangalam.’ Another inscription (15th century) dating to the regime of Vijayanagara king Virupaacharayar also confirms the name of the village as ‘Parambu alias Thiru Narayana Mangalam.’

Santhalingam says, “The village was so famous that those days the geographical locations for other villages were marked with the tag ‘parapu’ like ‘vadaparapu naadu’ and ‘thenparapu naadu.”

Keywords: Keelavalavu Jain cave

மாறாதையா மாறாது! இந்து என்றும் மாறாது! The Hindu finds David to defend genocidal culprits

The Hindu finds David to defend genocidal culprits

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 August 2012, 17:44 GMT]
Chennai-based Indian media The Hindu, well known for the roles it played in setting opinion against the independence of Eezham Tamils, in deliberately failing to bring in awareness even when the war was turning into one of the worst genocides of modern times, and in image-building exercises for the Rajapaksa regime after the war, was trying to absolve an array of culprits from the crimes on Thursday, by finding a respected person like Gandhiyam David at the age of 88, to naively pass the blame on the LTTE. In April this year David was cited saying that he should be buried in Vanni when Tamil Eelam becomes a reality. The Hindu desecrated him on Thursday by tagging him as “Sri Lankan Gandhian”. Mr. David should have refrained from honouring a media like The Hindu by giving an interview, commented a new generation politician in the island.

Further comments from the new generation politician follow:

According to the feature, “Reminiscences of a Sri Lankan Gandhian,” by B. Kolappan in The Hindu, Mr David has said, “large-scale human casualties could have been avoided if LTTE leader V. Prabhakaran had disbanded his force when he realised that the whole world was united in supporting Sri Lanka in the war.”

The big question is whether the LTTE has ever been given with a honourable or internationally guaranteed opportunity either to disband or to remain silent as was with cases such as the Maoists in Nepal. All know that there was no such option even when an entire nation in the diaspora took to streets, demanding the establishments to stop the war. Why was it and who were against the crisis management endeavours?

Genocidal Sri Lanka and the world of establishments in complicity, especially New Delhi wanted a ‘finish to the end’.

“The LTTE leader failed to take into consideration the changing geo-political situation and went too far in his attempt to achieve Tamil Eelam,” David was cited saying by The Hindu.

Again, the entire world knows that the LTTE's chief negotiator Anton Balasingham was prepared to explore solutions under ‘internal self-determination’. The ISGA proposals by LTTE leadership was sabotaged. Later, Rajapaksa was speaking of village-level civic bodies. The compromise with an unworthy State and dubious mediators only led to a trap. Norway’s report comes out with multiple reasons for the failed peace facilitation.

Changed geo-political situation didn’t prevent some others getting independence. If there was a special ‘geopolitics’ in South Asia that was only India and when was it or The Hindu saw righteousness in Eezham Tamils getting independence, for them to ‘change’?

Mr David was further cited: “I have no doubt that it was he [Prabhakaran] who saved Tamils. But I always had reservations about accepting him as a leader of the Tamils. There was a flaw in his personality.”

With all respect to Mr. David’s personal views, the question comes what justice has been achieved by telling this to The Hindu that has an obsession with shielding an array of personalities, establishments and social echelons, the magnitude of the flaws and crimes of which have never been seen before by Tamils in their long history, commented the politician in the island.

* * *

In April 2012, just before his 88-birthday, talking to TamilNet from his Anna Nagar Residence, Mr David said, "I appeal to the expatriate Tamils to continue the struggle in the Gandhian way to impose the moral responsibility on the leading Governments of the West to facilitate the birth of Tamil Eelam. There is no question in my mind that Tamils have the right to live freely in their own homeland.”

How to continue a Gandhian struggle to impose the moral responsibility on the New Delhi establishment and on the media establishments like The Hindu has become a bigger challenge, not only for the diaspora but also for the people of Tamil Nadu, commented a diaspora activist

Chronology:

03.08.12  The Hindu finds David to defend genocidal culprits

23.04.12  Veteran Tamil activist and humanist reaches 88 in ..

External Links:

The Hindu:

Reminiscences of a Sri Lankan Gandhian

Tale to defend treachery won’t help India’s future prospects with Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 July 2012, 15:58 GMT]

Marking the 25th anniversary of signing the failed Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of 29 July 1987, The Hindu came out with an article on Saturday written by Col. R. Hariharan, who was head of military intelligence for the IPKF operations of the legacy of first large-scale war crimes committed against Eezham Tamils. The article, “A Tale of Two Interventions,” compared India’s success under Indira Gandhi in Bangladesh in 1971 and failure under Rajiv Gandhi in Sri Lanka in 1987, and concluded that in the post-2009 scenario, “What India does not have is a dynamic national leadership.” But the old soldier is still on ‘duty’ assigned to him in 1987, as the psy-op thrust of the article is to defend the 13th Amendment as “the most significant achievement of the Accord,” and as an evidence for India’s support to “the minority demand for an equitable deal.”

“[…] The Accord sent home a strong message to all stakeholders: India would not ignore strategic developments in its close proximity in Sri Lanka, and would support the minority demand for an equitable deal. The most significant achievement of the Accord was the introduction of the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution which provided a degree of autonomy to the newly created provinces. And it still exists as the only constitutional tool available to redress Tamil,” Hariharan claimed in The Hindu opinion feature.

“The Accord failed to achieve its strategic goals in full. The devolution of powers to the Tamil minority promised in the Accord remains unfulfilled despite the 13th Amendment. But the Accord retains the potential as an instrument of Indian influence in the region,” the former IPKF intelligence chief further said.

This is typical of the IPKF generation’s way, as well as today’s New Delhi establishment’s way, of twisting their treachery on the nation of Eezham Tamils for their obsession in preserving the territorial integrity of the genocidal state of Sri Lanka.

“Rajiv Gandhi also made unwritten promises that India could not sustain later,” Hariharan said, but he didn’t specify what promises were made and to whom were they made.

“Sent to Sri Lanka to help implement the Accord, the Indian Army unexpectedly got entangled in war with the LTTE insurgents who refused to lay down arms and join the political mainstream,” Hariharan’s observations were contrary to many other writings on how some key Indian officials worked out a rift between Rajiv and the LTTE and how there were pre-conceived plans on the Indian side for the elimination of the LTTE.

“The three-year war cost the lives of 1,255 Indian soldiers; thousands of Sri Lankans were killed or wounded,” Hariharan didn’t want to say the killed and wounded were Tamils. They are denied of their identity even posthumously and are desecrated by the imposed identity ‘Sri Lankans’.

For Bangladesh, Hariharan gives the number of Pakistani soldiers killed as 9,000. But in the case of the IPKF operation, its ‘intelligence’ head has no account either for the LTTE cadres killed, or for the civilians killed, maimed and raped by the Indian military.

Many Indian psy-op writers choose to trace the tragedy of Eezham Tamils to Rajiv assassination. They never recognize that the quarter a century of events, the genocidal war and the on-going annihilation of the nation of Eezham Tamils are sequels of the Indo-Lanka Accord, first of all ill-conceived and then bungled.

“After the signing of the Accord, Tamils built up high expectations based on the Indian intervention in Bangladesh, without realising that the circumstances were different,” Hariharan blames the common Tamil public that had not suspected the discrimination in the minds of the esoteric in New Delhi.

All the militant groups and especially the LTTE had a full knowledge of it. When some members in the militant groups wanted to explain that to the common people, such members were targeted and eliminated on the advice of Indian intelligence, as India wanted the Tamils to have ‘high expectations’.

Those who didn’t realise the changed circumstances then were after all gullible commoners. But the circumstances are further different today. How many in the IPKF generation of Hariharan and in the national security and policy planning portals of New Delhi have realised that the 13th Amendment that had a ‘starting problem’ for 25 years cannot even be a starting point today?

The absence of a national goal in the intervention in Sri Lanka in 1987 led to warped military thinking, Hariharan’s feature was disproportionately militaristic.

The question is that what ‘national goal’ has been achieved in 2009 by allowing a genocide, by facilitating continued structural genocide, by guaranteeing the unity of a genocidal state and protecting its regime, and by making the nation of Eezham Tamils to count India out in its aspirations – all for finally bringing in a three-power situation in the island.

The problem of India is not the absence of a dynamic national leadership, as Hariharan says. The idea that one billion people should look upon one person is dictatorial, which many in the intelligence sector of India seem to have a fascination for. The real problem is the structure of the establishment in New Delhi – a holy cow coming from the Moghul Empire and British India, which even a democratic India could not touch.

Inertia, arrogance and greed for easy shopping opportunities in the island don’t allow this structure to intelligently explore alternatives to synthesize its national goals with the righteous aspirations of a persistently struggling people.

The real legacy of the Indo-Lanka Accord and the continued adherence of New Delhi to the unity of Sri Lanka is that it has made not only Eezham Tamils but also Tamils within India and everywhere else in the world to view New Delhi as the foremost adversary. To what extent this helps India’s ‘national goals’ may have to be explained to the peoples of India by old guards like Hariharan and a media like The Hindu.

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A tale of two interventions