[Video Interview]
[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 May 2012, 13:00 GMT]
We should demand withdrawal of SL military and creation of an
atmosphere conducive to conduct an UN-monitored referendum for Eezham
Tamils to decide on their political solution, said Mr. C. Mahendran of
the Communist Party of India (CPI), interviewed Friday in Oslo by
Palaka’ni presenter M.Pirabukannan from Tamil Nadu. If Washington and
New Delhi want to refuse our rights, let them try. This is a struggle
for justice. The emancipation comes when you realise that rights cannot
be won by the mercy of others. Independence is achieved through uprising
of people and their resolve. The unity of Tamil Nadu, Eezham Tamils and
the diaspora holds the key. The next phase is to evolve joint action
based on mass struggle from the three dimensions. I am convinced about
big changes taking place in Tamil Nadu. Mu’l’livaaykkaal has brought a
historic task on to World Tamils, he further told Palaka'ni.
Mr Mahendran is currently visiting Europe.
Mahendran’s
call for a mass struggle jointly undertaken by Tamils in Tamil Nadu, in
the island and in the diaspora to make New Delhi and Washington to
abide by the wishes of the concerned people, was refreshingly different
from the polity of a section in the island and in the diaspora that cite
the powers for desperately advocating capitulation to unjustifiable
solutions, political observers said.
On Tuesday, using a platform
provided by some diaspora Tamils in Norway, the former Norwegian
minister and failed peace facilitator, Erik Solheim, said that there is
no international support for a new separate state in Sri Lanka and his
view is also that of the position of India, and influential parts of the
international community in the United States and Europe.
Solheim
also rejected the possibility of a referendum. He wanted the Tamils to
“behave in an appropriate manner with the international community,” and
“abide by the international community,” when they expect the IC to step
in.
Mahendran in his interview on Friday said that nobody could
say they don’t want Tamil Eelam. He wanted the matter to be decided by
democratic voice of the concerned people in a referendum.
Intervention
doesn't come from mercy, Mahendran said, adding, “do not have any
illusion that you could win the support of the powers such as India and
the USA, only by listening to their advice and by abiding them”.
Washington
and New Delhi and the voices orchestrated by them, sticking to the
position with which they coursed the genocidal war, fail to realize the
gravity of the new dimensions that have come in especially in Tamil Nadu
after the genocide, political observers comparing Solheim and Mahendran
commented.
“What affected me most in my life
so far is Mu'l'livaaykkaal. It has shaken me,” Mahendran who wrote the
first book on Mu’l’livaaykkaal, “Veezhveanen'ru Ninaiththaayoa” (Have
you thought that I would fall), told the interviewer Pirabukannan.
While
writing the book only I realised that Mu’l’livaaykkaal was not a defeat
but it had sawn the seeds waiting for the harvest, Mahendran said.
When
Pirabukannan, who is also from Tamil Nadu and living in Norway, raised a
comment that there is disbelief in sections of the diaspora about
politics in Tamil Nadu taking up the cause of Eezham Tamils, Mahendran
cited the changes that have taken place in the grassroots of Tamil Nadu
influencing the politics there today.
Political parties are only
one of the factors. You need to look at how the working class of people
and the grassroots took it and responded to it, Mahendran pointed out.
Elections
immediately after Mu’l’livaaykkal might not have brought in changes in
the composition of the government. But the situation changed when the
grassroots realised, he said, citing the self-immolation sacrifice of 16
activists, including Muthukumaran, in taking the message to the
grassroots and changing the perspectives.
“I am convinced that the next big changes are going to take place in Tamil Nadu,” Mahendran said.
In
the opinion of political observers, Tamil Nadu with its 70-million
population making the bulk of global Tamils could play a lead role in
demonstrating to Eezham Tamils and in inspiring them on the directions
they should take in the international arena.
In the name of unity
for political solution, currently there is a tendency to mobilise Tamil
politicians in the island and activists in the diaspora separately, to
make them submit to the designs of the powers. USA envisaging ‘new
leadership’ to emerge from the ‘minority’ Tamils in ‘Sri Lanka’ to vest
them with ‘devolved’ provincial powers, has set the lure, diaspora
activists commented.
The so-called leftists among Eezham Tamils,
who were up in arms in the island when the USA invaded Vietnam, are
naïve today when their own homeland faces all the powers in the world.
But, Mahendran rises above in seeing the question of Eezham Tamils not
merely as an issue of Tamils but as a universal struggle.
Communist party leaders like
Mahendran with their understanding and attachment to the issue could do a
lot in mobilising a genuine a mass struggle in Tamil Nadu, inspiring
and coordinating it with the Eezham Tamils in the island and in the
diaspora, and in making New Delhi and Washington to come down in
acknowledging realities, the diaspora activists further said.
Chronology:
Related Articles:17.05.12
Solheim joins orchestration against independence of Eezham T.. 06.03.12
Tamil Nadu demands India to declare Rajapaksa guilty of geno.. 07.02.12
Eezham Tamils await dividends to come from Mahendran’s book 22.02.11
Diaspora legal activists speak to Palaka'ni on ICC case 27.11.10
Poet Kasi Anandan speaks to Palaka'ni 23.08.10
TamilNet launches Palaka'ni 09.06.10
Exert pressure on Colombo to declare detained LTTE members a.. 18.11.08
CPI-led All Party Meeting calls for state-wide protest in Ta.. 19.10.08
Indian federal model insufficient to Sri Lanka, says senior .. 02.10.08
CPI-led hunger strike draws thousands in Tamil Nadu
