A wasted struggle..

These are sad days for SriLankan Tamils. Why SriLankan Tamils..? In fact for the entire Tamil population of the world, these are real sad days..

The SriLankan Tamil Struggle started in the seventies due to Sinhalese majoritarianism. The Sinhalese majority snubbed and suppressed the Tamil speaking minority with a set of rules and regulations that made living untenable for SriLankan Tamils in the island, for whom the island was an equal home as that of majority Sinhalese.

The entire world knew it. The entire world supported the SriLankan Tamils in their fight against the Sinhalese majoritarianism.

Compared to SriLanka, in the Indian Sub-Continent, Tamils were a happy lot. They also had issues like Hindi imposition. But the statesmanship of Nehru ensured that Tamils were fully integrated into the National mainstream.

Today the seat of power in India’s Capital is not decided by Hindi speaking states of Uttar Pradesh or Madhya Pradesh. It is decided by southern states like Andra Pradesh and TamilNadu.

In SriLanka, there was no such statesmanship. The result was a bloody struggle that has spanned four decades. Nearly four decades later, that struggle is becoming wasted.  It looks as though the Sinhalese majoritarianism is going to win the war with all its military might.

What beholds the Tamil population after this struggle is unknown. The entire responsibility for wasting the struggle of Tamils for an Independent Homeland lies with one man’s ego. He is none other than the LTTE supremo Prabakaran.

Prabakaran’s  first blunder was his fascist attitude in eliminating all competing groups. His goons eliminated TELO’s siri sabaratinam, PLOTE’s Uma Maheswaran and even TULF’s Amirthalingam.

Thus LTTE might have enjoyed a brief stint as the sole representative of Tamils. But another side of coin of being the ‘Sole representative’ is being ‘isolated’ totally.  If groups such as PLOTE and TELO had survived, LTTE would not have stood isolated.

The entire world would have listened to multitude of voices coming from different groups. It would have made a better impact. Today, the entire world views LTTE with suspicion and as a fascist group. Hence it does not listen to the sole voice of LTTE.

Diversity always wins!

The second blunder that Prabakaran committed is to kill Rajiv Gandhi. Nehru and siblings of Nehru were always dear to the people in South India. Indira Gandhi was seen as a mother or goddess mother even by people who opposed Indira Gandhi during emergency. Rajiv Gandhi was the son of their home.

Prabakaran, by eliminating Rajiv Gandhi in south Indian soil, eliminated the support that he enjoyed amongst the Tamil masses. In this hour of extinction for LTTE, except for die-hard supporters, there is no large scale reaction amongst the people of TamilNadu.

The Tamil people are sad that the cause of Tamils is getting lost to the Sinhalese majority. They are angry. But then they are not ready to support LTTE or Prabakaran, the killer of Rajiv Gandhi.

If LTTE had not killed Rajiv Gandhi, the reaction in TamilNadu would have been different and violent. The Tamils would have forced the Indian Government to decisively act and stop the SLA operation. They rose against the Sinhalese fascism in the eighties and made the Indian Government to intervene. They would not do that today, for they lost their dear son to Prabakaran’s goons.

The third blunder of Prabakaran is that he does not acknowledge the writing on the wall. He knows he is going to get lost. He knows if the victory of SLA is seen as a military victory, it would be a great danger to the cause of Tamils. The SLA and the Buddhist fascists will force the Sri Lankan Government, not to give much to Tamils, as they have earned their victory.

So if he goes down fighting and the Tamil cause is lost militarily, there is no hope for Tamils in SriLanka in the near future.

The right approach is to give up or stand out of the way and allow LTTE to get into a negotiated settlement by laying down arms. This should have been done 9-12 months back, when SLA was knocking on Jaffna and Prabakaran knew that he is not getting enough arms and ammunition.

Instead he chose to show empty bravado by running school children sorties in trainer aircrafts on  colombo, thinking that he would make some impact.

If Prabakaran personally felt it is humiliating to surrender, he could have committed suicide. When he asked Thileepan and so may others to commit suicide by going on fast for Tamil cause, he should also be ready to do that.

The Tamil cause would not have lost and atleast some rights could have been got from the SriLankan Government, in that case.

Prabakaran by wanting the entire Tamil population to sink with him has caused immense loss to the cause of Tamils in SriLanka.

And thus, the four decades of struggle, life and blood of Tamils is about to go in vain, a wasted struggle, due to the arrogance and fascist leadership of one person!

Hope the SriLankan Tamils get their due after all this struggle. After all they want only a peaceful and honorable life in their own homeland without being suppressed by a brutal majority.

-TBT