TN Muppet show

The jingoistic comedies staged recently in Tamil Nadu to express 'solidarity' with Sri Lanka's "Eezham Tamils facing genocide" throws light on a truth unpalatable to the island's self-styled peace-makers and anti-war crusaders. It is that as long as the likes of the LTTE proxy, so-called Tamil National Alliance, the loony Left and sections of the Tamil-owned media here do not want to sever their political 'umbilical cord' with the 60 million Tamils across the Palk Strait the large majority of Sinhalas will consider themselves – rightly or wrongly – a besieged community. And that will never be conducive to genuine goodwill among communities no matter what political solutions are imposed on the country.

The roots of this siege mentality may be traced back to the time when the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) won a majority of seats in Tamil Nadu - then the State of Madras – defeating the Congress Party in the Indian General Elections of February 1967. According to Sri Lankan Historian, the late Professor Tennekoon Wimalananda, Madras State's then Chief Minister K. Bhakthawaksalam – conceding defeat - said that the DMK victory would mark the beginning of a pestilence that would spread throughout the Madras State. As far Sri Lanka is concerned Bhakthawasalam was prophetic.

If we are to refresh our memory, DMK sprang up primarily as a movement against Brahmin supremacy and caste discrimination in South India. Then known as Dravidar Kazhagam or DK, its founder Periyar E.V. Ramaswamy – better known as E.V.R. – belonged to the launderers' caste. The movement led to the formation of DMK as a political party under C.N. (Conjeevaram Natarajan) Annadurai, popularly called Anna. He was Tamil Nadu's first non-Congress Chief Minister. In fact it was during his term (in 1969) that Madras State was renamed Tamil Nadu.

The Tamil nationalist theme in the writings and speeches of DK and DMK leaders attracted many scholars, teachers and students who became members or sympathizers of DK and DMK. After the 1967 election victory Anna invited Tamils from Fiji, Mauritius, Malay Peninsula, Mombassa, Tanganyika and Sri Lanka to a conference held to discuss the formation of a World Tamil Movement. The Sri Lankan delegation to this conference comprising 234 members was considered as the largest delegation. Federal Party stalwart M. Thiruchelvam QC was given a special place at this 'cultural' conference.

LTTE leader Prabhakaran's lament that 80 million Tamils the world over have no independent state of their own has roots in the ideas raised at this conference.

DMK wanted to strive for an independent Tamil Nadu (Tamil Homeland) with the eventual creation of a Dravidian Federation called "Dravida Nadu" (Dravidian State). But DMK was compelled to abandon its "independence for Tamil Nadu" demand in 1963 immediately after the Indian Parliament passed the 16th Amendment to the Indian Constitution that banned advocates of separatism from running for public offices. (Ironically in Sri Lanka, the TNA - which openly expresses support for the separatist LTTE terrorists - are still in Parliament despite having blatantly violated the pledge given to defend the unitary State when being sworn in as MPs)

The Dravida Nadu idea ended up as a day-dream since there was hardly any support for it from the other three South Indian States –Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala. And DMK failed to fulfill the promises it gave the people in the 1967 election campaign. The party was unable to bring down the price of varieties of grain or increase the water ration given per person in that parched land. So in order to save its crumbling image the DMK diverted public attention to Sri Lanka. The movement hoped to spread their tentacles to the island's Eastern, Central, Uva and Sabaragamuwa Provinces through plantation Tamils. It seemed as if the DMK considered Sri Lankan Tamils the way Hitler looked at Sudeten Germans – all part of one nation.