DMK dramatics with eye to polls
The DMK’s sheer brazenness in announcing its pullout from the ruling coalition at the Centre takes one’s breath away. The decision that was made public on Tuesday is noteworthy for its opportunism as it leaves the door open for the Dravidian party’s return to UPA-2 if the Manmohan Singh government — in the next two days — brings a resolution before Parliament condemning Sri Lanka on the question of human rights abuses against its Tamil population after the military defeat of the LTTE.
The DMK believes, mistakenly, that it alone has backed the legitimate grievances of Sri Lankan Tamils. This is both false and sanctimonious. Other parties in Tamil Nadu have done exactly that. No less important, the key concern in the Government of India’s diplomacy towards Sri Lanka in the last 25 years has been the Tamil question in that country. Thus, the false narrative sought to be woven by the DMK that, in India, it should be seen as the fountainhead of support to Sri Lankan Tamils is hypocritical.
DMK supremo M. Karunanidhi turned away three senior Union Cabinet ministers who had gone to reason with him on the stand he has taken on the Sri Lanka Tamil issue. Mr Karunanidhi desires that India should take the initiative at the forthcoming meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva to denounce Colombo for visiting “genocide” on its Tamil population, and to seek an independent international inquiry into alleged rights abuses of non-combatants after the defeat and death of LTTE chief Vellupillai Prabhakaran. The DMK leader wants the proposed resolution in Parliament should be infused with the same spirit.
In these columns we have always voiced the demand for a credible independent inquiry. But no objective observer can believe that “genocide” has been carried out in Jaffna by the Sri Lankan authorities. Even the most cursory visit to the northern parts of the island nation rules out such an inference. It is, indeed, noteworthy that the DMK did not raise the issue of “genocide” or an independent inquiry in the summer of 2009 after the LTTE’s defeat by Sri Lankan forces when atrocities on civilians are alleged to have taken place.
If such demands are being made now along with the decision to leave the UPA after nine years, it is clearly with an eye to the coming general election. Mr Karunanidhi clearly believes the Lanka Tamil issue is the only mobilising plank he may possess, and is doing his best to milk it. For now, it seems clear that the government is not falling even if the DMK departs.
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