Tamil vote spells great chance
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Chennai: The thumping victory of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in the Saturday poll in the northern province is very much on expected line, though the fury in the Tamil trouncing of President Mahinda Rajapaksa's United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) was not.
Another unexpected thing was the large voter turnout despite fears of army/police intimidation. It was obvious that the Tamils wanted to express themselves, rather loudly, in this first major political exercise since the destruction of the Eelam dream in May 2009.
Actually, the TNA had won the poll on July 15, when it 'unanimously' resolved that C. V. Wigneswaran, retired judge of the Supreme Court, would be its Chief Minister candidate in the northern province election.
Apart from being an erudite scholar and highly respected across the island, he was also apolitical. While a few pointed to this as a flaw and shortcoming since they believed that the Tamils should have a shrewd leader with 'field experience' for the tough task of dealing with the 'intransigent' Sinhala regime, many believed that his not being politically coloured made Wigneswaran most suited.
Among the stout supporters of his candidature was the octogenarian TNA chief R Sampanthan.
Many thought that Sampanthar Ayya would be the natural choice as CM in the post-war Tamil region. The sophisticated politician decided that Tamils' future was more important than his own elevation; he also brushed aside recommendations from some of the TNA leaders that his long-time lieutenant Mavai Senathirajah, MP, could be the CM candidate.
By opting for Wigneswaran, the TNA avoided a leadership tussle within the alliance but more importantly, won a wide public acceptance-not just for its CM candidate but also for its entire team in the poll.
Winning such a massive mandate, a little over 78 per cent, from the Tamils in the north has given the TNA and its CM a golden opportunity for securing the richly deserved and long-denied political space in Sri Lanka.
President Rajapaksa badly needed this image of a 'reconciliationist' holding these elections in Tamil area to look good as a host at the CHOGM meet in November and hopefully to ward off demands for war crimes accountability.
Nothing could have been better for the Tamils than this stunning victory for their efforts to project such a solid picture of unity in choosing its spokesperson at future negotiations with Colombo, where Wigneswaran had already earned big reputation as a sound jurist.
India must be happy, too; for it now has a mass-accepted Tamil leader to deal with. If the last one, Velupillai Prabhakaran, was not so friendly, Delhi was to be as much blamed as the slain Tiger chief was. At least now, the Indian polity and its diplomatic corps must work better on Lanka. Hopefully, the jingoism in Tamil Nadu would dip into irrelevance.
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