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Wednesday December 31, 1969

Srilanka War

By Chinna Karuppan

Again, the Srilankan war is flaring up.

Both the sides have created an environment in which common people are afraid of voicing

their opinion. Srilankan govt. had announced a War declaration and had muzzled the foreign

and domestic press. Every one the reporters have to submit a copy to the govt. and get

their approval and then only they are allowed to publish any articles. As for the Tigers

organization, they had been consistently against the independent journalism.

One report says there are 40000 Srilankan troops are marooned in Jaffna. Another report

says there are 20000 troops marooned. This itself is an example of media arm twisting.

Almost everyone have an opinion about Srilankan problem. From the Dhabas to Chola

Sheraton, from our local politician to the External affairs secretary of US, almost

everyone have their own opinion. And almost everyone feels strongly about their opinions.

Indian govt. is afraid that once they give support to the Eelam, then the Kashmiri

separatists too will be emboldened. Meanwhile, Pakistan had announced, without any

thought, that they are ready to support Srilanka militarily, for the territorial integrity

of Srilanka.

TamilNadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi had reminded Indian govt. about the fiasco called

IPKF and had requested the govt. not to pitch in for the Srilankan govt.. BJP which is

ruling in the coalition govt. may not be ready to antagonize TamilNadu CM. Earlier, during

the Rajiv and Indira period, no Indian Tamil was involved in formulating the Srilankan

policies in Indian govt. That is a well known fact. It is a valid question, When India

helped create Bangladesh during 1971, why then it is not helping to create Eelam where

similar genocide is happening? Can we say it is due to the fact that Indian govt. (of

congress rule) had visualized the Indian Tamils less than patriotic? Today, Indian govt.

is run by a coalition govt. and is having an all India Character. This is heartening.

Still Indian govt. is confusing the Kashmir issue with the Tamil Eelam issue.

Both are two entirely different problems.

Kashmir problem is created by Pakistan, for the benefit of Pakistan, run by the

terrorists exported from Pakistan. Here even the Kashmiris are victims of this cross

border war. There is absolutely no discrimination in India for the Kashmiris, or for their

language or for their religion in India. There is absolutely no difference between the

Muslims living in Kerala, or the Muslims living in Hyderabad or the Muslims living all

throughout India side by side with the Hindus and the Muslims living in Kashmir. To ask

now whether the King of Kashmir did right or wrong, whether kashmir should be part of

India or Pakistan are all irrelevant and inconsequential.

Real reason is entirely different. All the rivers flowing into Pakistan are originating

in Kashmir. if at all India decides to build dams in Kashmir to divert the water to other

Indian states, then Pakistan (particularly Punjab part and Sindh part of Pakistan) will

become deserts. That is why Kashmir is treated as the life and death problem for Pakistan.

Other than that, there is no love for Kashmiris in Pakistan. Over and above, "the

place where no grass grows" , the Siachin glacier is the origin of all the rivers.

That is why the war is happening there.

In 1971, when the Bangladesh war was going on, the Biharis were fighting alongside the

Pakistani military, and helped the killing of scores of Hindu Bangladeshis and leftist

intellectuals and students.

These Biharis are the Muslims who opted for Pakistan and moved to then East Pakistan

during the partition. These people speak Urdu. The Bengalis speak Bengali. When the Urdu

was imposed on East Pakistan by Jinnah and the leaders who came after him, the language

war started in East Pakistan and then later became liberation war for Bangladesh. During

all that the Biharis acted at the behest of West Pakistan Masters in imposing Urdu on

Bengalis. 

Even after Bangladesh was created, these Biharis refused to call themselves as

Bangladeshis despite the offer for citizenship from Bangladesh govts. From 1971 to till

date these people are asking for the move to Pakistan. Pakistan had agreed to give them

citizenship. But even then they scuttled every effort to move these people physically to

Pakistan. These people are living in Bangladesh in shanty refugee tents for all these

years. Pakistan never cared for them. What about the human rights of these people? Or are

not these people Muslims? Why Pakistan is denying these Muslims what they wanted?

Hence, what is happening in Kashmir is pure and simple land grab effort. Many Indian

Kashmiris are supporting this too. Indian govts. run by the congress party had messed up

the whole thing for all these years. Article 370 had alienated the Kashmiris from the

national outlook and Mainstream India. BJP who had asked the votes promising that they

will remove this article, now says it is not part of the NDA agenda.

That is a separate story. Srilanka problem is not like this. India never had an intent

to grab Eelam. This problem is not created by India. It is a purely creation of Sinhala

only policies of Jeyawardane and other politicians who were intent on Tamil genocide and

cultural genocide. Srilankan govt. had tried to dilute the Tamil presence in the

traditional Tamil areas by forcing Sinhalese settlers in to these areas. It had give

preference to Sinhalese in govt. jobs. Sinhalese army had burnt down the great Tamil

libraries in Jaffna University. It had forced Tamils to learn Sinhala. On the other hand,

Indian govt. from beginning had tried to keep Srilanka united. During 1970s Indian govt.

sent Indian troopers to quell the powerful Sinhalese leftist uprising by "Janata

Vimukthi Peramuna" . Around 50000 to 100000 Sinhalese leftists were killed by both

Sinhalese and Indian military during these years. During the 80s it sent Indian troopers

again (as IPKF) to suppress the Tamil revolt. It had consistently demonstrated that India

is interested in keeping Srilanka united. If they had not sent during either time, by now,

Srilanka would be two countries.

I don't think it is impossible for Sinhalese and Tamils to live together. They have

been living together as friends families and lovers, showing the world that they too are

humans. But I believe that two groups only living together in one state is next to

impossible. If Karnataka and Andhra were grouped together in one nation, they too would be

fighting more viciously that what we see in Eelam. India with its 25 language groups and

distributed power sharing, had come to live as democracy of groups. Here every linguistic,

religious, casteist group's rights are protected in the great dilution. Europe is working

to evolve a working model like India. That is no mean achievement.