The master plays his cards

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 July 2008, 14:37 GMT]
Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi, chief minister of the Tamil Nadu state of India, cautioned the Indian Government on Saturday that his state wouldn't hesitate to seek the retrieval of Kachchatheevu from Sri Lanka if the rights of the Tamil Nadu fishermen are not safeguarded. The timing and intensity of the demand leads to wide-ranging speculations among observers.

After inaugurating a state wide, day-long fast by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), the state's ruling party, he called upon New Delhi to take up the issue of Sri Lanka Navy's attacks on Indian fishermen, at the SAARC summit to be held in Colombo in August. A delegation of DMK's Members of Parliament is expected to call on the Indian Prime Minister on Sunday, seeking his immediate intervention in the fishermen's issue, according to news reports from Chennai.

The active stand on Kachchatheevu taken by Kalaignar at this juncture, which is in striking contrast to his detachment and baffling silence over the genocide of Eezham Tamils, has raised questions whether his demand is a tactic to deviate the attention of the people of Tamil Nadu from looking at him as a question mark.

Analysts largely see the ongoing war in Sri Lanka against Eezham Tamils as India's proxy war, abetted by Indian arms, training, naval patrolling, intelligence-sharing, logistical support and encouragement.

In such a background, the grievances of the Tamil Nadu fishermen could have easily been sorted out, had the Indian government really wanted them to be resolved, say analysts.

It is doubtful whether the Indian government, guilty of the proxy war, really wants the free movement of Tamil Nadu fishermen in the seas between Sri Lanka and India, when it is paranoid about spontaneous collaboration of Tamil brethren on either side of the Indo - Sri Lankan waters.

The token fast for the fishermen's rights by DMK, a partner of the Congress establishment of Delhi, is therefore perceived as a smokescreen to bail out the Centre as well as the state government from the wrath of the resenting masses of Tamil Nadu, especially when the elections are around the corner.

Some observers come out with a different speculation. The Congress government faces a serious political crisis at the moment, leading to anticipations of its collapse at any time. Assessments of observers are negative in indications for the coming back of Congress to power in the forthcoming elections. In Tamil Nadu politics, possibilities are seen for the emergence of a powerful third front, other than the DMK and the AIDMK.

Whether Kalaignar's current move has anything to do with manoeuvring political equations in Tamil Nadu and India, is the question of analysts, who are familiar with the modus operandi of the veteran chief of DMK.