By M Rama Rao, India Editor, Asian Tribune
New Delhi, 26 October, (Asiantribune.com): Basil Rajapaksa, who flew in here as the special emissary of his brother and Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa will meet India's External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee today (Sunday) on the situation in the island nation.
The meeting takes place amidst reports that LTTE is not faring as badly as expected on the war front, and that the Tigers are in fact holding on to their turf rather tenaciously. Prolonged war is not what Colombo would like to be engaged in these days of global meltdown and consequent fears of recession.
Basil visit coincides with some mellowing of Muthavel Karunanidhi, the DMK patriarch, the arrest of the unabashedly pro-LTTE, V Gopalaswamy on the charges of sedition for speaking in support of the Tigers, near polarization of Tamil politics into pro and anti- LTTE and calls in Chennai to observe Diwali without crackers in view of the suffering of the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka.
The visiting special emissary will apprise the Indian leadership of how the Mahinda Rajapaksa government is grappling with the fall-out of the war against Tigers on the civilians in the north of the country.
His effort will be to convince Delhi that Colombo is doing its best to safeguard ethnic Tamilians caught in the conflict.
Pranab Mukherjee told Indian Parliament on Friday that the humanitarian plight of Tamils in the war zone remained a matter of concern to Delhi "We don't want influx of Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka into our territory; it is the responsibility of Sri Lanka to provide food and shelter to civilians displaced because of the hostilities", he had stated in what was a reiteration of India's position on the situation in the island nation.
Basil Rajapakse will also meet National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon. His meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is on the cards though not yet scheduled as Singh was returning home from Beijing around Saturday midnight after attending the Asia-Europe Summit (ASEM) in Beijing.
EARFUL TO BASIL
Given the mood in Chennai, Basil will get an earful from his interlocutors here and the message will be that Sri Lanka should toss up political option rather than the militarist solution to the core problem of the island. Concerns of the minority Tamils, which is the core of the ethnic issue in Sri Lanka and the problems faced by Indian fishermen in and around Katchativu which as the Indian Home Minister told the Rajya Sabha is on the SL side will also figure prominently in the Basil interaction with the Indian leadership.
DELHI-CHENNAI SYNERGY
There appears to be some synergy between Delhi and Chennai on the SL issue. This is clear from Karunanidhi's praise of the steps Delhi has taken. The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister said the confidence 'reposed' in the Manmohan Singh government has 'not gone in vain'.
He referred to the unanimous resolution adopted at the DMK sponsored all party meeting (boycotted by AIADMK and its allies) on Oct 14. The resolution is generally taken as an ultimatum to Singh to do something on SL issue by Oct 28 lest TN lawmakers would resign. Without getting into the details, Karunanidhi said that the resolution had been sent to those concerned. And he had impressed upon Dr. Singh as early as Oct 6 the need to express the India's condemnation of the attacks on innocent Tamils, bring to an end the Sri Lankan government's military offensive, resume peace talks and ensure that no hardship was caused to the fishermen of Tamil Nadu.
Karunanidhi stated that the Prime Minister had assured him of prompt action. The same day, the National Security Adviser had conveyed to Sri Lanka's Deputy High Commissioner in New Delhi, India's concern and unhappiness at the growing casualties of unarmed Tamil civilians as a result of military action.
The chief minister added the statements by the Prime Minister' and the External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee during the past couple of days had shown 'how supportive and dedicated is Delhi is to the Tamil cause'. This has increased the level of confidence in the Central government, he said as his party workers held a massive human chain in pouring rain in Chennai to express solidarity with SL Tamils. Finance Minister K. Anbazhagan, Electricity Minister Arcot N. Veeraswami, CPI state secretary D. Pandian, MDMK MP Gingee Ramachandran, Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam leader Hyder Ali and others joined the 2-hour long show in knee-deep rain water.
In the same breath, like a true politician, Karunanidhi added: "One could not conclude that these measures alone would produce a satisfactory outcome. People should feel confident that there would be equality among the Sri Lankan people including Tamils and prevalence of humanism".
Spat With Jaya
Karunanidhi remains locked in a spat with his betenoire Jayalalithaa Jayaram of AIADMK on SL issue. In a fresh attack, she has called for his arrest and dissolution of TN assembly for allegedly eulogising late LTTE leaders S Tamilselvan and Anton Balasingam.
"I have made this demand long back. Whether the UPA Government, of which the DMK is a constituent, has the guts to do this', she asked rather rhetorically.
In a statement from her Poes Garden residence, the 'Amma' termed as farce the arrest of Tamil film directors Seeman and Amir, for their pro-LTTE remarks at a rally by film industry in Rameswaram. "They were in full public view in the human chain and Karunanidhi had also seen them in the demonstration. Why police did not arrest them initially? They were arrested only after completion of the human chain and after giving interviews to media", she remarked and demanded the arrest of DPI leader Thol Thirumavalavan as well.
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