Cross-border sycophancy!

Following the visit of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Chennai on July 20 and the ‘courtesy call’ she made on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha at the Secretariat in the evening amidst her tight schedule that was originally planned, the State government issued a Press Release about the meeting between the two ladies. Going by the details of the points of discussions that were purported to have been held by the two ladies as mentioned in the Government release, the meeting should have lasted for several hours. But between the arrival of Hillary Clinton at Fort St. George and her departure, there was only 50 minutes and after the customary introductions and exchange of pleasantries between the two ladies and a host of ministers and top officials on the Tamil Nadu side and the US delegation comprising Bob Blake, Assistant Secretary of State, Melanne Verveer, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, Peter Burleigh, US Ambassador to India, Andrew T. Simkin, US Consul General at Chennai and Huma Abidin, Deputy Chief of Staff in the Office of the Secretary of State, USA, Hillary would have hardly had 20 to 30 minutes left for their ‘exhaustive’ discussions. It is ridiculous to suggest they had long conversation on all the matters mentioned in the press lease. Unlike the Brits, the Americans are known for their time consciousness and pushing through the business on their hands. At the most there could have only been exchange of notes between the two sides besides exchange of pleasantries and posing for photographs in the 50-minute schedule.

Incidentally or conspicuously there was no press release either from the US Consulate in Chennai or from the US Embassy in New Delhi on the meet of Hillary with Jayalalitha. That may be because that programme was not on the official schedule of the US Secretary and even after her Chennai visit and much hullabaloo in the media in Tamil Nadu, the official website of the US Department of State did not carry any mention about Secretary Clinton’s meeting with Jayalalitha or her remarks while it mentions only the following.

r Remarks on India and the United States: A Vision for the 21st Century;  Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; Anna Centenary Library; Chennai, India

r Remarks on The Working Women's Forum;  Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; Chennai, India

r Remarks to Staff and Families at Consulate Chennai;  Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; Taj Coromandel; Chennai, India

On the purpose of her visit to Chennai during her three-day visit to India, the US Under Secretary of State for Economic Energy and Agricultural Affairs Robert D.Hormats  had already said on July 13, “Chennai has emerged as a hub for trade, investment and people to people engagement in this thriving US-Indian relationship.” This statement coming just two months after ADMK assumed power in Tamil Nadu was in fact an indirect compliment to the positive role of the previous DMK rule when Chennai emerged as this hub. So, not necessarily Jayalalitha, even if any Tom, Dick or Harry had occupied the seat of Chief Minister, the US dignitary would have called on him.

Almost at the same time (by US time) according to AFP reports, “a US Congressional committee voted to ban aid to Sri Lanka unless the nation shows "accountability" over the bloodshed in the final stages of its civil war in 2009. In a voice vote, the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved a measure that would ban all US government funding to Sri Lanka except for humanitarian aid, demining and activities to promote democracy and governance. The measure -- sponsored by Representative Howard Berman, the top member of President Barack Obama's Democratic Party on the panel -- would only allow aid once the administration certifies progress by Sri Lanka on key concerns. The concerns include "accountability for those involved in violations of human rights and war crimes at the end of Sri Lanka's civil war," including members of the defeated rebel Tamil Tigers. Other criteria include an improved climate for freedom of the press, an end to emergency regulations and information from the government on the fate of people unaccounted for at the end of the civil war. The US Agency for International Development had requested close to $13 million for Sri Lanka in the 2010 fiscal year. While the House measure enjoyed broad support, it will not immediately take effect as it was in the form of an amendment for spending in the next fiscal year starting in October. A final package will come through lengthy negotiations between the House of Representatives and Senate.

This report published in Indian media on subsequent days, provided a ruse for a Chennai-based staunch pro-ADMK Tamil eveninger to publish a story ‘US economic sanctions on Sri Lanka: Success for Jayalalitha’s effort’ in its issue on July 22. Even diehard ADMK loyalists would not have taken the story of this evening daily seriously as they are accustomed to its exaggerated flattery of Jayalalitha. But what followed the next day was a shame on the mainstream media of the country. In an impulsive drive to overtake this eveninger, the neo-Jayalalitha sycophant ‘The New Indian Express’ on its July 23 issue published an editorial itself under the caption, ‘Jayalalitha Emerges Leader of Tamils’ which read as:

“The US Congressional committee for foreign affairs voting to ban aid to Sri Lanka till accountability was shown on the war crimes of 2009 should warm the cockles of all right thinking people, particularly those who have been sympathetic to the Tamil people of the island nation. But the path-breaking decision coming close on the heels of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha’s meeting with US secretary of state Hillary Clinton in Chennai, however, drives home a point relating to a certain welcome change in the dynamics behind Tamil identity politics.

By persuading Clinton for US intervention into the plight of the Tamils in Sri Lanka, Jayalalitha demonstrated her capacity to play a global role to fight for protecting the interests of the Tamils outside India. In June, soon after she took office, the State Assembly passed a resolution seeking economic sanction against Sri Lanka and UN action on those responsible for the war crimes. With the US imposing the ban on aid to Sri Lanka, Jayalalitha has emerged as the sole leader of the Tamils worldwide and as a fulcrum for Tamil identity and kinship….

Now that Jayalalitha has helped the state regain the status, much to the delight of the people, by taking up the issue at the global level, it should be just a matter of time that India, too, announces sanctions against Sri Lanka.”

Following this unabashed flattery of Jayalalitha, which even ‘C’ grade Tamil journals that usually sprout with ADMK coming to power and sing paeans for Jayalalitha to curry favours from small time ADMK men in the form of advertisements etc., ADMK’s official daily ‘Namadhu MGR’, the next day (July24) came out with a voluminous supplement carrying ads of ADMK functionaries and ministers hailing their leader as ‘Leader of World Tamils who made America to impose economic sanctions on Sri Lanka.’ Of course ‘The New Indian Express’ also benefited through a first page colour ad issued by a minister the next day, July 24. Dutifully, the daily started selling Jayalalitha as ‘Leader of World Tamils’ even through its news reports. On July 25, the daily while reporting DMK General Council resolution on Sri Lanka, quite unnecessarily inserted the paragraph, ‘Significantly, the DMK’s six-page resolution comes at a time when Chief Minister J Jayalalitha is being hailed by some Tamil advocacy groups as the ‘Leader of World Tamils’ for having politically taken up the cause of ethnic Tamils at various forums – the last during her meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a few days ago. Interestingly until a couple of years ago, the DMK leader M.Karunanidhi was being hailed at the rightful guardian of World Tamils…” This is an absolute lie as it is only this daily which had propounded Jayalalitha like that and had started marketing it even through their news columns. Innocent and idiotic ADMK cadre may be gullible but not sane people. Mercifully, even avowed protagonists of the cause of Eelam people like P.Nedumaran and Vaiko have not associated themselves with this opportunistic chorus because they are in regular contact with the Tamil diaspora, who are not enamored by the antics of Jayalalitha and her cohorts including this daily.

What are the various forums where Jayalalitha took up the cause of ethnic Tamils that the daily claims? She was sojourning all along at her Kodanadu mansion, when because of the international momentum inspired by the Tamil diaspora and human rights activists all over the world including US, the UN General Secretary was constrained to depute a fact finding team to Sri Lanka. Even since the team submitted its detailed report on war crimes in Sri Lanka, there had been vociferous demand from all parts of the world to put those involved in war crimes for trial in International Court of Justice – mounting pressure on the Sri Lankan regime. Jayalalitha was nowhere in the picture. There was an active lobby of Congressmen and Senetors urging the US administration to halt aid to Sri Lanka, the culmination of which resulted in the vote of the US congressional committee; hence to ascribe the decision to persuasion of Jayalalitha is in fact as terrible insult to not only the US Congress and Senate members and rights activists but also to the whole international community.

It is not that this daily and some opportunist elements who have now started surfacing singing glory of Jayalalitha, do not know that all they say are gross lies, that there is a lot of difference between aid cut and economic sanctions and that even the proposed cut is conditional – subject to improvement on human rights front in Sri Lanka – and that too it may or may not come into force after October 2012 etc., But there are gullibles here to whom they can sell the story for some time.

Event the press release issued by Jayalalitha regime did not claim that she spoke to Hillary about war crimes and economic sanctions against Sri Lanka. On this topic, the TN government release only state the following:

“During the discussion on the issues concerning Sri Lankan Tamils, the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Selvi J Jayalalitha stated that even though the war in Sri Lanka was over two years ago, the Sri Lankan Tamils in the Jaffna area are still in camps and unable to go back to the original places where they used to live. The US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton shared the concern of the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and said that US government is looking at some innovative way and creative ideas in breaking this impasse and enabling the Sri Lankan Tamil in camps to get back to their own homes. While discussing the Sri Lankan refugees in Tamil Nadu, the Hon’ble Chief Minister explained that they have been provided with all the facilities that are available to the local citizens by the Government of Tamil Nadu.”

So, these media sycophants are ‘more loyal than the queen’. The media doyen Ramnatha Goenka will turn on his grave.

In another instance of our news agencies trying to flatter Jayalalitha, the IANS and the UNI have reported the following to media houses based on which many dailies, TVs and websites carried news:

“United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has hailed AIADMK Supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha as a "wonderful woman", who is seen as a world leader.

In a closed-door interaction with women at the Working Women's Forum (WWF) here last night, excerpts of which were released today, Clinton said ''I want to thank my friend and your friend, a wonderful woman who is viewed as a leader around the world...Jaya'', amid thunderous applause from the audience.

Lauding the work done by Women SHGs and Panchayat members in promoting government and democracy, Clinton said ''Jaya, Jaya, come down here. Come down here. Come down here. This is a woman who has worked so hard.''

''All of you will have to decide how you can follow her model so that you not only help yourselves and your families, but you spread the word about microfinance, bank accounts, starting businesses, getting health services, empowering the women of this state and giving everyone a chance to live up to your God-given potential, she said.”

Here the incorrigible irony is while Hillary had spoken about Jaya Arunachalam, President, WWF, the agencies in their intro had wittingly or unwittingly mistaken for Jayalalitha and ascribed the praise to her!

While there was so ‘much ado about nothing’ here, the media in Sri Lanka contemptuously ridiculed the Hillary–Jaya meet (their anti-government of India stand well known) thus:

“One did not think that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayaram Jayalalitha and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have much in common, although both are seasoned politicians in their own ways. The former leads a state in the world’s largest elective democracy, and the other holds unelected office of much power in the world’s most powerful elective democracy. At their recent meeting in Chennai, they displayed another commonality, which was not so evident till then. It is their ability to shed copious crocodile tears for the Tamil people of Sri Lanka.

In this instance it was the Internally Displaced Tamils or IDPs of Sri Lanka, and in their chorus of sorrow and concern for them, one saw more than a touch of self-serving political interest, rather than the genuine interest of the IDPs themselves. One must not forget that Hillary Clinton, accepted money from supporters of the LTTE, a terrorist organization banned in the USA, in her primary campaign against Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination.

She did refund the money from the Tamils for Clinton, after the obvious embarrassment to her cause, only when a Sri Lankan diplomat told her the truth about her donors. Let’s believe she did not know of their terrorist links when she took the dollars.

Jayalalitha has blown hot and cold about the LTTE’s terrorism. Now that the LTTE has been militarily defeated, something that Clinton and Obama have still failed to do with the terrorists they are fighting against in Afghanistan, Jayalalitha has become a highly vocal crusader for the Sri Lankan Tamil IDPs, determined to twist the arms of Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, to make her mark as the new redeemer of Sri Lankan Tamils; before the politics of corruption, nepotism, caste and regionalism catches up with her.

One can understand the politics of Jayalalitha, although one may not agree with it. Not all politicians, either in India or Sri Lanka, base their thinking on facts or pay much importance to reality. Their politics has much more to do with emotion and the falsifying of events. So, she will keep shedding her false tears for the IDPs across the Palk Strait, in the calculated hope of keeping the support of the Tamil electorate in her state with her, for as long as possible….”

The Lankan website ‘Tamil News Network’ carried a news item under the caption ‘Hillary Clinton and Jayalalitha fail to mention War Crimes in Sri Lanka’ on July 21 said:

“It was presumed in the recent article in truthdive.com that the discussion about the investigations on war crimes in Sri Lanka will not be in the agenda of Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of state visiting Chennai on Wednesday.

As predicted the Government of India have managed to silence both Hillary Clinton and the Chief Minister Jayalalitha to fall in line with the official position of India in offering no comments on investigations of war crimes in Sri Lanka.

The habitual and useless talk about rehabilitation of Tamils in Sri Lanka found place in the discussion between the two leaders at Chennai. It is reported that Hillary Clinton assured Jayalalitha for taking action to arrange for return of Tamils in camps to their homes. Does it mean that Jayalalitha has no hopes on Government of India in their rehabilitation measures? Why such an assurance comes from visiting foreign dignitary? It is also unknown how American Government will help rehabilitation of Tamils.

The rest of the matters in the discussions were about the mutual economic benefits. This has confirmed that Jayalalitha is gradually absorbed in to the policy of Government of India in maintaining a calculated silence on the war crimes in Sri Lanka.

What is surprising is that, as mentioned in the article, the world’s biggest democracy India tried to silence the loudest speaker of human rights USA and has succeeded in compelling Clinton to exercise the gestures of three Gandhian monkeys on the issues of genocide and war crimes in Sri Lanka. Clinton uttered no word about war crimes anywhere anytime during this visit to India.

While in Chennai Clinton referred cooking deaths in India and campaigned for the use of cleaner stoves. In another gathering she informed that she was ready to train women to fight against violence. But Clinton could not recall the Tamil women who died in fighting violence against them in Sri Lanka. It is hard to believe that Clinton forgot about genocide and war crimes in Sri Lanka. Tamils have to ask ” You too Ms. Clinton?”

Both Clinton and Jayalalitha were known proponents in favor of investigation on war crimes in Sri Lanka. But what made them to prefer not to make a mention about it when they met in Chennai needs to be thought of.

This development is considered a victory to Sri Lankan president, the accused in war crime, Rajapakse. After achieving the deep silence from Jayalalitha and Hillary Clinton at Chennai, Rajapakse in Colombo should have gone for a deep and peaceful sleep with some flowers of his hope blooming in Temple Tree.”

Indeed! the next day Sri Lankan High Commissioner in New Delhi called on Jayalalitha at the behest of Rajapaksa, who in an interview to ‘The Hindu’ was so pleased with Jayalalitha that, “Rajapaksa expressed happiness over Sri Lankan High Commissioner Prasad Kariyawasam’s recent meeting with Chief Minister Jayalalitha in Chennai. “I asked our High Commissioner and he has conveyed my invitation to Chief Minister Jayalalitha [to visit Sri Lanka]. If she is not ready or is busy, she can send a parliamentary team. She can speak to the central government and I am ready to accept that. Parliamentarians, not only from Tamil Nadu but also from other areas, the whole of India, can visit the North and see for themselves.” (The Hindu, 22 Jul. 2011)

Two days later, Tamil newspapers – fortunately, English dailies including TNIE spared us - again perverted the statement of Assistant Secretary of State for South and central Asia Robert Blake while speaking to reporters in Washington and presented it as if Jayalalitha and Hillary had a wideranging conversation on Sri Lanka. While he had only said, ‘I think they both agreed that we have concerns about the situation in Sri Lanka,’ in the rest of his press meet he had only conveyed US perception of the situation in Sri Lanka. But Tamil dailies have reported as if they were all the views of Jayalalitha conveyed to Clinton.

In his interview with editors of some dailies on June 29 in New Delhi, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh speaking about Sri Lanka and Lankan Tamils had said, “Within Sri Lanka’s population, there are hotheads, the Sinhala chauvinism is a reality. But we have to find a difficult balance because what happens in Sri Lanka has a domestic dimension also. The Tamil Nadu government and Assembly have often shown great worry about what is happening. Our challenge is to keep the Tamil Nadu government on our side. I have had good cooperation with Jayalalitha. I raised this matter with her the very first time. What she asked of me was moderate. Whatever be the resolutions that were passed in the Assembly, I found her fully conscious of the complexities and the realities of managing this relationship.” Jayalalitha so far has not, in fact could not, denied the contention of the Prime Minister, because she knew conversations with the PM are recorded. In Tamil  there is a saying “ÛD¡F jiyiaÍ«, gh«ò¡F thiyÍ« fh£Lkh« éyh§FÛ‹”  which means “The Eel fish shows its head to other fishes and its tail to snakes and dupes both.” This is what Jayalalitha is doing. While trying to keep in good terms with the Central government she poses heroic to Tamil outfits here.

While Jayalalitha could not take up the issue of war crimes and economic sanctions on Sri Lanka with the Indian Prime Minister, to claim that she raked up the issue with US authority, is an abominable and atrocious attempt to hoodwink people – disgracing ethics and freedom of Press. In the days of globalization, domestic sycophancy seems to have crossed borders and getting globalized!