The Tamil International Research Unit, on behalf of Lankan based Tamil International Centre, published an eight-page publication on 25 May 1986, about the TESO Conference organised by Kalaignar at Madurai on May 4, 1986. We reproduce the excerpts from the publication barring their comments on developments in the island nation then which are not relevant now:
A long, long way to go to save Ceylon
Tamils... May 25,1986
Sunday May 4, 1986, was the day when the Tamil Eelam
Supporters’ Organisation (TESO) held its SAVE CEYLON TAMILS CONFERENCE at Madurai. It certainly
promised to be an event of considerable political significance at that point of
time. For the first time, leaders and representatives of Opposition parties, particularly
from the North, with differing approaches on domestic politics were gathering
in the heart of Tamilnadu on a united bid to express solidarity with Tamils of
Sri Lanka. Notwithstanding the absence of the ruling party of the country, and
the ruling party of the State, and the two Communist parties which were invited
but declined to attend, the nation- wide representation was broad enough to
attract interest.
In Democracies, decision making is brought about not by
government thinking alone, but also by the attitudes and stances adopted by
Opposition parties. Governments work on pressure, and in a continent like
country such as India where large sections of opinion are guided by regional
loyalties and where the government has to continuously meet domestic
compulsions of all kinds, a gathering of Opposition leaders and the striving
for an Opposition consensus on an issue affecting the foreign policy of the
country, cannot be wholly unwelcome to the government in power. On the other
hand, it could even make it easier for the government to fashion foreign policy
on the given issue. Let us look back. There was BJP leader and one-time Foreign
Minister of India-Atul Behari Vajpayee; there was Chief Minister of Andhra
Pradesh and leader of a powerful regional party, the Telugu Desam - NT. Rama
Rao; there was Lok Dal leader and one-time Minister in the Central Government -
H.N. Bahuguna; there was the Punjab Akali Dai’s General Secretary Balwant Singh
Ramoowalia; a leader of Dr. Farook Abdulla’s National Conference of Kashmir –
Abdul Rasheed Kabuli; the maverick of Indian politics who launched the
“Hindustan Front” to help Eelam Tamils - Dr. Subramaniam Swamy; General
Secretary of the Congress (S) and M.P. - K.P. Unni Krishnan Janata’s Karnataka
Home Minister-S. Rachaiah; also Telugu Desarn front-liner and Parliamentarian -
P. Upendra. And then of course DMK chief - M. Karunanidhi; that dedicated
activist of the Eelam cause and leader of Kamaraj Congress - P. Nedumaran; DK
leader - K. Veeramani; Muslim League leader - A.K.A. Abdul Samad a
distinguished galaxy of leaders hardly ever seen together on any occasion, whether
in the North or South. Karnataka Chief Minister Ramakrishna Hegde, convalescing
after a throat ailment sent a special message for the Conference; and so did
the leader of the Janata Parliamentary group - Prof. Madhu Dandavate.
There is no doubt at all that it was an impressive occasion;
and for TESO marking one year of agitational success. Formed in May 1985 with
DMK President Karunanidhi as Chairman, it had as its senior leaders P. Nedumaran,
K. Anbazhagan and K. Veeramani. It defined its objectives as :- to help the
Tamil partisans to carry on the struggle against State terrorism in Sri Lanka; to
help Tamil refugees; and to propagate the demand for Tamil Eelam at the
national and at international levels. Within three months of the formation of
TESO there came about an unfortunate turn of events which gave the organisation
its first chance to test its strength. Deportation orders were served on two
Eelam activists - S.C. Chandrahasan and Dr. A.S. Balasingam on 23 August 1985, and both were bundled the next day into Air India planes, the former to New
York and the latter to London.
The very next day TESO held a rally and “resolved that if the Centre did not
revoke its orders of deportation against the Sri Lankan militant leaders, the
TESO would stage black flag demonstrations when the Prime Minister, Mr. Rajiv
Gandhi and the Union Home Minister Mr. S.B. Chavan, visited Tamil Nadu next” (Hindu
: 26 Aug.) The Hindu report said further : “The DMK leaders, Mr. M. Karunanidhi
and Mr. K.Anbazhagan, the Dravida Kazhagam General Secretary, Mr. K. Veeramani
and the President of the Tamil Nadu Kamaraj Congress, Mr. P. Nedumaran, who
addressed the rally, declared that the people of Tamil Nadu would raise a
banner of revolt if the Sri Lankan Tamils were denied asylum in the State. “Don’t
force us to create a situation when none from the North could step into the
soil of Tamil Nadu”, they said. Strong words indeed. But that was not all.
Reported the HINDU : ‘Mr. Karunanidhi warned the Centre
that if it continued to initiate anti-Tamil militant steps, the people of Tamil
Nadu would be constrained to organise training camps for their brethren to
achieve their cherished goal of Eelam. He hastened to add that if the Centre
found itself helpless to hammer out a solution to the ethnic crisis the people
of Tamil Nadu themselves would clinch the job. “The training camps would include
not only the militants but also the youths from Tamil Nadu to fight for the
cause of Sri Lanka Tamils”. VEILED THREAT: Mr. Karunanidhi and other leaders
issued a veiled threat that the cry of “Tamil Nadu belongs to the Tamils” would
gather momentum if the Centre failed to protect the legitimate aspirations of
the Sri Lankan Tamils...” That was on 25 August.
On 27 August, the Madras
evening daily “News Today” never known to be friendly towards the DMK. reported
: “The DMK-led Tamil Eelam Supporters Organisation (TESO) today decided to
stage a “rail roko” (stop train) agitation in Tamil Nadu on August 30 to press
for the immediate withdrawl of the deportation orders against two Eelam
activists, Dr. A.S. Balasingam and S.C. Chandrahasan. A meeting of TESO, chaired
by its President M. Karunanidhi, the DMK party chief, also called on its
constituent parties to hold rallies in district headquarters for 3 days from
today in this connection Karunanidhi said the “stop train” agitation had been
scheduled for Friday in order to give three days’ time to the Prime Minister to
revoke his government deportation order...” One day before the planned “rail
roko”, S.C. Chandrahasan was back in Madras, his deportation orders withdrawn; but
in a statement issued from Tiruchi, TESO Chairman Karunanidhi said the
agitation would continue until the deportation orders on the other two Eelam
Tamil leaders, A.S. Balasingam and N. Satyendra (who had left before the order
was served) were also withdrawn. The HINDU of 31st August reported : “Train
services remained suspended in Tamil Nadu, following a one-day ‘rail-roko”
agitation launched by the TESO.... though the State government and the Railways
had repeatedly emphasised that there was no intention to stop the services
hundreds of comuters who made a beeline to railway stations, particularly in
the suburban section, even from 4 a.m. were disappointed to find that the
services had been suspended ‘until further orders”.
TESO therefore had a proven record of achievement when the Madurai “Save Ceylon
Tamils Conference” was called. LTTE spokesman A.S. Balasingam too was back in Madras on October 10, one
and a half months after deportation. TESO had also reason to be satisfied with
the response to the Conference. Apart from the nation-wide representation of
Opposition parties, all five Eelam militant groups that were invited, sent
their representatives - the LTTE, the EROS, EPRILF, TELO and PLOT. The TULF
trinity was there - Secretary General A. Amirthalingam. President M. Sivasithamparam,
and front-liner R. Sampanthan. There were the TULF radicals, the rebels and
break-aways
under the banners of two other organisations- ProTEG and
TELF, - S.C. Chandrahasan. A. Thangathurai, the former TULF M.P. for Muthur, M.K.
Eelaventhan and Kovai Mahesan, once Editor of the powerful Tamil weekly
‘Suthanthiran”. Other Eelam Tamil organisations represented at the ‘closed
door” meeting with the Indian leaders were the Tamil Information & Research
Unit (TIRU), Madras, headed by S. Sivanayagam founder-Editor of the Jaff na-based
“Saturday Review” and the Tamil Information Centre Madurai, headed by Maheswary
Velautham. both present only as “special observers” and therefore declining to
make any statements. If the “Save Ceylon Tamils” conference and the huge
attendance and enthusiasm at the public rally at the Racecourse grounds that
same evening gave the impression that it was more an occasion for a political
and personal triumph for DMK leader Karunanidhi
“Talking to newsmen, the chief organiser of the conference
Mr. Karunanidhi said that the various Tamil groups had given an assurance in
the presence of the national opposition leaders (excepting the teaders of the
two Communist Parties which didnot attend) that they would work together. This
assumed comic proportions in the immediate background of the murderous clashes
between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and Tamil Eelam Liberation
Organisation (TELO) resulting in the death of nearly 150 young Tamils and the
former group claiming that it had disarmed the fighters of the latter. On the
positive side one important outcome of the conference was the decision to set
up, at the all-India level, a Co-ordination Committee to constantly monitor the
Lankan developments and regulate the reactions to them. Karunanidhi said that
the Committee would comprise the representatives of the BJP, Congress(S\u Desam,
Akali Dal, J&K National Conference (Farooq) and Janata, besides of course
the DMK. To begin with, Messrs Jashwant Singh (BJP), Upendra (Telugu Desam), Unnikrishnan
Congress(S), Ramoo Walia (Akali Daf). Abdul Raheed (National conference), Subramaniam
Swamy (Hindustan Front) and V. Gopalaswamy (DMK) would be members of this panel.
The Janata, Lok Dal, IUML, the CPI, CIP(M) and Asom Gana Parishad would be
asked to join the Co-ordination Committee....
“The TESO and DMK leader claimed that the very fact of TESO
conference being attended by so many opposition stalwarts had resulted in Delhi despatching an official team to Colombo for exploring a political solution to
the issue. All the Tamil groups stationed in Madras, were present at the Conference. None
of them voiced , however any complaint against what India did or failed to do
Karunanidhi said the second Save Ceylon Tamils Conference would be held at
Andhra Pradesh. The date and venue of the conference had not yet been decided. He
appealed to the tiger groups of Sri
Lanka to remain united....”
While the “News Today” report remains faithful to the
factual outcome of the conference the critical comments appear largely pointless.
Firstly, what took place was (despite the dominant presence of Karunanidhi) not
a DMK conference nor even a TESO conference but a Save Ceylon Tamils Conference
of Opposition parties SPONSORED by TESO, and hence resolutions were expected to,
and would naturally reflect, an Opposition consensus on the Sri Lankan Tamil
question. The significance of the Conference did not lie in the resolutions it
passed, but in the fact that such a conference took place. It was time to show
that Indian sympathy and concern for Sri Lankan Tamils was something not
confined to the boundaries of Tamil Nadu, but which involved the whole of India. The TESO-sponsored
conference did precisely that. It lifted the TESO concern into an all India one, and that should surely give the
government in the Centre additional political and diplomatic leverage to deal
with the Sri lanka
government. The strong sentiments expressed by leaders like Vajpayee, NT. Rama
Rao and Bahuguna helped demolish the Sri Lankan government propaganda that it
was only the Tamil Nadu factor that was determining New Delhi’s outlook on the
Sri Lankan Tamil question. These were therefore positive achievements of the
Madurai Conference, and if credit for it flowed to the dominant TESO partner, the
DMK and its leader, it would be churlish to deny them that
Public memory being short, it has to be said that the DMK’s
involvement and interest in the Sri Lankan Tamil question is not a recent one. It
began in the early 70s, and the TULF leaders dedveloped a personal rapport with
Mr. Karunanidhi when he was in power, at a time when the late Tamil leader S.J.V.
Chelvanayakam was alive. While the question whether “bandhs” and rallies and
processions which dislocate or paralyse life in Tamil Nadu are really useful or
whether they are wasteful and even counter-productive is a debatable question, it
must be remembered that the first successful total bandh in protest against
killings of Sri Lankan Tamils was carried out, not in 1986 or 1983, but in 1977
- by the DMK. Under the headline - HARTAL ALMOST TOTAL - the Indian Express of 25
August, 1977, reported :- “The one-day hartal called by the DMK on Wednesday to
express sympathy for the Tamils in Sri Lanka, was almost total in the
City. The DMK also took out a huge procession from the Anna statue on Mount Road to the
office of the Deputy High Commissioner of Sri Lanka.
“Mr. Karunanidhi presented a memorandum to Mr. Gautamadasa,
the Deputy High Commissioner .... The memorandum condemned the efforts to
“annihilate the Tamil race in Sri Lanka” and urged those interested in human
rights and the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka to “stop the fall of human corpses
and restore to the Tamils their legitimate rights and peaceful living” Mr. Karunanidhi
told newsmen later that the DMK had also sent a telegram to Mr. Jayaprakash
Narayan to intervene and stop “the genocide of Tamil population of Ceylon” The
TESO conference took place at a time when the conflict between the Sri Lanka
government and the Tamils was moving towards a decisive phase. The impulses
towards a peaceful settlement were gaining ascendancy on the one hand, while on
the other, the idea of giving the Tamils a more bloody nose was increasingly
tempting to a government which misread the consequences of the LTTE-TELO clash.
In the meantime, TESO chairman Karunanidhi, on the eve of
the Madurai Conference made a desperate appeal to Tamil militant groups to stop
fighting. “The killings were not creating the best atmosphere”, he said
helplessly. At the conference itself, both warring groups were represented, and
all delegations gave a pledge in turn that they would henceforth work together.
But the climax to the LTTE-TELO confrontation came two days later when TELO
leader Sri Sabaratnam was himself killed. That was on May 6.
On May 7, came the second bomb explosion in Colombo, exactly 96 hours
after the Air Lanka blast. Eleven people died and 114 were injured when a
powerful bomb wrecked the Central Telegraph Office in the heart of the busy
city. The month of May ended with’another bomb blast in Colombo - at the Ceylon
Cold Stores - and with several bomb hoaxes in between, Colombo residents, the
Sinhalese particularly, were reduced to the same sense of insecurity that the
Tamils had been experiencing for years earlier.
There is a new sense of fear that has overtaken both the
Tamils in the north and east and the Sinhalese in the south. Fears can drive
people into acts of desperation, and if that happens, there might be a long, long
way to go before anyone can save Ceylon Tamils. But it is equally likely that
fears on both sides can even push warring sides into an honourable settlement, provided
a strong external force imposes its authority on both. The next month or two
might give the answer.
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