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The Rediff Special

Can Karunanidhi stay on as chief minister?

Karunanidhi was coming back as chief minister after 13 years of political exile. He started out cautiously. But, unfortunately, the Sri Lanka ethnic issue came to a boil and he was unwittingly drawn into it.

Today, when the Jain Commission report indicts the DMK, it does not take a holistic view of the support the militant organisations used to receive from political parties in Tamil Nadu. The political parties-militant groups relationship had three phases.

In the first phase, after the 1983 massacre of Tamils in Colombo, the Tamil militant groups of Sri Lanka, especially the LTTE, were worshipped in Tamil Nadu. Militants received moral and material support, wounded members were treated in Tamil Nadu hospitals. Indira Gandhi even arranged for arms training to be provided to them.

Said Karunanidhi: "I have given evidence before the Jain Commission that right from 1983, Indira Gandhi and all Tamil politicians in India have supported the cause of the Sri Lankan Tamils. All political parties were sympathetic to the Tamil cause and everybody was trying to outdo each other. So why single me out?"

But where Karunanidhi, MGR and other politicians went wrong was they built up a personality cult around the LTTE and its leader V Prabhakaran. They looked upon him as a great Tamil hero who took on the Sinhalese and, later, the mighty Indian army single-handedly. Initially, they all had supported the Eelam theory.

In the mid-1980s, both MGR and Karunanidhi were trying to woo Prabhakaran. They recognised the LTTE and its leader as the real heroes. The other militant groups like TELO, EROS, PLOT and EPRLF had no real hold. In 1986, Karunanidhi organised the Tamil Eelam Solidarity Organisation meeting in Madurai and collected Rs 20 million which was divided among the militant groups. But then, MGR stepped in and put pressure on Prabhakaran not to accept any donation from Karunanidhi.

In April, 1986, MGR announced in the state assembly that he would give Rs 40 million to the LTTE. He paid it the same day. Then he asked Prabhakaran and his boys not to have any truck with Karunanidhi, something that the LTTE followed till MGR's death.

Prabhakaran knew that if the LTTE had to survive it needed the support -- both monetary and moral -- of whoever was calling the shots in Tamil Nadu. After MGR's death, when it was clear that Karunanidhi would be the next CM, Prabhakaran wrote him an open letter pleading for help.

The second phase began when the Rajiv Gandhi government turned against the LTTE and sent the IPKF to Sri Lanka. Hardcore Tamil nationalists and certain sections of the DMK and AIADMK were still supporting the LTTE by providing them safe sanctuary and hospital care. Many LTTE cadres at that time stayed at the farmhouse of Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan who was a minister in the then DMK government. Jayalalitha called for the IPKF withdrawal. Political parties in Tamil Nadu did not want to distance themselves from the LTTE, as all of them had some sympathy or the other.

In the third phase, all this underwent a sea change following Rajiv Gandhi's assassination. The LTTE now became the enemy and all political leaders who had any kind of connection with the outfit went into overdrive clearing their names. The people's verdict was the resounding electoral defeat the DMK suffered in 1991-- its biggest to date -- with Karunanidhi winning the lone seat for the DMK. The AIADMK swept the polls with 167 seats and the Congress won 60.

However, Karunanidhi cannot be directly linked with the Rajiv Gandhi assassination. But the Jain Commission report has pointed out the massacre of EPRLF leader Padmanabha and 14 others in Madras was proof that the LTTE was operating in Tamil Nadu with impunity. And the manner in which the killers managed to get away was equally significant.

But beyond that, the basis for concluding that the DMK collaborated with the LTTE in its criminal and terrorist activities is extremely facile, and the so-called intelligence reports are rumoured to be fabricated.

"The assassination investigation was undertaken when Narasimha Rao was at the Centre and Jayalalitha the chief minister. The trial has been completed but no DMK member is an accused in the case," says Karunanidhi.

Some things are certain. A chargesheet will have to be filed against those the Jain Commission has found guilty.

This means criminal proceedings against the chief minister of Tamil Nadu. Can he stay on as CM then? It is hard to say.

His rivals -- Jayalalitha and V Gopalasamy -- are snapping at his heels. His allies, the Tamil Maanila Congress are constrained -- although their sympathies are with the DMK, they cannot be seen to be speaking too loudly on the LTTE issue.

There is no Tamil dream: Prabhakaran the cherub-faced killer has ensured that effectively.

For Karunanidhi and the DMK, the future is nemesis.

Kind courtesy: Sunday magazine

The Rediff Special

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