Cadres of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, a Dalit political front in Southern India led by its president Thol. Thirumavalavan on Thursday, Jan. 15th began a hunger strike agitation in Chennai in Tamil Nadu protesting the "lethargic attitude" of the Indian government for failing to protect the interests of Tamils in Sri Lanka. They also charged the government with failing to prevent the violence unleashed on the Tamils by the Sri Lankan Army.
After four days of hunger strike, on Sunday Jan. 18 at 5 pm, heeding to the request of the state Chief Minister of the Tamil Nadu state M Karunanidhi, Thol Thirumavalavan gave up the hunger strike.
Even as Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) general secretary Thol Thirumavalavan called off his indefinite fast, Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder Dr. S Ramadoss called an indefinite hartal in Tamil Nadu.
The Times of India reported yesterday:
Tamil Nadu will come to a standstill. Except basic services like milk and health, nothing should move in the state. Until the Centre intervenes to effect a ceasefire in Sri Lanka, the state will be paralysed,'' Ramadoss said after Thirumavalavan gave up his fast in Maraimalainagar in the city suburbs.
Jay Shankar and Paul Tighe who had a telephonic interview with the Indian leaders, report in Bloomberg:
Tamil Nadu’s ruling Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam party has “impressed” on the federal government that it should step in and stop the war, spokesman T.K.S. Illangovan said in a telephone interview from Chennai. The party wants Pranab Mukherjee, India’s foreign minister, to hold talks with the Sri Lankan government to “stop the genocide,” he said. “Civilian Tamils are affected in large numbers,” Illangovan said. “This has to be stopped.”
Public outcry and protests started since October last year. They included the Communist Party of India's protest meeting in mid-October, Movie Directors protest, All Party Human Chain protest, Movie Actors protest, All Tamil Nadu Traders Union protest bandh, Dalit Panthers Rail Roko protest, MDMK's protest meetings, TV Actors protest, FEFSI film workers protest, Actor Vijays fast protest, IT Engineers human chain protest with actor Surya and Karthi, Artists Exhibition to express solidarity, Lawyers protest, Doctors protest.
Almost everybody from every walk of life has shown their solidarity towards stopping the war in Sri Lanka.
As a culmination of the protests, a team of Tamil Nadu MP's lead by Chief Minister M Karunanidhi subsequently met the Indian Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh in December and urged immediate action. The Prime Minister gave his personal assurance that the Indian government will appropriately exert pressure on Sri Lanka to stop the war. However, many view that India is playing a double game by supporting Sri Lanka in its war to defeat the Tamil resistance.
Mr. V S Subramaniam a citizen journalist reports in Merinews:
Delhi's deceptive tactics to cover betrayal
The foreign minister Pranab Mukerjee was shadow acting to extricate Manmohan Singh from his promise to Tamil Nadu leaders on December 4, 2008. The assurance was to send Pranab Mukherjee to Colombo to pressurise Sri Lanka into a ceasefire. The foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon's role was to sell Pranab's fake wares to 'gullible' Tamil UPA partners. There is deception aplenty in Pranab's role and India's belief in the sanctity of SL's 'sovereignty', 'non-involvement', 'hands-off' and commitment to a 'political over a military solution' to the SL conflict.
Delhi's agenda to 'kill' Tamil cause
However, M Veerappa Moily, the Congress media chief expressed an uncontrolled euphoria when Kilinochchi fell. He asked the Lanka government to hand over the resistance leadership, wanted by the Indian authorities in connection with the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, as quid pro quo for its military support for the Lanka genocide. "We are giving full support to the Sri Lanka government, for which it has to hand over the fugitive to India".
Delhi's agenda is to destroy Tamil cause for good by neutralising or eliminating the Lankan Tamil resistance leadership. Moily's forthright statement exposes the hypocrisy of Pranab's fake wares. The Congress-Delhi's double-talk (Pranab vs. Moily) underpins the "greatest betrayal" of Tamilians on the Lanka Tamil issue.
The Tamil Nadu state unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the principal opposition party in India, organized a one-day hunger protest on Monday, Jan. 12th in Chennai to call on the Indian UPA lead government to stop the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka. The State President L Ganesan said Tamils should get their equal rights looking after their own affairs and urged for an immediate cease fire to stop the war. A senior member of the state unit Mr. Vaithiyalingam asked the Indian government to lift the ban on the LTTE at the BJP's state general meeting.
A popular regional magazine, Kumudam, conducted a televised interview last week with K Thangabalu - The State Secretary of Congress Party. The event broadcast over the internet through the magazine's Web TV site allowed callers to ask questions of Mr Thangabalu. The event saw Mr Thangabalu being blasted by every caller regarding the moral principles of the Congress party with respect to the Sri Lankan issue.
A caller questioned Mr Thangabalu on who the Congress party represents - Indians or the Sinhalese of Sri Lanka. Few Sri Lankan Tamils who called from Canada and the USA questioned Mr Thangabalu on the respect the party has shown to the views and aspirations of not only the Tamils of Sri Lankan but that of Tamil Nadu. Mr Thangabalu was seen repeatedly attempting to defend the party's Sri Lankan policy and mentioned that Congress has every right to hold their opinion just like other parties.
The mounting pressure from southern India over the Sri Lankan issue is nearing its boiling point. Whether the Congress government will respect the democratic calls of India's own citizens or continue its clandestine partnership with the Rajapakse government of Sri Lanka is yet to be seen and could very well determine the fate of the already declining popularity of the Congress party in South India.