Two days back I read with much amusement the news that the LTTE(Tamil Ezha Viduthalai puligal) had procured an aircraft. This had set the cat among the doves with every Tom,Dick & Harry publishing their views on the security threat posed to India by this. These people do not realise that the Tamil Tigers have already established a de-facto state in the island nation and India wasnt able to do anything about that .
The first time I heard the word LTTE was on May 21 1991,I was 9 years old at time. I woke up to the crackling noise on AIR informing that Rajiv gandhi was assassinated at sriperumbudur the previous night by a suicide bomber and the LTTE were suspected to be behind it.My dad and mom had that worried look of what was gonna happen next .Sriperumbundur was after all only a few Kms away from where we stay. The first time I felt any kind of identification with a politician was with Rajiv Gandhi. I was always interested in what was happening around me I guess. I had just a few days back brought a big poster of Rajiv Gandhi from my aunts place. My family has a big congress heritage , . I burnt the poster I had of rajiv and put the ashes in a small box and buried it near our newly laid fence. It was my Mock funeral for the slain leader .I was angry with the LTTE and whatever ideology they stood for . The hunt for the culprits went on for another year until one eyed sivarasan was shot dead in bangalore along with a few more tigers . The list of all accused can be found here .
My attitude towards the LTTE did not change until the late 90s' . I always identified them as the men who killed my prime minister.But gradually I began to change .As i learnt about the training provided by RAW to LTTE and how the IPKF went in there against the wishes of our country men and how Mr.MGR the former CM of Tamil nadu had patronised the LTTE .I concluded that Rajiv gandhi had played with fire by getting into the internecine quarrels of the Tamil groups .
The LTTE supremo Prabhakaran a.k.a chinna thambi , has different faces to different people . He is a demi-god to his supporters and a ruthless tyrant to his opponents. The fact that Prabhakaran is a military genius in the mould of Mao and Che cannot be wished away.He has been there when Indira was there and he is still around. Such has been his intelligence that RAW was not able to penetrate his inner circle . The second in line Mahattya was assassinated over the same issue .Prabhakaran's his only aim is to secure a separate homeland for the Tamils in the North-east of srilanka. He would play all the tricks in the book to achieve it. The end would justify the means for him . Else he would not have dared to kill Rajiv Gandhi.The LTTE keeps the Tamils reminding the sacrifice of their brethren every year on "Heroes day" or "Maveerar Dhinam" ,the day LTTE's first
This image of Tamil Tiger Guerrilla carrying his dead comrade draped in Tiger flag is used by the LTTE in all its Heroes' day celebrations .
The idea of suppression of the weak by the strong has been the cause for strife in most cases around the world from Palestine to East Timor . But nowhere else have the rebels single handedly established a de-facto state antagonising every superpower in the neighbhourhood as the tigers have done . If India were do a volte-face on the lankan crisis and recognise the new state of Eelam,everything would change .India is afraid to do this on two counts .First,the central government fears that insurgency may arise in Tamilnadu demanding a seperate Tamil state which would later merge with Eelam and second India's position on Kashmir would be undermined if Eelam was recognised . The borders, if they are rewritten would be written with blood with only innocent people dying . The peace lies in the No-man's land between the LTTE and the Srilankan Army .No body is daring to go and pick it up because whoever picks it up will be shot .
