Actors don't want new troubles - How convenient for them!
Sure, Sure! Actors want to show they are superior to the political actors when coming to acting!!
Tue, 28 Oct, 2008,03:18 PM
With the State government softening its stand over the Lankan issue by recanting on its resignation threat, the Nadigar Sangam, which has planned a fast on 1 November on the emotive issue, is looking to give the whole thing a different spin.
With the majority of top actors and actresses staying away from the hastily cvobbled up protest stage-managed in Rameswaram a few days back, the Nadigar Sangam-backed protest-fast on 1 November was expected to be a show of emotions and much more.
But with the DMK supremo and Chief Minister M Karunanidhi signalling a change of heart on the issue, the Lankan Tamil matter is off the boil in Tamilnadu.
In the event, the Nadigar Sangam event may turn out to be an event that is high on show but little of substance.
Sources in the Nadigar Sangam confirm emotions and tempers would not flare at the proposed one-day fast organised by the association over the Lankan issue.
'We are going ahead with the day-long fast at the Nadigar Sangam premises only to show our solidarity for the Tamils in the island nation,' the sources said.
Already, the Tamil filmdom is finding itself in a spot of bother after the rabble-rousing rally take on 19 October at Rameswaram.
Led by veteran director Bharathiraja, the rally was attended by directors and producers in large numbers. Representatives from the Nadigar Sangam, though expressd their solidaritry for the rally, did not turn up at Rameswaram.
Tempers flared at the meeting in which angry words were poured at the actors for noting attending the rally. Emotional speeches marked the occasio. Directors Ameer and Seeman, and a few others, crossed the line of acceptability.
Eventually cases of sedition were filed against them and they were arrested by 'Q' Branch police and remanded to judicial custody in Rameswaram leading to a series of protests in Chennai by film associations.
A similar protest organised by Nadigar Sangam for the 'vexatious' Hogenakkal issue ended up in controversy with actors like Sathyaraj spewing venom at their men.
But the Nadigar Sangam event will be decidedly low-key. Sources also said following the arrest of directors Seeman and Ameer, it has been decided that the members of the Nadigar Sangam would stage a silent protest and avoid controversial remarks.
A grand dais has been erected at the Nadigar Sangam for the fast which would be staged between 8 am and 4 pm and over 1000 members of the association are expected to attend. Rumours are doing rounds that both Rajnikanth and Kamal Haasan have confirmed their participation in the fast.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
4 killed in attack on TMVP office in Sri Lanka
IANS
First Published : 28 Oct 2008 02:22:19 PM IST
Last Updated : 28 Oct 2008 02:26:16 PM IST
COLOMBO: At least four members of the Tamil Tigers breakaway faction were killed after "unidentified gunmen" attacked them in Sri Lanka's east around midnight Monday, the military said.
Five members of the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (TMVP) also went missing following the attack at Black Bridge in Chenkalladi in Batticaloa district.
Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said the police were trying to identify and arrest the attackers.
The TMVP is led by Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna, who broke away from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2004 and has since sided with the Sri Lankan government.
Karuna was appointed recently as an MP of the ruling coalition of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, after he returned to Sri Lanka from Britain, where he served a nine-month imprisonment for illegal entry.
The pro-LTTE TamilNet website said the LTTE carried out the attack.
"A commando unit of the LTTE attacked a key paramilitary camp of TMVP Karuna faction, killing four operatives and capturing six gunmen from the camp," TamilNet said, adding eight assault rifles were also seized.
The attack came barely two days after the TMVP held a protest rally in the east against the perceived efforts by political parties in Tamil Nadu to stop the military campaign against the Tamil Tigers in the north.
TN should not try to rescue LTTE: Colonel Karuna
COLOMBO: Holding a protest rally in the east against the perceived efforts by some political parties in Tamil Nadu to stop the military campaign against the Tamil Tigers in the north, rebel leader Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, known as Karuna Amman, Sunday said "there should be no attempt from Tamil Nadu to rescue LTTE".
"We welcome the support from Tamil Nadu for the Tamil people in Sri Lanka, but the political parties and their leaders should not attempt to rescue the Tamil Tiger rebels, who are facing an imminent defeat in the hands of the security forces in the north," Karuna Amman, who now heads the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (TMVP) said at the rally.
Recalling the 1991 assassination of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in Tamil Nadu, the former rebel commander had warned that "any effort by Tamil Nadu to save LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) would boomerang on them".
The TMVP organized the rally at the Weber sports ground in the eastern Batticaloa town, located some 300 kilometers away from here, amid tight security.
Karuna Amman was appointed recently as the national list MP of the ruling coalition of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, a few months after he returned to the country from Britain, where he served a nine-month imprisonment for illegal entry.
Although media reports said there is an internal problem brewing between Karuna Amman and the party's second in-command, eastern province Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillaiyan, both of them have appeared on the same stage and made the same appeal.
Commenting on the reports, Karuna Amman has stated that there were many parties with "vested interests trying to undermine the progress of the TMVP" in the east.
"The LTTE is not the only enemy we have. There are many others," he said without naming them.
The TMVP protest has come at a time when the president sent his brother Basil Rajapaksa to New Delhi as his special envoy, aiming to clarify on India's stated concern for safety of civilians caught in the war-zone.
DMK, Congress playing politics: CPI, BJP
IANS
CHENNAI: The Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday assailed External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi for allegedly using the plight of the suffering Tamil minority in Sri Lanka for political ends.
"The discussions between Karunanidhi and Mukherjee (Sunday) were centred round the crisis that could have arisen due to the resignation of (16) DMK MPs from parliament. Later, for appearances' sake, the duo merely issued open-ended statements around probabilities of the Sri Lankan military establishment's future stoppage of assaults on innocent Tamil civilians and nothing more," CPI state secretary D. Pandian said.
Senior BJP leader Ila Ganeshan said separately: "The threat of the resignation of MPs from parliament was a mere drama aimed at diverting attention of the masses from the urgent issues in Tamil Nadu like the electricity shortage, law and order problems and rising prices. None expected the resignations to be handed over on Oct 29 to the speaker. The suffering Sri Lankan Tamil minority has only served the narrow political ends of the DMK and the Congress."
A decision was taken during a meeting of the ruling DMK and its allies Oct 14 that all MPs from Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry would collectively resign from parliament if the central government did not take decisive steps before Oct 29 to end the killings of the Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka.
The DMK's 16 Lok Sabha members and four Rajya Sabha members handed over letters resigning from parliament to party president Karunanidhi.
Since Karunanidhi issued several statements to record his appreciation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's attempts to alleviate the sufferings of Sri Lankan Tamils.
The decision to defer the resignation threat emerged after Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's senior advisor Basil Rajapaksa held talks with top Indian leaders in New Delhi Sunday and assured them that innocent Tamils will not be harmed.
IANS
CHENNAI: The Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday assailed External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi for allegedly using the plight of the suffering Tamil minority in Sri Lanka for political ends.
"The discussions between Karunanidhi and Mukherjee (Sunday) were centred round the crisis that could have arisen due to the resignation of (16) DMK MPs from parliament. Later, for appearances' sake, the duo merely issued open-ended statements around probabilities of the Sri Lankan military establishment's future stoppage of assaults on innocent Tamil civilians and nothing more," CPI state secretary D. Pandian said.
Senior BJP leader Ila Ganeshan said separately: "The threat of the resignation of MPs from parliament was a mere drama aimed at diverting attention of the masses from the urgent issues in Tamil Nadu like the electricity shortage, law and order problems and rising prices. None expected the resignations to be handed over on Oct 29 to the speaker. The suffering Sri Lankan Tamil minority has only served the narrow political ends of the DMK and the Congress."
A decision was taken during a meeting of the ruling DMK and its allies Oct 14 that all MPs from Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry would collectively resign from parliament if the central government did not take decisive steps before Oct 29 to end the killings of the Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka.
The DMK's 16 Lok Sabha members and four Rajya Sabha members handed over letters resigning from parliament to party president Karunanidhi.
Since Karunanidhi issued several statements to record his appreciation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's attempts to alleviate the sufferings of Sri Lankan Tamils.
The decision to defer the resignation threat emerged after Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's senior advisor Basil Rajapaksa held talks with top Indian leaders in New Delhi Sunday and assured them that innocent Tamils will not be harmed.
Monday, October 27, 2008
TN government denies plans to arrest Jayalalithaa
IANS
First Published : 27 Oct 2008 06:53:29 PM IST
Last Updated : 27 Oct 2008 07:06:48 PM IST
CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government Monday denied the claims of opposition leader J. Jayalalithaa of her impending arrest by the state police. "The allegation is a figment of her imagination and not based on any fact," Director General of Police K.P. Jain said in a press release here. Jayalalithaa, AIADMK chief, said in a statement Sunday evening that she has been informed by top police officials that Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi has ordered her arrest "under any pretext" following her demand for dismissal of the DMK regime for its "anti-national acts". "Stung by my demanding the arrest of Karunanidhi and the dismissal of his government for anti-national crimes for which Marumalarchi DMK leaders Vaiko and M. Kannappan were arrested, the chief minister has exhorted reluctant police officials to immediately arrest me under some pretext or other. I have been informed about this by officials," Jayalalitha said in a statement. "Since MDMK leaders have been arrested after being accused of anti-national acts of supporting the banned Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, for circulating elegies for the deaths of LTTE leaders Tamilselvan and Anton Balasingham using government machinery, Karunanidhi too deserves to be arrested," Jayalalitha said. "As I demanded that this be done by the central government after dismissing the minority DMK regime due to the impossibility of the state police detaining a chief minister, Karunanidhi is planning this vengeful action against me," Jayalalitha added. She also demanded, in her statement, the arrest of film personalities Ramanarayanan, director Bharti Raja and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi leader Thol Thirumavalavan for their anti-national statements in praise of LTTE leader Prabhakaran
First Published : 27 Oct 2008 06:53:29 PM IST
Last Updated : 27 Oct 2008 07:06:48 PM IST
CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government Monday denied the claims of opposition leader J. Jayalalithaa of her impending arrest by the state police. "The allegation is a figment of her imagination and not based on any fact," Director General of Police K.P. Jain said in a press release here. Jayalalithaa, AIADMK chief, said in a statement Sunday evening that she has been informed by top police officials that Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi has ordered her arrest "under any pretext" following her demand for dismissal of the DMK regime for its "anti-national acts". "Stung by my demanding the arrest of Karunanidhi and the dismissal of his government for anti-national crimes for which Marumalarchi DMK leaders Vaiko and M. Kannappan were arrested, the chief minister has exhorted reluctant police officials to immediately arrest me under some pretext or other. I have been informed about this by officials," Jayalalitha said in a statement. "Since MDMK leaders have been arrested after being accused of anti-national acts of supporting the banned Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, for circulating elegies for the deaths of LTTE leaders Tamilselvan and Anton Balasingham using government machinery, Karunanidhi too deserves to be arrested," Jayalalitha said. "As I demanded that this be done by the central government after dismissing the minority DMK regime due to the impossibility of the state police detaining a chief minister, Karunanidhi is planning this vengeful action against me," Jayalalitha added. She also demanded, in her statement, the arrest of film personalities Ramanarayanan, director Bharti Raja and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi leader Thol Thirumavalavan for their anti-national statements in praise of LTTE leader Prabhakaran
It looks like the rain is proving to be Pirabakaran’s blessings!
India, Sri Lanka are ‘genuine friends’: Basil Rajapaksa
IANS
NEW DELHI: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s adviser said Monday after talks with Indian leaders that New Delhi and Colombo were “genuine friends” and that his country would keep civilian casualties in the war against the Tamil Tigers “to the very minimum”.
Basil Rajapaksa also said that torrential rains and flooding had affected Tamils displaced by the fighting in the north and that India had pledged to provide food and medicines for them. He added that UN agencies would visit the war zone to assess the situation.
“Both countries are proving to be genuine friends. This is true for the people of the two countries too,” Rajapaksa told IANS, a day after meeting External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and other officials.
“India has really proved to be a real friend. They are friends of Sri Lanka,” said Rajapaksa, who is also a brother of the Sri Lankan president. “We found they (India) have understood very well our problems.”
His remarks followed extensive discussions on the situation in his country with Indian officials in the wake of mass protests in Tamil Nadu demanding a ceasefire and an end to civilian suffering in the north. The Sri Lankan military says it is advancing towards Kilinochchi town, the political hub of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
India has categorically ruled out the possibility of forcing a truce in Sri Lanka, where fighting has left thousands dead and displaced Tamil civilians who some accounts say number up to 250,000.
On Sunday, after Mukherjee briefed Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi about his discussions with Rajapaksa earlier in the day, the DMK chief declared a virtual end to the crisis sparked by his party’s threat to quit the Indian parliament if a ceasefire was not enforced by Oct 29.
“We also realise that we need to do everything we can do for the safety of civilians (in the war zone). We are discussing (this issue with India),” said Rajapaksa. “We want to ensure zero civilian casualties or at least keep it to the very minimum.”
Providing a gist of his talks here, Rajapaksa told IANS: “There are certain hardships (to civilians). We agree. We want to minimise them. There are no civilians now in Kilinochchi. They have gone deep into LTTE territory, beyond our firing range.
“In Kilinochchi town, no government office is functioning, only the hospital is operational. That too is government controlled. All civilians have moved out. If there are some in Kilinochchi, they are LTTE cadres.”
He disputed the figure of internally displaced people, or IDPs. Most media reports they number up to 250,000 in the north, where the LTTE fully holds Mullaitivu district and almost the whole of Kilinochchi district.
“The whole population (in the region) is 250,000. Everyone is not IDP. By IDPs we mean those we have to give ration to.
“In Mullaitivu people are still in their houses but they have no buying power. For the sake of giving ration, we call them IDPs. Only the people in Mannar and Kilinochchi districts are displaced.
“Now the rains have started, there are floods. People are affected. It is our responsibility. We discussed this with the Indian government. They said they would send 100 tonnes of food and medicines.
“For distribution we will have discussions every week with the Indian high commissioner in Colombo. Sri Lanka will have the distribution network. All UN organizations will visit the area. They will provide us information.”
Crediting New Delhi with having “very good information” about the Sri Lanka situation, Rajapaksa also said that Colombo “understands very well” why there have been vocal protests in Tamil Nadu about his country.
He referred to the problems of the Indian fishing community in passing, saying: “Fishermen don’t care for the international maritime boundary. They go where the fish is.”
Fishermen in Tamil Nadu, separated from Sri Lanka by a strip of sea, have accused the Sri Lankan Navy of firing at them. Colombo at times denies the charge and at times says it will not allow such firing to take place.
Referring to the LTTE, Rajapaksa said his government’s attempt was to “isolate from the (Tamil) people” LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and his intelligence chief who goes by the nom de guerre Pottu Amman.
“There are a few things the government is doing. Suppose if there are two fishes in a bottle, we can either take the water out or the fishes out. The government is doing both. We want to isolate them from the people. But we are not against individuals or even terrorists. We are only against terror.
India, Sri Lanka are ‘genuine friends’: Basil Rajapaksa
IANS
NEW DELHI: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s adviser said Monday after talks with Indian leaders that New Delhi and Colombo were “genuine friends” and that his country would keep civilian casualties in the war against the Tamil Tigers “to the very minimum”.
Basil Rajapaksa also said that torrential rains and flooding had affected Tamils displaced by the fighting in the north and that India had pledged to provide food and medicines for them. He added that UN agencies would visit the war zone to assess the situation.
“Both countries are proving to be genuine friends. This is true for the people of the two countries too,” Rajapaksa told IANS, a day after meeting External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and other officials.
“India has really proved to be a real friend. They are friends of Sri Lanka,” said Rajapaksa, who is also a brother of the Sri Lankan president. “We found they (India) have understood very well our problems.”
His remarks followed extensive discussions on the situation in his country with Indian officials in the wake of mass protests in Tamil Nadu demanding a ceasefire and an end to civilian suffering in the north. The Sri Lankan military says it is advancing towards Kilinochchi town, the political hub of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
India has categorically ruled out the possibility of forcing a truce in Sri Lanka, where fighting has left thousands dead and displaced Tamil civilians who some accounts say number up to 250,000.
On Sunday, after Mukherjee briefed Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi about his discussions with Rajapaksa earlier in the day, the DMK chief declared a virtual end to the crisis sparked by his party’s threat to quit the Indian parliament if a ceasefire was not enforced by Oct 29.
“We also realise that we need to do everything we can do for the safety of civilians (in the war zone). We are discussing (this issue with India),” said Rajapaksa. “We want to ensure zero civilian casualties or at least keep it to the very minimum.”
Providing a gist of his talks here, Rajapaksa told IANS: “There are certain hardships (to civilians). We agree. We want to minimise them. There are no civilians now in Kilinochchi. They have gone deep into LTTE territory, beyond our firing range.
“In Kilinochchi town, no government office is functioning, only the hospital is operational. That too is government controlled. All civilians have moved out. If there are some in Kilinochchi, they are LTTE cadres.”
He disputed the figure of internally displaced people, or IDPs. Most media reports they number up to 250,000 in the north, where the LTTE fully holds Mullaitivu district and almost the whole of Kilinochchi district.
“The whole population (in the region) is 250,000. Everyone is not IDP. By IDPs we mean those we have to give ration to.
“In Mullaitivu people are still in their houses but they have no buying power. For the sake of giving ration, we call them IDPs. Only the people in Mannar and Kilinochchi districts are displaced.
“Now the rains have started, there are floods. People are affected. It is our responsibility. We discussed this with the Indian government. They said they would send 100 tonnes of food and medicines.
“For distribution we will have discussions every week with the Indian high commissioner in Colombo. Sri Lanka will have the distribution network. All UN organizations will visit the area. They will provide us information.”
Crediting New Delhi with having “very good information” about the Sri Lanka situation, Rajapaksa also said that Colombo “understands very well” why there have been vocal protests in Tamil Nadu about his country.
He referred to the problems of the Indian fishing community in passing, saying: “Fishermen don’t care for the international maritime boundary. They go where the fish is.”
Fishermen in Tamil Nadu, separated from Sri Lanka by a strip of sea, have accused the Sri Lankan Navy of firing at them. Colombo at times denies the charge and at times says it will not allow such firing to take place.
Referring to the LTTE, Rajapaksa said his government’s attempt was to “isolate from the (Tamil) people” LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and his intelligence chief who goes by the nom de guerre Pottu Amman.
“There are a few things the government is doing. Suppose if there are two fishes in a bottle, we can either take the water out or the fishes out. The government is doing both. We want to isolate them from the people. But we are not against individuals or even terrorists. We are only against terror.
Tamilnadu politics and the LTTE defeat - they are dud as a damp squib!
October 27, 2008 by janamejayan ( http://janamejayan.wordpress.com/ )
Mutual survival resolves the conflict!
NEW DELHI/CHENNAI: For the first time since the conflict in Sri Lanka besieged New Delhi, there were signs on Sunday that the crisis had blownover for the UPA. Pranab Mukherjee’s unscheduled meeting with Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi in Chennai in the evening seemed to have ended on a positive note, with the external affairs minister stating that the DMK chief had assured him that he would not precipitate a crisis for the UPA.
Mukherjee was rushed to Chennai hours after Sri Lanka’s special envoy, Basil Rajapaksa, assured him in Delhi that the authorities were going out of their way to ensure the safety of Tamil civilians in the war-torn island nation. Basil Rajapaksa, who is advisor to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, was sent to New Delhi on Sunday to apprise the Indian government about the situation in the country.
The Mukherjee-Rajapaksa meeting on Sunday may have provided the safe exit passage for Karunanidhi as he was feeling increasingly alienated over the issue in the past few days.
With AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa slamming the DMK for its alleged support to LTTE and Congress keeping away from the human chain organized by the party, Karunanidhi clearly had been cornered.
After his meeting with Mukherjee, Karunanidhi indicated that his party ministers would not resign from the Congress-led UPA government. “The chief minister has assured that he will not precipitate any crisis in the UPA,” Mukherjee said at Karunanidhi’s residence after the hour-long meeting.
Asked about the resignation threat, Karunanidhi said Mukherjee had requested him to postpone any decision in this regard as it would lead to a lot of complications. “I will certainly not create problems for the Centre,” the chief minister said. Specifically asked if he was sending the resignation letters of his party MPs to the Speaker, he said cryptically, “You can infer from Mukherjee’s statement.”
However, the key DMK demand — that India ensure a ceasefire — remains unfulfilled. Mukherjee said: “As we are not a party to the ceasefire, we can’t ask them to (call a ceasefire).” All that he said was there could be no military solution. “During our interaction, both the Prime Minister and I have said there can’t be a military solution. We are asking them to find a political solution,” Mukherjee said.
Karunanidhi said, ” The question as to who will bring about a truce is yet to be answered. Will India lead the talks, or some other countries or some organizations will take the lead has to be decided,” he said, emphasizing that a climate conducive for negotiations would have to be created first. When told that reviving Norway’s facilitation might take time, he said: “It should not take much time.”
Both leaders agreed that the decades-old ethnic conflict could not be solved in a fortnight or five weeks. “We wanted a ceasefire to give effective relief to public,” the DMK chief said, expressing satisfaction at the pace and tone at which the Centre had got Sri Lanka to make a promise that the Tamil civilians would not be hurt anymore in the war against the LTTE.
In New Delhi, Rajapaksa also met NSA M K Narayanan and foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon. As a gesture of goodwill, India has decided to send around 800 tonnes of relief material to Sri Lanka for the affected civilians in the North. Rajapaksa said that the Sri Lankan government would facilitate the delivery.
” Both sides discussed the need to move towards a peacefully negotiated political settlement in the island including in the North. Both sides agreed that terrorism should be countered with resolve. The Indian side called for implementation of the 13th Amendment and greater devolution of powers to the provinces,” the foreign ministry said in an official statement in New Delhi.
Rajapaksa emphasized that the Sri Lankan president and his government were firmly committed to a political process that would lead to a sustainable solution. The two sides also agreed to further nurture the democratic process in the Eastern Province.
During the talks with Rajapaksa, the two sides agreed to put in place practical arrangements to deal with bonafide Indian and Sri Lankan fishermen crossing the International Maritime Boundary Line. As part of these practical arrangements, Indian fishing vessels will not venture into sensitive areas designated by the Lankan government. Further, there will be no firing on Indian fishing vessels.
“It was agreed that Indian fishing vessels would carry valid registration/permit and the fishermen would have on person valid identity cards issued by the Tamil Nadu government,” said the foreign ministry.
India and Sri Lanka also agreed to continue with their discussions, initiated in 2005, on the proposed Memorandum of Understanding on development and cooperation in the field of fisheries.
The following was posted by Dravidadwija in Kanchiforum:
Rajapaksa’s assurance on displaced in Wanni COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said his government has made arrangements for the safety of the displaced civilians in Wanni once they enter the “cleared areas” from the LTTE controlled territory amid reports of heavy fighting on Sunday. Mr. Rajapaksa gave the assurance when Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) leader V. Anandasangaree called on him at the Presidential Palace on Friday and discussed the situation in Wanni and the political developments in South India. Mr. Rajapaksa briefed the TULF chief in detail the measures to ensure the safety of the civilians displaced in Killinochchi and Mullathivu. He told him the LTTE had blocked those innocent civilians from entering the cleared areas but is creating a wrong picture that the government was to blame. The TULF leader told the President that he had written a letter to Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M. Karunanidhi on the Wanni situation and urged him to prevail upon the LTTE to let people trapped in the war zone go wherever they wished. In his letter titled “What should be done”, released here on Sunday, the TULF said the Tamil People of Sri Lanka were glad that Tamil Nadu had started showing interest in the Sri Lankan ethnic problem but were disappointed that the concerns of the trapped Tamil people had been ignored. “LTTE is using them as human shield to protect them. The people are also upset and worried that the enthusiasm displayed in Tamil Nadu is showing tendencies of confrontation with the majority community the Sinhalese, with whom the Tamils had been living from time immemorial and will have to live in the future as well. Early solution : “Long before his assassination, Mahatma Gandhi had warned that India and Ceylon can’t afford to quarrel [with] each other, but more than that being immediate neighbours and having several things in common, Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka should maintain cordial relationship between the two.” Mr. Anandasangaree said the decision of the All Party Conference to seek the help of the central government to find an early solution was perfectly alright but it was not the immediate need of our people trapped and kept under compulsion in Killinochchi by the LTTE. The TULF said in the interests of the Tamils, the leaders of Tamil Nadu should forget their political differences and find a solution to the ethnic problem.
Now let’s see what has happened so far.
1. We all know that Pirabakaran has been cornered and has nowhere to go. His ‘fort’ being overrun is only a matter of time.
2. Pirabhakaran’s friends such as MuKa and the sundry Dravidian outfilts have tried their best to pressurize the Govt.of India into relieving Pirabakaran from his check-mate position. They employed such threats as their MPs quitting the parliament and some lower rung vishamis even threatening secession. Poor Vaiko did a oneupmanship on that and landed in jail.
3. The Congress thought it could get away with some initial moral support for it had reconed that the DMK is doing some ‘udaance’ to sooth its ‘Tamil chauvinists’ but did a big ‘jahaa’ when it realized that MuKa might be taking it for a ride.
4. The bravado talks of the DMK and its ilks to carry arms into Srilanka or its talk of pulling the plug on the UPA govt were big but stupid bluffs that were easily called.
5. The talk of secession of Tamils have found no takers.
6. DMK again got isolated with Congress and AIADMK arrayed against it. It still held the trump card of pulling the plug on the UPA which would also be committing harakiri for the Congress in turn would pull out and kill the DMK govt.
7. So Pranab Mukharjee jumps in to cojole Karunanidhi not to be stupid. So this straw of ‘truce’ and ‘negotiated settlement’ are being flown as their new kites. That was enought for MuKa to retreat!
But then what is this ‘truce’ and ‘negotiated settlement’ that is fancied about?
The grapewine talk is that the king of Tigers wants to escape to a safe haven (he seems to have stashed away huge wealth all over the world) and MuKa is prodding GOI to facilitate it!!
So either the ‘fort’ is run over or that the ‘brave’ beast escapes unhurt!! In the meantime his only choice is to hold those very people he swears to represent as hostage. But then we also see that the hostages are making noise in Jaffna. It is only going to get louder!
It is getting curiouser and curiouser isn’t it!
Yes of course, we are curoius too to see how this is resolved.
October 27, 2008 by janamejayan ( http://janamejayan.wordpress.com/ )
Mutual survival resolves the conflict!
NEW DELHI/CHENNAI: For the first time since the conflict in Sri Lanka besieged New Delhi, there were signs on Sunday that the crisis had blownover for the UPA. Pranab Mukherjee’s unscheduled meeting with Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi in Chennai in the evening seemed to have ended on a positive note, with the external affairs minister stating that the DMK chief had assured him that he would not precipitate a crisis for the UPA.
Mukherjee was rushed to Chennai hours after Sri Lanka’s special envoy, Basil Rajapaksa, assured him in Delhi that the authorities were going out of their way to ensure the safety of Tamil civilians in the war-torn island nation. Basil Rajapaksa, who is advisor to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, was sent to New Delhi on Sunday to apprise the Indian government about the situation in the country.
The Mukherjee-Rajapaksa meeting on Sunday may have provided the safe exit passage for Karunanidhi as he was feeling increasingly alienated over the issue in the past few days.
With AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa slamming the DMK for its alleged support to LTTE and Congress keeping away from the human chain organized by the party, Karunanidhi clearly had been cornered.
After his meeting with Mukherjee, Karunanidhi indicated that his party ministers would not resign from the Congress-led UPA government. “The chief minister has assured that he will not precipitate any crisis in the UPA,” Mukherjee said at Karunanidhi’s residence after the hour-long meeting.
Asked about the resignation threat, Karunanidhi said Mukherjee had requested him to postpone any decision in this regard as it would lead to a lot of complications. “I will certainly not create problems for the Centre,” the chief minister said. Specifically asked if he was sending the resignation letters of his party MPs to the Speaker, he said cryptically, “You can infer from Mukherjee’s statement.”
However, the key DMK demand — that India ensure a ceasefire — remains unfulfilled. Mukherjee said: “As we are not a party to the ceasefire, we can’t ask them to (call a ceasefire).” All that he said was there could be no military solution. “During our interaction, both the Prime Minister and I have said there can’t be a military solution. We are asking them to find a political solution,” Mukherjee said.
Karunanidhi said, ” The question as to who will bring about a truce is yet to be answered. Will India lead the talks, or some other countries or some organizations will take the lead has to be decided,” he said, emphasizing that a climate conducive for negotiations would have to be created first. When told that reviving Norway’s facilitation might take time, he said: “It should not take much time.”
Both leaders agreed that the decades-old ethnic conflict could not be solved in a fortnight or five weeks. “We wanted a ceasefire to give effective relief to public,” the DMK chief said, expressing satisfaction at the pace and tone at which the Centre had got Sri Lanka to make a promise that the Tamil civilians would not be hurt anymore in the war against the LTTE.
In New Delhi, Rajapaksa also met NSA M K Narayanan and foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon. As a gesture of goodwill, India has decided to send around 800 tonnes of relief material to Sri Lanka for the affected civilians in the North. Rajapaksa said that the Sri Lankan government would facilitate the delivery.
” Both sides discussed the need to move towards a peacefully negotiated political settlement in the island including in the North. Both sides agreed that terrorism should be countered with resolve. The Indian side called for implementation of the 13th Amendment and greater devolution of powers to the provinces,” the foreign ministry said in an official statement in New Delhi.
Rajapaksa emphasized that the Sri Lankan president and his government were firmly committed to a political process that would lead to a sustainable solution. The two sides also agreed to further nurture the democratic process in the Eastern Province.
During the talks with Rajapaksa, the two sides agreed to put in place practical arrangements to deal with bonafide Indian and Sri Lankan fishermen crossing the International Maritime Boundary Line. As part of these practical arrangements, Indian fishing vessels will not venture into sensitive areas designated by the Lankan government. Further, there will be no firing on Indian fishing vessels.
“It was agreed that Indian fishing vessels would carry valid registration/permit and the fishermen would have on person valid identity cards issued by the Tamil Nadu government,” said the foreign ministry.
India and Sri Lanka also agreed to continue with their discussions, initiated in 2005, on the proposed Memorandum of Understanding on development and cooperation in the field of fisheries.
The following was posted by Dravidadwija in Kanchiforum:
Rajapaksa’s assurance on displaced in Wanni COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said his government has made arrangements for the safety of the displaced civilians in Wanni once they enter the “cleared areas” from the LTTE controlled territory amid reports of heavy fighting on Sunday. Mr. Rajapaksa gave the assurance when Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) leader V. Anandasangaree called on him at the Presidential Palace on Friday and discussed the situation in Wanni and the political developments in South India. Mr. Rajapaksa briefed the TULF chief in detail the measures to ensure the safety of the civilians displaced in Killinochchi and Mullathivu. He told him the LTTE had blocked those innocent civilians from entering the cleared areas but is creating a wrong picture that the government was to blame. The TULF leader told the President that he had written a letter to Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M. Karunanidhi on the Wanni situation and urged him to prevail upon the LTTE to let people trapped in the war zone go wherever they wished. In his letter titled “What should be done”, released here on Sunday, the TULF said the Tamil People of Sri Lanka were glad that Tamil Nadu had started showing interest in the Sri Lankan ethnic problem but were disappointed that the concerns of the trapped Tamil people had been ignored. “LTTE is using them as human shield to protect them. The people are also upset and worried that the enthusiasm displayed in Tamil Nadu is showing tendencies of confrontation with the majority community the Sinhalese, with whom the Tamils had been living from time immemorial and will have to live in the future as well. Early solution : “Long before his assassination, Mahatma Gandhi had warned that India and Ceylon can’t afford to quarrel [with] each other, but more than that being immediate neighbours and having several things in common, Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka should maintain cordial relationship between the two.” Mr. Anandasangaree said the decision of the All Party Conference to seek the help of the central government to find an early solution was perfectly alright but it was not the immediate need of our people trapped and kept under compulsion in Killinochchi by the LTTE. The TULF said in the interests of the Tamils, the leaders of Tamil Nadu should forget their political differences and find a solution to the ethnic problem.
Now let’s see what has happened so far.
1. We all know that Pirabakaran has been cornered and has nowhere to go. His ‘fort’ being overrun is only a matter of time.
2. Pirabhakaran’s friends such as MuKa and the sundry Dravidian outfilts have tried their best to pressurize the Govt.of India into relieving Pirabakaran from his check-mate position. They employed such threats as their MPs quitting the parliament and some lower rung vishamis even threatening secession. Poor Vaiko did a oneupmanship on that and landed in jail.
3. The Congress thought it could get away with some initial moral support for it had reconed that the DMK is doing some ‘udaance’ to sooth its ‘Tamil chauvinists’ but did a big ‘jahaa’ when it realized that MuKa might be taking it for a ride.
4. The bravado talks of the DMK and its ilks to carry arms into Srilanka or its talk of pulling the plug on the UPA govt were big but stupid bluffs that were easily called.
5. The talk of secession of Tamils have found no takers.
6. DMK again got isolated with Congress and AIADMK arrayed against it. It still held the trump card of pulling the plug on the UPA which would also be committing harakiri for the Congress in turn would pull out and kill the DMK govt.
7. So Pranab Mukharjee jumps in to cojole Karunanidhi not to be stupid. So this straw of ‘truce’ and ‘negotiated settlement’ are being flown as their new kites. That was enought for MuKa to retreat!
But then what is this ‘truce’ and ‘negotiated settlement’ that is fancied about?
The grapewine talk is that the king of Tigers wants to escape to a safe haven (he seems to have stashed away huge wealth all over the world) and MuKa is prodding GOI to facilitate it!!
So either the ‘fort’ is run over or that the ‘brave’ beast escapes unhurt!! In the meantime his only choice is to hold those very people he swears to represent as hostage. But then we also see that the hostages are making noise in Jaffna. It is only going to get louder!
It is getting curiouser and curiouser isn’t it!
Yes of course, we are curoius too to see how this is resolved.
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