Tamil Nadu Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Thursday defended its parliamentarian TK Rangarajan saying that Eezham Tamils don’t ask for independence. Citing statements of politicians gagged in the island as authentic expression of the minds of Eezham Tamils and endorsing Rangarajan’s negation of Eezham Tamil independence, the CPI-M state secretary G. Ramakrishnan argued against the current stand of DMK chief M. Karunanidhi and his criticism for Rangarajan. If the CPI-M is truly a party of oppressed people, and a party valuing true democracy, it should first demand removal of the Sri Lankan constitutional ban on talking about secession to help people and their politicians to talk from their heart, and it should support a referendum, rather than imposing conclusions of genocidal Establishments, said an Eezham Tamil politician having no freedom to even reveal his name.
“On any issue, the opinion of the people involved takes precedence,” said the CPI-M press statement, in support of its stand negating independence as solution for Eezham Tamils.
According to the CPI-M, the Tamil politicians in the island who met Rangarajan, and politicians like Sampanthan and Suresh Premachandran of the mainstream political party TNA that is engaged in talks with the Sri Lanka government, didn’t ask for independence. They were all talking about solutions within a united Sri Lanka.
The CPI-M consistently stood for meaningful devolution of powers and maximum autonomy for combined north and east, within united Sri Lanka, the statement said, adding that the current needs of Eezham Tamils are reparations, rehabilitation and devolution of powers.
The CPI-M was trying to project an image that its stand on the issue is the true reflection of the aspirations of the Eezham Tamils supported by their politicians, and Mr. Karunanidhi’s current stand calling for referendum leading to independence is not the wish of Eezham Tamils.
When the Eezham Tamils and their politicians in the island had the last chance of freely expressing their opinion, they came out with the Vaddukkoaddai Resolution of 1976, calling for the independence of Tamil Eelam and endorsed it in the General Elections of 1977.
Thereafter, Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act of 1979, and later the 6th Amendment to the constitution enacted in August 1983, a month after a pogrom, prevented the Eezham Tamils from even talking about their independence. Only by holding arms their militant movements were able to speak the truth of their heart.
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The following are the relevant provisions of the 6th Amendment:
“Article 157 A (1) No person shall, directly or indirectly, in or outside Sri Lanka, support, espouse, promote, finance, encourage or advocate the establishment of a separate state within the territory of Sri Lanka.
(2) No political party or other association or organisation shall have as one of its aims or objects the establishment of a separate state within the territory of Sri Lanka.”
Under this law – 157 A (4) – “any person may make an application to the Supreme Court for a declaration against an organisation espousing the cause of establishing a separate state in the island. Upon such declaration by the SC that the organisation has violated Article 157 A (2), then that organisation “shall be deemed, for all purposes to be proscribed”. Any member of such an organisation shall cease to be a Member of Parliament. Any person who is a member of such an organisation after the date of the SC declaration “shall be guilty of an offence and shall, upon conviction by the Court of Appeal” would be stripped of his or her civic rights for a period not exceeding seven years; and his or her movable and immovable property would be seized.”
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When such are the provisions of the constitution, and under a heavily militarised rule in which people ‘disappear’, how does the CPI-M expect the Eezham Tamils and their politicians to come out with the truth of their political aspirations?
The CPI-M should note that the 6th Amendment provides against individuals and parties talking about secession not only inside the island, but also outside of the island.
Strictly speaking, when Rangarajan himself doesn’t have the freedom to talk about the independence of Eezham Tamils and then visit Sri Lanka, how does the CPI-M cite Premachandran speaking in Chennai as the authentic expression of Eezham Tamil aspirations?
Is this the shade of the ‘People’s Democracy’ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), to first gag the people and then to come out with its imperialistic designs as the aspirations of the affected people, asks the Eezham Tamil politician gagged in his own land.
The CPI-M in its statement says withdrawal of the SL military was one of the issues discussed by Tamil representatives who met the Indian delegation in which Rangarajan was a member.
The representatives, especially the civil group led by Prof SK Sitrampalam was specifically talking on Sinhala colonisation, Sinhalicisation and Buddhicisation, as the burning issues apart from militarization.
The CPI-M statement of G. Ramakrishnan has no reference to the issues and demilitarisation is also not included in its priorities that speak only about reparations, rehabilitation and devolution.
Whether the Communist Party of India (Marxist) tacitly supports the Sinhala militarisation, colonisation, Sinhalicisation and Buddhicisation, as means of the agent state in Colombo and as means of the imperialist aspirations of New Delhi, is the crucial question asked by Eezham Tamils.
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If so, people of Tamil Nadu have to reject such imperialist political parties, have to take up the task of exposing them at an All-India level and have to selectively target and rout their candidates in the elections – whatever the electoral alliances with which the imperialist parties of genocidal blood come clinging to ask for votes in Tamil Nadu, the Eezham Tamil politician in the island urged.
Meanwhile, thinking that they are supporting the politicians at home, sections in the free diaspora that simply endorse whatever the Eezham Tamil politicians say under compulsions, should realise the danger of their endorsement being misused by unscrupulous elements.
There is another articulating section in the Eezham Tamil diaspora that has fallen prey to the intimidation and lures of the imperialist West.
There is yet another microscopic section, which in its allegiance to the former social imperialisms, is chronically jaundiced in seeing that under genocidal circumstances national liberation is the priority. They also don’t see that imperialisms in the West and East are together today.
Indian imperialist elements like the CPI-M, gain their confidence to tread on the issue of Eezham Tamils because of the follies of the above sections among Eezham Tamils, the Eezham Tamil politician in the island pointed out.
Marxists should be the first people to realise that currently the question of Eezham Tamils is not merely a question of national liberation.
As for the first time in contemporary history the genocidal war was fought surprisingly with the blessings of all the powers on the earth in unison, the national liberation of Eezham Tamils has become a universal test case in the edification of imperialism all over the world.
Only the liberation of Eezham Tamils could course-correct the powers and agent states all over the world to behave properly inside and outside of their countries in the future. Otherwise, Sri Lanka will be a dangerous role model for universal oppression.
The party members of the CPI-M all over India have to realise that the independence of Eezham Tamils will not affect the unity of India. On the contrary, it will be an inspiration for dialectical developments within the Establishment in India on many of its internal issues and will strengthen the unity and prestige of India, if the Establishment is discouraged from opting for the role model of Sri Lanka it abetted.
It is ideal for the states to behave in such ways so that national questions don’t come up. But once a national question matures to the extent of genocide, it is either liberation or subjugation of a nation.
Where does the leadership of the CPI-M in the garb of Marxism ideologically stand on this universal as well as regional issue – With imperialisms and an agent state or with the genocide-facing people of a nation without state, the Eezham Tamil politician in the island further asked, appealing to the supporters of the CPI-M all over India to course-correct their leaders, especially in Tamil Nadu.
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