knowledge has no horizons

Days passed by after the TN MPs “insisted” on the Centre allowing them to visit war-ridden Sri Lanka and to study the situations and conditions of the Tamils in relief camps, who are living as refugees in their own homeland, and things are now going good for the DMK supremo, Karunanidhi, to stage a different drama to prove him the ever only leader of Tamils across the world. Yes, a team of TN MPs started their journey to Sri Lanka this afternoon. The team comprises MPs from Congress that gave weapons to root out Tamils, from DMK that backed and is backing Congress in the centre, and VCK leader Thirumavalavan, who found the nerve to swear to pluck the congress to its roots from the Tamil soil. Find it rib-tickling!

“The MPs' delegation is in response to the invitation extended by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi to visit his country and see the relief operations”, said Natchiappan. He continued: “Our primary focus is to see how the internally displaced people are being maintained in the special camps in Sri Lanka and how the aid is being distributed to them”. The head of the team of Tamil MPs headed to Sri Lanka asserts, "The chief minister instead decided to depute a team of MPs of the ruling alliance on his behalf to have first hand information on the conditions prevailing there."

Now, it is time to turn to be serious to ask certain questions that are expected not to be evaded. Colombo announced that the war against the LTTEs ended in the month of May, and the war-affected Tamils are housed in relief camps from the time then. A lot of news is coming on the way that the Tamils in the relief are not provided with basic amenities like sanitation, food and others, and even things sent to them on humanitarian measures failed to reach them. What happened to Vanangaman, humanitarian ship carrying consignment of food, medicine, medical teams and other essential items to the suffering Tamils? In a petition filed in the Sri Lankan Supreme Court by the NGO Centre for Changed Principles, it painfully pointed out that 30 among the Tamils died of lack of nutrition, and around 3,00,000 Tamils housed in the so-called 40 relief camps are subjected to torment by the Lankan army (Watch Video). This happened in the month of June (Click to read). The news of worse and deteriorating condition of Tamils keep flowing even at and after the war. It is worth noting here the statement of US minister for External Affairs, Hilary, who accused Sri Lanka of using rape as a weapon in the fight against the LTTEs (Click here to read). Hats off to the State and Centre for arranging such an earlier visit to study their conditions!!!!

T.R.Balu, the head of the team of MPs, says we are not getting any information regarding our visit from the sri Lankan government side, whereas the State Congress leader Thangabalu claims, which Natchiappan reaffirms later, that a letter from the Lankan president has reached the TN CM, asking him to send a team of MPs from TN to study the situations in the relief camps (Dinamalar). Why is this contradictions and why the letter sent to karunanidhi rather than to Manmohan Singh?.

The team is visiting Lanka as a representative of State or Centre? If representing the Centre, why should they give report to Karunanidhi and through him to Manmohan Singh? T.R.Baalu is of the opinion that “[t]he chief minister instead decided to depute a team of MPs of the ruling alliance on his behalf to have first hand information on the conditions prevailing there.” When is the external ministry coming in the concurrent list? And why was the Sri Lankan president writing to him instead to Manmohan? How can one expect a detailed and true from the team, as it does not consist of MPs from oppositon parties, at least from the state level? MPs from AIADMK, Communists and MDMK were not the sons of Tamil soil and are strangers to Tamils there in Sri Lanka?

The statement of Karunanidhi at the time of asking to pressurize the Centre to stop Lanka killing Tamils still lingers in Tamil minds. A sovereign country cannot interfere into the matters of another sovereign country, he said. But, now, he is sending a team, just for political stunt. The five-day visit will be for dining with Rajapaksa, and the team eventually concludes: “the condition is satisfactory”.