The Eastern Tigers, led by the LTTE's breakaway military commander Karuna have entered the 'exclusive club' of suicidal terrorism. That Karuna had at his disposal brainwashed cadres prepared to throw away their lives at the leader's command, was fairly well known. But it was only last week that he demonstrated his capability to match Prabhakaran's much flaunted brand of terror. One of Karuna's men drove an explosive laden trishaw into an outpost of the Wanni Tigers, killing ten cadres in the blast. The Eastern Tigers accounted for many more Wanni cadres in three separate attacks in the East.

Prabhakaran, like other terror Czars, has catapulted himself to the giddy heights of the world of terrorism through his ability to unleash suicidal terror, which the global media has made a fetish of. To terrorist groups their suicidal terror is what the nuclear capability is to a sovereign nation. Terrorism derives sustenance from media exposure in no small measure. Suicidal terror, often used in spectacular attacks, is piece de resistance of terrorism that helps boost the morale of the terrorists, who use it in justification of their macabre causes. Many a person abhorring terrorism had his/her gorge rising at the despicable manner in which BBC once featured the brainwashed LTTE cadres, or ‘children of fire’, ready to be disposed of, taking part in a parade. That documentary, which was coterminous with a flamboyant choreography of sorts, smacked of a vulpine attempt to lionise the so-called Black Tigers. (And in the UK, glorification of terrorism is a punishable offence!)

Of terrorism, the civilised world has nothing but abhorrence, be it by Karuna or by Prabhkaran. It is no means to an end: It is the end and the means both. It may help gratify one's animalistic desire for revenge but it has a limited life span. The LTTE's experience is a case in point. The wheel of its violence has turned a full circle. The objective of Eelam is far from achieved, in spite of the loss of over 20,000 LTTE cadres. Unbridled violence has caused the outfit to be banned in over 30 countries, most of which were once sympathetic to its cause. It has returned after decades of violence where it began and is under pressure to settle for what it could have got without an internecine war––federalism. It is now, with egg on its face, panhandling to India once again! That is why terrorism is never the choice of the wise. Mahatma Gandhi knew that if he had instigated India to violence against the British, he would only have played into the hands of the imperialists and helped perpetuate their rule, though he, on more than one occasion, made his position very clear that, given a choice between cowardice and violence, he would opt for the latter.

Karuna and Prabhakaran are Siamese twins, where their modus operandi, is concerned. The former may have thought that the best way to attract the attention of the world to his cause–the 'liberation' of the Eastern Tamils and the separation of the Eastern Province from the North–was to emulate his former guru. The golaya (pupil) appears to be as adept as his guru at unleashing violence.

Karuna's terror or counter terror, notwithstanding the serious moral, legal and security issues that it may involve, has given a fresh impetus to the movement for a de-merger. The 'battle' for severing the arbitrarily created link between the North and the East has come to be fought on several fronts––political, legal, and military. Karuna is working towards that objective on the military front at present and the first reaction of the government will be to clear the East, should the LTTE revert to a full blown war. The demand for a non-contiguous Muslim enclave, in case of the LTTE getting autonomous powers in a merged North and East also augurs well for the anti-merger campaign, which is gathering momentum.

What is happening in the East is, no doubt, worrisome enough to send Prabhakaran’s blood pressure and blood sugar levels through the roof! He is only ruining things for himself further by driving away the truce monitors (who are partial to him) and trying to hijack water resources in the East in a desperate bid to prop up his crumbling rule in that strategic province.