At least now India should regret its blunder of having tried to tame a friendly neighbour by turning a ragtag group into a ruthless guerrilla outfit at the behest of the same forces in Tamil Nadu that have risen in defence of Prabhakaran's separatist project today.

The DMK-led forces, it may be recalled, rose even against the Indian army in Sri Lanka. How they compromised India's national security to further their separatist interests by protecting the LTTE finds mention in an article by Head of the IPKF Intelligence Col. R. Hariharan, Intelligence in India's Sri Lanka War (reproduced in this newspaper today). He says: During the entire period of operations, the LTTE had an unprecedented freedom to operate with impunity in Tamil Nadu despite being at war with Indian state.... The failure of the Tamil Nadu Home Department to act in the interest of national security for political reasons had kept up the morale of LTTE fighting with our forces in Sri Lanka.

The Tiger lobby in Tamil Nadu continues to play their 'intelligence game', as evident from the probe into the massacre of crew members of the Indian trawler Kanya Kumari last year. Terror backers of Tamil Nadu promptly blamed the crime on the Sri Lankan Navy. But, later the LTTE cadres responsible for the killing were apprehended by the Q Branch. Nothing has been heard of the investigations ever since.

The most effective way for the LTTE to trigger an anti-Sri Lankan outcry in Tamil Nadu is to kill Indian fishermen who constitute the vote bank of the pro-LTTE lunatic fringe in that state. So, the LTTE is very likely to try to fuel the flames in Tamil Nadu by harming more and more Indian fishermen and blaming that on the Sri Lankan Navy. The LTTE has already taken steps to give a turbo boost to the anti-Sri Lanka howl in Tamil Nadu by disrupting supplies to the Wanni. It has damaged a bridge and shelled a food convoy during the past few days. The LTTE's battle plan is clear: Having stored enough food for its consumption, it is all out to create a humanitarian crisis by preventing the government from keeping the Wanni supplied.

The RAW, we learn, has properly assessed the situation in the Wanni. It is intriguing why the Central Government of India ignores reliable information furnished by its own intelligence officers and goes by the propaganda lies of the Tiger allies in drawing conclusions about the Sri Lankan situation.

If it is India's national interest that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has at heart, he should defeat the separatist lobby in Tamil Nadu without succumbing to its pressure. He ought to summon Karunanidhi and tell him three things: He must stop using Prabhakaran as a cat's paw to promote his own separatist agenda on the pretext of helping Sri Lankan Tamils; ask his tigrine protégés to release the civilians in their clutches without using them as a human shield and most of all, no devolution package in Sri Lanka is going to work so long as the LTTE remains strong. Let Karunanidhi be also told what the European Parliament said in a resolution on Sri Lanka in Sep. 2006 – the LTTE has rejected devolution at the provincial level (Provincial Councils), devolution at the regional level (Regional Councils) and devolution at the national level (federalism as envisaged in the Oslo Declaration).

What is there to be negotiated with the LTTE?

Even if Sri Lanka were to offer a substantial devolution package to other stakeholders in the conflict, while battling the LTTE, Karunanidhi and other terror supporters won't abandon their protests. What they need is nothing but a new lease of life for Prabhakaran so that their joint separatist project won't be scuttled. He who pursues the stag, it is said, regards not the hare.

New Delhi will have to think of some other way of dealing with them lest they should set India on fire before long. After all, Karunanidhi is India’s problem.