Basil Rajapaksa, Senior Advisor, President’s brother, MP and trouble –shooter of the Govt. took off,post haste to the Indian capital the other day, taking with him, as reported ‘a sackful of documents apparently to convince the Indian Govt. that there was no ‘genocide’ of the Tamil people taking place in Sri Lanka as claimed by Karunanidhi et al and that the war against the fascist LTTE was being pursued by the SL Govt. with the sole intention of liberating the Tamils who were being held hostage by Prabhakaran who was using them as a human shield against the advancing SL Army.

The Army, it would have been conveyed by him,was now poised to re-capture the balance area of the Vanni still remaining under LTTE control.The Senior Advisor would have armed himself fully with the necessary facts and figures to disabuse the Indian Foreign Minister of any serious misgivings Delhi may have had which prompted them to summon our Dpl. Officers both in Delhi and Chennai, for a pep talk on the alleged brutal genocide and decimation of the Tamil population by the SL Govt.

No one doubts that the Senior Advisor was naive enough not to be aware that Delhi was already very well briefed by it’s own Intelligence on the actual situation in the Wanni.It is indeed a well known fact that the Indian Intelligence operatives are streets ahead of their SL counterparts who often rely on the former for Intelligence pertaining, particularly to the suspicious movement of foreign vessels in the Indian Ocean etc. It was however, a tricky assignment indeed for the Senior Advisor who still had to go through the motions by sticking to expected form and diplomatic finesse. From all accounts, he seems to have handled a highly emotionally overwrought situation, with admirable delicacy and aplomb.

Close on the heels of these discussions,the Indian Foreign Minister paid a call on Karunanidhi to allay the latter’s importunate apprehensions of the SL Tamils being deliberately targeted by the SL Govt. for "Genocide"and extermination, which was the open charge of the Tamil Nadu LTTE supporters. Karunanidhi himself may have relented his rather knee jerk reaction earlier, particularly after certain nondescript extremists, amongst whom were South Indian film personalities, had in the ensuing melee raised the cry of a separate South Indian nation State.These and other subversive activities of these extremists like the damaging of the statue of Rajiv Gandhi erected at the site of his assassination, must have also embarrassed Karunanidhi no end.

Delhi is quite naturally concerned with the thin majority the Govt. enjoys in Parliament .The Tamil Nadu vote is a crucial factor in the Parliamentary numerical equation. Karunanidhi knows this only too well and uses it as a veritable ‘sword of Damocles’to pressure the Centre in times of crises. Karunanidhi also knows only too well that the days are numbered for his fond protege, Prabahkaran and is desperate to save him at any cost. He is also fully aware that Prabhakaran is retaining the Tamil people in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu forcibly, to use them as a protective shield for the LTTE cadres, when they finally confront the Army in a last ditch stand.

Clearly,Karunanidhi’s emotional outcry is not out of any love of the Tamil people and any feeling of genuine anxiety to protect them from ‘genocide and the brutal decimation’ he claims, is taking place in SL. He is hell bent on saving his beloved Prabhakaran from the Army that is relentlessly bearing down on him. Delhi knows this too well and much as they would like to have the fascist dictator’s head, if only for the reasons that he reneged on the India –Sri Lanka Peace Accord,then cold bloodedly killed Indias’s favourite son and followed this dastardly murder up by killing off, well over a thousand Indian soldiers in a tragic military interlude the Indians took part in, on Sri Lankan soil.

Then, quite unexpectedly the other day, we had the LTTE conducting bombing raids on Colombo and Mannar.It was not only an act of open defiance, coming as it did in the immediate wake of the discussions in Delhi and Chennai, but clearly showed Prabhakaranwounding contempt of the SL Govt. as well as Delhi.It is tantamount to a stinging slap delivered by the LTTE chief in the face of Delhi.This should indeed, serve as a clear pointer to Delhi of the insane intransigence of the LTTE in its unremitting pursuit of the dream of Tamil Eelam!

The intrepid Mr.Ananda Sangaree who is the President of the TULF is highly respected by all communities in SL as a doughty fighter for the rights of the Tamil community and one who fervently believes in a united Sri Lanka. He has made repeated entreaties to Prabhakaran to end the ongoing conflict by joining the democratic mainstream, thereby ending the prolonged misery he is subjecting the Tamils to,with little success.He has followed these pleadings by direct appeals made to Karunanidhi beseeching the latter not to encourage the LTTE who were the bane and the scourge of the Tamil community in SL, by giving them refuge and protection in Tamil Nadu, once again with little avail.Finally,as a last resort he has been entreating Delhi to apply pressure on the LTTE via Karunanidhil, to eschew the chimera of Tamil Eelam and like Prabhakaran’s erstwhile colleagues in combat, Karuna Amman and Pillayan in the Eastern Province, join the democratic mainstream to help build a prosperous, united Sri Lanka. It is certainly time India listened to the pleadings of respected Tamil leaders like Mr.Ananda Sangaree, who are the genuine representatives of the SL Tamils and moved effectively to crush the LTTE terrorists, thereby putting an end to the prolonged misery of the Tamil population who continue to suffer under the Jackboot of the fascist dictator.

"Judex damnatur cum nocens ’absolvitur’ (The judge is condemned when the guilty is acquitted) is a wise old adage which India should do well to ponder over, in it’s own long term interest.

Delhi should not remain a hostage in the hands of Karunanidhi and some extremist politicians in Tamil Nadu, because of the rather precarious numerical equation the Centre has to contend with in the Indian Parliament. However,it is indeed, at least a redeeming factor that India has since wisely stated unequivocally,that it will not interfere in the war that is being waged by the SL Govt.against the LTTE terrorists.

While revealing Delhi’s predicament in his forthright and incisive analysis of the current Sri Lankan crisis, in an article appearing in the Sunday Times of the 26th of Oct.2008,the well known and much respected Indian political commentator Kuldip Nayar, raises the following searching questions :-

"My questions are directed towards New Delhi. How can it interfere in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka? What is our business to protect the LTTE against the Sri Lankan military? How can we ask or even make a hint to a sovereign nation to do or not to do certain things? We are setting a precedent we would regret one day".

In the above terse and telling questions, Mr. Nayar says it all !