Sadanand Menon’s article (Who speaks on behalf of Lanka’s Tamils?, October 17) is a cynical and insensitive review about the reaction of Tamil Nadu citizens and their leaders to the pathetic plight of Sri Lankan Tamils. It is this kind of indifference and insensitivity by journalists and political leaders to human right violations that give birth to militant rebels like LTTE.
Sri Lankan victimisation and discrimination against Tamils bordering on genocide started when the Tamil representatives were non-violent democrats, to the extent their leader Samuel V Chelvanayagam was described as the “Gandhi of Eelam”. He formed the Federal Party on the issue of disenfranchisement of “Indian Tamils” for whom Menon is shedding crocodile tears (his own metaphor) today.
Shastri, who agreed to repatriate half those Tamils, did not care whether they died of starvation in India or Sri Lanka.The attitude of the North-dominated central government of India has still not changed. How can Menon blame the then impoverished Tamil Nadu for the plight of those stateless Tamils? His theory is that since Tamil Nadu did not fight for the Tamil victims of Sri Lanka in the ’70s, it should not fight for the Tamils facing the atrocities of Sri Lanka’s government ever again.
Apparently he doesn’t care if a few more lakhs of Tamils get chased out of Sri Lanka and end up dying in streets of India.
C Mohandas, via e-mail
