V Prabhakaran, RIP

LTTE Chief's death came two days before the 18th anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi's assasination. Ironical isn't it?

His peaceful existence ended with his first ever assasination, that of Jaffna Mayor in the 70's. Thus began the transformation to the most ruthless guerilla leader the world has ever known.

Prabhakaran's death has triggered a renewed interest in India of a political solution to the tamil cause. The shape and form of a solution largely depends on Rajapakse's ability to convince the Sinhala-Buddhist clique. Its an arduous task, given the history of chauvinism since S Bandaranaike days in the 50's.

Basic understanding of Srilankan history is required to put things in perspective. The justification to the tamil struggle stems from various state sponsored pogrons from 1956 to the events of July 1983 commonly referred to as Black July. Students in Tamil Nadu at that time will never forget those days.

I hated LTTE since the assasination of Rajiv Gandhi, so did 99.99% of the population in Tamilnadu. Overnight LTTE and the tamil cause lost their greatest supporter. LTTE then did not care, for they were paid heavily for the job, which reflected in their successes against the Srilankan army in the mid 90's.

Sure, there are rabid elements in Tamil nadu today. Some of them coincidently lost in the recenlty concluded elections. Majority of the population is not celebrating LTTE's demise in Tamil nadu now. There's cautious optimism on one hand and concern on the other hand.

There exists an umblical chord between Srilankan Tamils and their brethren in India. Any attempts to deny this is an exercise in stupidity. It may go against the very concept of modern "nation-state". But then "nation-state", just like "secularism", is a western concept, imposed and ingrained because of our colonial trappings. Unfortunately, except for AP Venkateswaran, brilliant Foreign Secretary under Rajiv Gandhi, none of the other foreign policy mandarins understood this in the Srilankan context, including the highly regarded the late J N Dixit.

November 2002 was historic in one sense. The LTTE Chief addressed a press conference - possibly in the jungles of Vavunia, with over 200 reporters from all over the world. He and his political idealogue, the late Anton Balasingham, stopped short of apologizing for Rajiv's assasination, when querried. But the realization came very, very late, to the point of no return. LTTE realized that without India's support there was no way they were going to achieve their ultimate objectives.

Prabhakaran could not achieve his goals in his lifetime, but his death has given the opportunity for India to involve itself meaningfuly in Srilanka. Given the geopolitical considerations, we may have to force the issue. Its a catch-22 for India. We have to leverage our trust and influence to bring about a political settlement in Srilanka - in any shape or form.