Today has been a day of politicians providing us with some badly needed humour. And they are providing lots of it.
First was the Karunanidhi fast - which ended very fast, indeed! Early morning today Karunanidhi decided to use Mahatma Gandhi's favourite weapon - the 'indefinite fast'. The point is, there was hardly anything indefinite about it. As of yesterday the Lankan army had pushed the LTTE (what was remaining of it, that is) to a few square km of area. LTTE then proposed a ceasefire and Sri Lankan authorities promptly rebuffed this suggestion as 'a joke'. It was a joke definitely. I could hear the Sri Lankan army top brass saying, "So you want a ceasefire? Sorry pal, but I am not asking you what you want. You can keep your demands to yourself, because I am coming and getting you. Just you wait!" This was a clear indication that the LTTE game was as good as up. Clearly, there was very little time for Karunanidhi to get some political mileage (and several Tamil votes) out of this battle that was about to end more sooner and later.
So he had to act fast, really fast. Pun intended.
Then there was Ramadoss making the atrocious remark that Prabhakaran was not a terrorist but was actually a freedom fighter and could be compared to Nelson Mandela! By that logic, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale should also be considered a freedom fighter. Not to speak of Dhanu and Sivarasan. I suppose that Ramadoss believes that all of them were also freedom fighters - if in the process of fighting they blew up innocent people, assasinated a Prime Minister and sparked off a political crisis in anther country, then so be it.
Ramadoss, will you wake up, please? Kindly note that you are backing an outfit that assasinated your PM. I would say you are actually insulting the very constitutional fabric of my country. I hesitate to say 'your country' because you are hardly behaving likewise. The next thing you might go and say is that Prabhakaran is actually a Tamilian reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, but I am afraid people don't take you seriously these days.
The best part, cherry on the cake really, came later today. Sri Lanka authorities declared that "the conflict had reached its conclusion and that the army would now focus now on rescuing civilian hostages. No heavy arms would be used." Just as you would expect, this was promptly followed by Karunanidhi gratefully accepting the glass of sweet lime juice (or butter milk or kaapi) to end his fast. Pranab Mukherjee and P Chidambaram wasted no time in claiming Indian contribution to this decision. These statements were pathetic attempts at claiming credit for something they had nothing to do with. I saw an interview of a Sri Lankan official - who went by a charmingly musical surname of Hullugale - on TV. It went something like this -
Sir, what has been the Indian contribution to this decision?
....... sorry? I can't hear you?
Sir, what has been the Indian contribution to this decision?
Oh, well. Indian govt has been very cooperative in this case. They have not put any pressure on us.
Mr. Hallugale is a perfect diplomat. What he managed to say without actually saying it was - Hello? What do you think you are talking about?
First was the Karunanidhi fast - which ended very fast, indeed! Early morning today Karunanidhi decided to use Mahatma Gandhi's favourite weapon - the 'indefinite fast'. The point is, there was hardly anything indefinite about it. As of yesterday the Lankan army had pushed the LTTE (what was remaining of it, that is) to a few square km of area. LTTE then proposed a ceasefire and Sri Lankan authorities promptly rebuffed this suggestion as 'a joke'. It was a joke definitely. I could hear the Sri Lankan army top brass saying, "So you want a ceasefire? Sorry pal, but I am not asking you what you want. You can keep your demands to yourself, because I am coming and getting you. Just you wait!" This was a clear indication that the LTTE game was as good as up. Clearly, there was very little time for Karunanidhi to get some political mileage (and several Tamil votes) out of this battle that was about to end more sooner and later.
So he had to act fast, really fast. Pun intended.
Then there was Ramadoss making the atrocious remark that Prabhakaran was not a terrorist but was actually a freedom fighter and could be compared to Nelson Mandela! By that logic, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale should also be considered a freedom fighter. Not to speak of Dhanu and Sivarasan. I suppose that Ramadoss believes that all of them were also freedom fighters - if in the process of fighting they blew up innocent people, assasinated a Prime Minister and sparked off a political crisis in anther country, then so be it.
Ramadoss, will you wake up, please? Kindly note that you are backing an outfit that assasinated your PM. I would say you are actually insulting the very constitutional fabric of my country. I hesitate to say 'your country' because you are hardly behaving likewise. The next thing you might go and say is that Prabhakaran is actually a Tamilian reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, but I am afraid people don't take you seriously these days.
The best part, cherry on the cake really, came later today. Sri Lanka authorities declared that "the conflict had reached its conclusion and that the army would now focus now on rescuing civilian hostages. No heavy arms would be used." Just as you would expect, this was promptly followed by Karunanidhi gratefully accepting the glass of sweet lime juice (or butter milk or kaapi) to end his fast. Pranab Mukherjee and P Chidambaram wasted no time in claiming Indian contribution to this decision. These statements were pathetic attempts at claiming credit for something they had nothing to do with. I saw an interview of a Sri Lankan official - who went by a charmingly musical surname of Hullugale - on TV. It went something like this -
Sir, what has been the Indian contribution to this decision?
....... sorry? I can't hear you?
Sir, what has been the Indian contribution to this decision?
Oh, well. Indian govt has been very cooperative in this case. They have not put any pressure on us.
Mr. Hallugale is a perfect diplomat. What he managed to say without actually saying it was - Hello? What do you think you are talking about?
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2 comments:
ha ha... good post. actually the Sri Lankans never gave a damn about what India said.
Sometime back, a SL leader had mentioned that if the LTTE is destroyed, clowns like Vaiko, who live on LTTE's money will suffer... and still, the Indian government did nothing except calling the SL ambassador and giving him a warning.
But, I liked SL's no nonsense approach. We need someone like Rajpaksha... Agreed, there might be huge civilian casualties, human rights violations, but then it ends the matter once and for all. There's a dialogue in the movie Mee Shivaji Raje Bhosale Boltoy- "Swarajya che toran phul-baazarat vikat milat nahi... tya saathi ladhaava lagta... anek pranannchi ahuti dyavi lagte." Put it in this context, if we want to maintain our sovereignty, we have to fight for it, people will die, but the fight should be to achieve it and not merely try to fend off...
Thanks Vinay. Yes, we have much to learn from the Sri Lankan government. Over two decades is a long time and they had decided enough is enough. We still suffer from hanging on to ideologies of the past. They may have worked then, that does not mean they will work today. Taliban is having a field day not very far from our borders. If Indian leaders go on a fast condemning them, are they going to even listen, leave alone relent?
I haven't seen Mi Shivajiraje, but yes, the dialogue makes a lot of sense.
We are still caught in the facile ideas of 'ghara gharaat Bhagat Singh janmayla havet. Mhanje shakyato shejarchya gharaat....'
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