Tamil National Alliance leader and Trincomalee district MP Rajavarothayam Sampanthan was interviewed by the “Daily Mirror”. The Colombo English daily carried the interview conducted by Chathushika Wijeyesinghe on January 3rd under the heading “There is no LTTE now, so how can TNA be a Proxy-Sampanthan”.

Upon reading the interview in full ,it is seen that the question posed to Sampanthan was “Some say that the TNA is an LTTE proxy. What do you have to say about this?. To which the veteran Tamil leader answered with a counter question –“When the LTTE is not there how can we become a proxy? We have never been LTTE’s proxy”.

Fortunately or unfortunately for Sampanthan the “Daily Mirror”journalist does not follow up with her question but goes off on a different track and raises another one on an “honourable solution”.

Sampanthan’s foxy response to the question has two components. One is that the issue of TNA being a LTTE proxy does not arise because the LTTE is no more. The other is that the TNA was never a LTTE proxy.Both assertions warrant closer scrutiny

It is indeed ironic that the TNA leader who is resident in the Tamil Nadu capital of Chennai for substantial periods of time was unaware of the Indian Government’s position on the existence of the LTTE.Though Sampanthan says there is no LTTE the Indian Govt in its wisdom has thought and acted otherwise.

On May 14th 2014 the Indian Home Ministry extended the ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil eelam (LTTE) for a further period of five years. A news story written by the Devesh K.Pandey in “The Hindu”of May 16th 2014 is reproduced here. (It is well known that Sampanthan reads “The Hindu”regularly)

Ban on LTTE extended for five years

Devesh K. Pandey

“The Union Home Ministry on Wednesday issued a fresh notification extending ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in India for five years”.

“The Government of India, under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, has proscribed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as an ‘Unlawful Association’. The declaration of LTTE as an ‘Unlawful Association’ has been extended for a further period of five years with effect from May 14, 2014,” said an MHA notification made public on Thursday.

LTTE was banned in India after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. The ban on the outfit was extended the last time in May 2012. The gazette notification then noted that LTTE was an association based in Sri Lanka, but having its supporters, sympathizers and agents in India; and that its objective for a separate homeland (Tamil Eelam) for all Tamils threatened the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India for the Union and thus, fell within the ambit of an unlawful activity.

“The LTTE, even after its military defeat in May 2009 in Sri Lanka, has not abandoned the concept of ‘Eelam’ and has been clandestinely working towards the ‘Eelam’ cause by undertaking fund raising and propaganda activities in Europe. The remnant LTTE leaders or cadres have also initiated efforts to regroup the scattered activists and resurrect the outfit locally and internationally,” read the 2012 notification, adding that the Tamil chauvinist groups and pro-LTTE groups continued to foster a separatist tendency amongst the masses and enhance the support base for LTTE in India and particularly in Tamil Nadu.

The notification also mentioned that the Diaspora continued to spread through articles in the Internet portals, anti-India feeling amongst the Sri Lankan Tamils by holding the top Indian political leaders and bureaucrats responsible for the defeat of the LTTE. “Such propaganda through Internet, which remains continued, is likely to impact VVIP security adversely in India,” it said.

The MHA justified the extension of ban in 2012 stating that the Central Government had “information that the activities of the LTTE remnant cadres, dropouts, sympathisers, supporters who have been traced out recently in the State of Tamil Nadu suggest that the cadres sent to Tamil Nadu would ultimately be utilised by the LTTE for unlawful activities”.

What is crystal clear from this is that India the neighbouring country to which Sampanthan relocated with his family after Black July 1983 is of the firm opinion that the LTTE does exist ,is active and poses a security threat necessitating a continuation of the ban.

Is Sampanthan who says there is no LTTE prepared to challenge the Indian Home ministry or at least contest the ruling through Indian media and assert that the “LTTE is no more”?

The second part of Sampanthan’s answer is to deny that the TNA was ever a proxy of the LTTE.

A proxy is usually defined as – a)One appointed or authorized to act for another, especially a person appointed to vote as one wishes at a meeting;b)The authority to act for another and c)The written authorization to act in place of another.

In that context there are several instances in the past when the TNA acted for the LTTE with full sanction of the tigers.(It cannot be forgotten that Douglas Devananda of the EPDP often mocked the TNA as an acronym for “Tiger Nominated Agents”)

However a news item appearing in the LTTE mouthpiece”Tamil Net”of November 10th 2005 sheds much light on the question of the TNA acting as agents or proxies of the LTTE. This is in about the notorious LTTE-TNA Joint boycott of 2005 Presidential elections. Though the TNA in its post-May 2009 Avatar waxes eloquent about the folly of boycotting polls, it is an undeniable fact that the TNA along with its political masters the LTTE caused irredeemable harm to the Tamil people through this enforced boycott.

Here is the extract in full from “Tamil Net”.

LTTE-TNA conference concludes: “Tamil people have no interest in SL Presidential elections”
[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 November 2005, 11:56 GMT]

Emerging from the three and a half hour meeting with the Political Wing of the LTTE, Wednesday, R.Sampanthan, Leader of the TNA Parliamentarians, categorically declared to the media, “Nothing worthwhile would be achieved by supporting either of the two leading candidates in the Sri Lankan Presidential election.” Mr Sampanthan, following discussions presided by S.P.Thamilchelvan, leader of the Political Wing of the LTTE, assured the press in Kilinochchi, that Tamil People are “not at all interested in the forthcoming Presidential election.”

“Both Sinhala parties have been in the government before and after periods of war in the NorthEast. If we carefully examine the conduct of these Governments towards Tamil people we are forced to conclude that we cannot place our trust on either of the parties or their candidates,” Mr. Sampanthan revealed.

“We are convinced that Tamil people will not benefit by showing any interest in the forthcoming Sri Lanka Presidential elections,” added the parliamentary group leader of Tamil National Alliance (TNA), talking to the press after the meeting with the LTTE’s Political Head at the LTTE Peace Secretariat in Kilinochchi.

“The past bitter experiences of the ordinary Tamil people are such that they will never forget their sufferings, especially under military subjugation, both during their non violent struggle as well as during armed confrontation.” said Mr Sampanthan.

“It is not surprising that the Tamil people have lost all interest in the forthcoming Sri Lankan presidential elections. The experience the Tamils have had over five decades, has taught them neither to trust the leading Sinhala political parties nor to have faith in their leadership,” the leader of the TNA said.

The meeting with twenty one TNA MPs and senior officials of the LTTE took place at 11.00 a.m. and lasted more than three hours. Mr. Thamilchelvan was joined by Deputy Head of LTTE Political Wing, S Thangan, Director of LTTE Peace Secretariat, Puleedevan, Head of Jaffna district LTTE Political Wing, Ilamparithi, Head of Vavuniya district LTTE Political Wing, Gnanam and Head of Mannar district LTTE Political Wing, Iniyavan.

All TNA MPs, except Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, who is on a US visit, attended the discussions.

“Neither the TNA nor the LTTE will advise people not to vote. We will not be in their way, blocking them from exercising their democratic right. But all signs are, the decision not to show interest in the Presidential election is gathering momentum among the Tamils. That is what we could gather from our political experience and interaction with the people,” the veteran politician from Trincomalee observed.

“Tamil residents in NorthEast are fully aware of the conduct of the two major Sinhala parties. They have been through and suffered through periods under these parties’ governance. We know and understand Tamil peoples’ frame of mind. We have no doubt that they are in full agreement with our thinking,” Sampanthan told the press.

“We discussed in depth and exchanged our views on the situation related to the elections and what historical significance our participation in the elections is going to be for the future of our people.

“We talked about the conduct of the Sri Lanka Governments from the time of independence and how they attempted to resolve the Tamil National question. We discussed how our people were oppressed under armed threat and how genocide was perpetrated on our people. We looked at how the Sinhala governments approached the peace process and examined their actions especially during the last three years of peace.

“There was no doubt in any of the participants’ mind that the Presidential election will not produce any positive shift in the Southern Polity’s thinking and approach that will in anyway result in any progressive advance towards resolving the Tamil question.

“That is why we decided that it is a futile exercise to show any interest in the elecions,” Sampanthan told the press.

******

Against this backdrop it is apparent that Rajavarothayam Sampanthan was guilty of “terminological inexactitudes” in his misleading response to “Daily Mirror” that the LTTE was no more and that the TNA was never a LTTE proxy.