{"id":23729,"date":"2013-08-03T19:18:34","date_gmt":"2013-08-03T23:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=23729"},"modified":"2013-08-03T19:21:15","modified_gmt":"2013-08-03T23:21:15","slug":"self-styled-sinhala-nationalists-belittling-themselves-by-branding-justice-cv-wigneswaran-as-a-raw-agent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=23729","title":{"rendered":"Self-styled Sinhala Nationalists Belittling Themselves by Branding Justice CV Wigneswaran as a “RAW Agent”"},"content":{"rendered":"

By <\/p>\n

N. Sathiya Moorthy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Across the world, it is CIA still! Nearer home in neighbouring India, it is ISI everywhere and in everything. In the rest of South Asia, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), commonly known as \u2018RAW\u2019, has been the whipping-boy for everything that has gone wrong with domestic politics in individual countries. Imagine India\u2019s might, both inside and outside the South Asian neighbourhood, if even a percentage of what is being attributed to the external intelligence outfit were to be true!<\/p>\n

It is a sad commentary on the imaginative skills of self-styled \u2018Sinhala nationalists\u2019 that they should brand Justice C. V. Wigneswaran, the TNA\u2019s chief ministerial nominee for the Northern Province, as a \u2018RAW agent\u2019. According to news reports, they also protested against India outside the Indian High Commission in Colombo. Sudden wisdom seems to have dawned on them only after the TNA named Wigneswaran for the chief minister\u2019s job. They are only belittling their own great nation by branding a Tamil jurist of their Government\u2019s choice, thus.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u2018United Sri Lanka\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not long after his nomination, Wigneswaran has been quoted by the media in Sri Lanka and elsewhere \u2013 India in particular \u2013 that broadly indicated the realistic need for a \u2018home-grown solution\u2019. It coincides with the view of some in the Government, starting with the Defence Secretary and sections of the \u2018Sinhala nationalist\u2019 JHU in the matter, but the protestors outside the Indian High Commission seemed to have greater knowledge and better ideas on the matter.<\/p>\n

Referring to the Tamil Nadu polity in South India, Wigneswaran said as much: \u201cIt is natural for friends in Tamil Nadu to show emotions, but the Sri Lankan issue is being used there for political gain. To them, I will only say this: \u2018You are welcome to give us any other kind of support, but please allow us to work out our own solutions to our own problems within a united Sri Lanka\u2019\u201d.
\nNo one else in Wigneswaran\u2019s place could have been expected to say as much \u2013 particularly against the Tamil Nadu polity.<\/p>\n

Two, and even more important, he has sworn by a \u2018united Sri Lanka\u2019. It is also the official \u2013 and not-so-official \u2013 line of the TNA in the post-war era in particular. There, he has indicated a desire for finding a negotiated settlement to Sri Lanka\u2019s \u2018national problem\u2019 within Sri Lanka itself.<\/p>\n


\n\u2018Betrayers of the Tamil cause\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

If Wigneswaran has to prove his larger Sri Lankan identity, going beyond the well-defined Tamil identity, he does not have to go far. Our \u2018Sinhala nationalist\u2019 friends have to only read their \u2018Tamil nationalist\u2019 counterpart to know his true colours. Whether the LTTE is around or not, the self-styled protagonists and protectors of \u2018Tamil nationalism\u2019 have made it a habit to brand those who are not \u2018separatists\u2019 in their perception, as \u2018betrayers\u2019 of the \u2018Tamil cause\u2019.<\/p>\n

From across the Palk Strait, in Tamil Nadu, the likes of MDMK\u2019s Vaiko have been targeting the TNA even more. They do not approve of the TNA leadership meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other officials of the Government of India, labelling both as \u2018betrayers\u2019, one way or the other. Self-styled \u2018Sinhala nationalists\u2019 should have taken the cue, but they have their own political compulsions.<\/p>\n

Job cut out<\/strong><\/p>\n

The TNA has its job cut out, particularly through the Northern PC poll campaign. To be able to run a post-poll administration successfully and meaningfully \u2013 both in terms of rehabilitation and reconciliation \u2013 they need to define their benchmarks beforehand. They need to tell the Tamil voters of the North, and the larger Tamil population elsewhere in the country and outside, as to what they are voting for \u2013 and, not what they are hoping for.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, it should not become a story of the blind men and the elephant. If nothing else, any ambiguity on the part of the TNA to define their hopes and expectations about a post-poll political process on finding a negotiated settlement to the ethnic issue should not allow \u2018Tamil separatists\u2019 to own up victory, or disown the TNA. By doing so beforehand, the moderate TNA leadership would have also put the \u2018Tamil nationalists\u2019 nearer home on notice \u2013 and where they actually belong.<\/p>\n

In turn, a broad spectrum TNA position on the ethnic issue, pre-poll should also put the \u2018Sinhala nationalists\u2019 on notice. If such worthies are within this Government, they too should be exposed.<\/p>\n

It is one thing for the Government and sections of the ruling SLFP-UPFA combine under President Mahinda Rajapaksa to play ethnic politics with election campaign in the North. It is another matter for them to believe in their poll-time positions, post-poll. It could not create confidence. It would only generate further mistrust.<\/p>\n

Addressing media editors, President Rajapaksa has clarified that he had no problem working with an elected TNA administration in the North, if the people there so willed it. He however has reiterated his hardening position on Police and Land Powers, which otherwise exist as a part of the Sri Lankan Constitution. Such pre-determination ahead of the promised PSC discourse also has other consequences, both ahead of the Northern PC polls nearer home and the upcoming Commonwealth Summit and UNHRC session, otherwise!
\n
\n(The writer is Director, Chennai Chapter of the Observer Research Foundation,<\/em><\/p>\n

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By N. Sathiya Moorthy Across the world, it is CIA still! Nearer home in neighbouring India, it is ISI everywhere and in everything. In the rest of South Asia, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), commonly known as \u2018RAW\u2019, has been the whipping-boy for everything that has gone wrong with domestic politics in individual countries. …<\/p>\n

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