BETA

Prof. Jagmohan Singh writes to Kalaignar Karunanithi

Prof. Jagmohan Singh.  a political activist based in Ludhiana, Panjab wrote an open letter to Kalaignar Karunanithi, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, for writing  an elegy in the memory of Brig.S.P.Tamilselvan. We are reproducing excerpts of  Prof. Singh’s letter.

I was immensely touched by your humane gesture of writing an elegy in the memory of Tamil nationalist leader and head of the political wing of the LTTE, Suppayya Paramu Tamilchelvan, who was killed in an aerial strike by the Sinhalese airforce on 2 November 2007 in Kilinochchi. I am more amazed by the fact that though you are the head of a state, you did not hide behind the pretence of “compulsions of state” and have audaciously spoken your mind without fear of any kind whatsoever.

You are reported to have said, “The one who was killed in Sri Lanka was a Tamil. And it is Tamil blood that courses through my veins.”

The resolution of your party, the Dravida Munetra Kazagham condemning the role of Sri Lanka is timely and appropriate. Your ode to Tamilchelvan is inspiring. It is a genuine call of a person who in the early fifties had given a call for a separate state of Tamil Nadu. Every individual who is struggling for the rights of his people anywhere in the world would salute you for your courageous requiem:

“A face that was ever smiling,

A heart that singed all opposition,

A youthful man with a heart as strong as the Himalayas,

A commander who blossomed in the footsteps of Balasingham, the old lion,

A noble youth who deemed his life but a bit of manure for his liberation struggle,

One who was like life to us, like a brother to us,

Oh, Selva, he who etched his fame on every Tamil heart,

And every Tamil home,

Where art thou gone?”

Another Tamil leader, but presently your political adversary has also sung similar notes. Condemning the murder of Tamilchelvan, the leader of Pattali Makkal Katchi –a Tamil nationalist party, Mr. Vaiko, has said, “It was an unforgivable crime in which the Government of India too had acquiesced by supplying arms and equipment to the Sri Lankan military establishments.”

It is further encouraging that leaders of Dalit Panthers of India, writers and filmmakers held a public condolence meeting and condemned Tamilchelvan’s killing.

I fondly remember my meeting with Mr. Vaiko, when some years back I accompanied Simranjit Singh Mann to meet him in Vellore prison. More than a year in prison had not broken the man and he continued to stick to his pro-Tamil Eelam stand. I was quite surprised when he supported the same political party which had jailed him and I thought that his opportunistic manoeuvre would fail him and it did.

I also recall that to go to Vellore from Chennai, we had to pass through the town of Sriperambudur, where Rajiv Gandhi was killed. Death, anybody’s death, should never be an occasion for glee for anyone and definitely not for a Sikh. While traversing the road through that town, I could not help but recollect that Rajiv Gandhi condoned the brutal killing of the Sikhs in Delhi and ordered mayhem and killing through his kill-boys in Panjab.

You are a strong Tamil nationalist and I admire you for that. Though I have yet to fathom the intricacies of the politics of your state, I am awestruck by the transnational nationalism of the Tamil people. While studying the progress of the Tamil Eelam military and political leadership, I have come across the cases of many Tamil leaders and commoners all over the globe, who identify with the cause of Tamil nationality. Though the Sikhs are blessed with an outward appearance which strongly forges their identity, but on the threshold of nationalism, I have no hesitation in saying that the Tamils have taken the lead over the Sikh people.

Revolutionary Sikh leaders of the past two decades, during discussions at various levels have always had a high regard for the Tamil leadership in Sri Lanka fighting for their legitimate social, cultural and political rights.

I think that somewhere inside your being, you want a separate Tamil state for which you had decades ago launched an agitation. In a recent interview to a news channel you have said that the reasons for secession which you advocated in the fifties do not exist and that you would be satisfied if the country has another Constituent Assembly to draft a new Constitution which will propound a truly federal form of government. It was indeed stimulating to know that you have been the chief minister of Tamil Nadu for five times and that you are an accomplished writer who has published more than hundred books. It is amazing to note that you joined politics at the age of fourteen and that you continue to echo your ideals.

I would like to share a note with you. It may be politically correct to follow and advise a non-violent approach when one is pursuing nationalistic goals, but a question which bothers me is, “Does the world listen when there is no violence of any kind?”

I am sure that Tamilchelvan, wherever he is after death, must be taunting the Sinhalese armies and all dictators by repeating the holy sonnet of the metaphysical poet, John Donne, “Death Be Not Proud”:

DEATH be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,

For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,

Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

As a Sikh nationalist, presently I can do no more that endorse the call of the leader of the Dalit Panthers, Thol Thirumavalavan, who while urging for immediate intervention to find a political solution to the ethnic problem of Sri Lanka has said, “Even after all these challenges, Eelam (a separate Tamil land). I solemnly repeat his slogan: “Eelam vellum, adhu kaalam sollum (Time will prove that Eelam will win).”

Courtesy: World Sikh News