Venkatesan Vembu in DNA:
“Two ongoing conflicts in India’s immediate neighbourhood—in Sri Lanka and Pakistan—are both close to a tipping point…. But curiously, there’s been a striking dissonance in the responses, which reflects either a schizoid view of our neighbourhood or, worse, cynical duplicity.
“In Pakistan, much of India’s coercive diplomacy is focused on getting Pakistani leaders to crack down harder on terrorism outfits, and there is widespread support even for US military operations against jihadis in Afghanistan and Pakistan…. But when Sri Lanka wages its own “war on terror” against a ruthless terrorist force that, at one stage, India shamefully supported and armed, our political responses get a lot more muddled….
“Chauvinistic ethno-linguistic politics in Tamil Nadu is threatening to hijack India’s foreign policy position that had, after a long time, found the right balance between defending India’s strategic interests and doing the right thing.”
Read the full article: Our schizoid view of our neighbourhood
churumuri 
Now Jaya, promise sending Indian army to create Ealam, with possibility as Prabhakaran as its leader.
LikeLike
Khan,
Don’t worry. Big J is simply doing some political posturing on LTTE. The foremost Konga ThiruKa himself has thrown the towel he wears around the neck with regard to LTTE:)
LikeLike
people in soka should pay special attention to what is going on in tn. this whole issue is whipping some real passions there.
forget pmk type of organizations, in tn even the intelligencia is lining up and talking all aggressive.
LikeLike
the jihadists in pakistan/afghanistan are ideology-driven fanatics. their terrorism is a function of their prosetylization (“accept our version islam or die”).
the jihadists should be trivialized by comparing them with sri lanka’s admittedly violent tamils. venkatean vembu needs to get his perspective right.
indian diplomats are absolutely correct in opposing the jihadists way stronger than they oppose the lankan tamils.
LikeLike
Srilankan tamils are getting screwed either way. An article in timesoniline provides a Western perspective on this Srilankan Tamil issue.
The headline is
“Chinese billions in Sri Lanka fund battle against Tamil Tigers”
The link to the article:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6207487.ece
LikeLike
TS,
Wise words! Got to guard KRS Kabini and everything that belongs to Karnataka. I hope Yeddi, Dirty and Family will stay within Karnataka borders lest some Veerappan types take some of these types as hostages ‘Rajanna’ style:)
LikeLike
Idiotic article. Full of contradictions in itself.
I wish there was a South Indian PM on the horizon. We need one now.
Even so, what would it take for the new Indian cabinet to camp for a year or more in Chennai?
Looks like Tamil supporters of the LTTE are more frustrated than angry. They never expected the Lankans to be this strong willed and they never expected Prabhakaran to collapse so soon. The more fanatic ones probably even hoped for time enough to build a formal TN-Jaffna alliance.
LikeLike
@Doddi Buddi
Maybe as you say “posturing” only, but it nevertheless registers as Indian politician directly interfering in another countries affair, no?? That too promising the electorate of using the Army!!
Hope Srilankans are not watching, atleast we can pretend so.
@Doode
That is lame excuse, after the UK foreign Minister was shown his place by SL(same treatment literally as the Russian gov -during Giorgia).
LikeLike
Enough of the “ltte very bad but konga ‘aspirations’ very good” already! Its disgusting to note the veiled sympathies the Konga type authors hold for the LTTE and this vengadesan vempu seems to be no exception. Despite all the pussyfooting the Konga in him manifests itself in the last paragraph.
>> “…It’s true that the LTTE once legitimately represented Sri Lankan Tamils’ aspirations for a “homeland”.”
For starters, at no point did LTTE “legitimately” represent Tamil “aspirations”. And more importantly, at no point was there ever anything remotely “legitimate” about the Tamils’ “aspirations” in the first place! Rabble-rousing and wet-dreams do not ‘aspirations’ make. Let’s face it. Kongas in SL, much like their brethren in India and elsewhere are little more than a bunch of uncouth loud hooligans. They have been treated with far more respect than they deserve and it was only going to be a matter of time before the Lankans put their foot down and said “enough is enough!”
It is to the Lankans’ eternal credit that they put up with the nonsense for decades. Each one of those “civilians” supposedly “trapped” in the “conflict” zone deserve their fates. I hope the LTTE massacres every single one of them before they can “escape”. It is to their enthusiastic support and active participation that the LTTE owes/owed its very existence. These were the very people who for decades have bayed for blood and applauded and rejoiced every time LTTE goons scored a ‘hit’. Now when the time has come for them to reap what they sowed, we have the B Raman and vempu types squealing like little girls.
Glory be to the Lankan forces and hope the Indian government also learns a few lessons from its Sri Lankan counterparts.
LikeLike
I saw an Educated Honda City-driving Tamilian in Chennai making this statement the other day with great anger: “The Indian Government should aaarder (Order) the Lankans to stop the offensive immediately. They should aaarder them!!!!! There is no use of the powerful Haaarmy of India if we do naat use it..”
Nonsense. When the Americans used to try meddling in our affairs in the cold war years we used to get infuriated, and now some people want to use the might of the country to bully and browbeat a tiny force into submission.
But that said, looking at Sisya’s posts, one can safely conclude that he is among the most uncouth, loud, rabble-rousing hooliganish louts in Karnataka.
LikeLike
And of course, it is the height of stupidity to equate the LTTE and the Islamic terrorists in Pakistan/Afghanistan/Iraq/Chechnya/etc. etc. The LTTE looks like a huggable and cuddly lot when compared with the Talibanic types.
LikeLike
Sisya,
Correctly observed! Just ignore ‘Polite’ types. Too long Kongas and LTTE have been harassing people all over the World. India learnt a lesson from Indira and Rajeev Gandhi’s misadventures in Sri Lanka.
LikeLike
srilanka has been very clever. they understood india ‘s double standard on terrorism. being avictim of terrorism some sections of govt supported a terroist organisation in an other country.
lankans opened up china link. chinese took this oppurtunity of becoming dominant player in south asia. there are important lessons to be learnt by foreign policy makers in south block.
LikeLike
Doddi Buddi:
Pray, what was ‘incorrect’ in my statements? Yes, the Indians would do well to keep their hands off Lanka and avoid meddling with the LTTE-SL conflict. Yes, the guys who want our Sardar to aaaarder the SL Govt. to stop the conflict are idiots. Yes, comparing the Taliban to the LTTE is idiocy.
But what the hell – nether-holes like Sisya and you would get the entire Tamil population in the world culled if it were in your power!
Maniacal skunks.
LikeLike
Gujjus are also in a lot of other countries, but you don’t hear them causing any trouble. But these kongas and to some extent Punjabis seem to have a problem everyone wherever they go.
Agent Smith says that human beings are a virus, may be he is right…
LikeLike
Rameshanna,
What are the views of dirty devegowda and kumaranna on foreign policy? :)
LikeLike
LTTE is only a small part of this issue.. The sissy kaangi gov’t was sleeping when the Chinese have gained control over Srilanka. Its a shame on the gov’t to have allowed the chinese to take control of our backyard.
LikeLike
Karihaida,
After the IPKF fiasco, no Sri Lankan Government in its right mind will trust the GOI, whether Kaangress or BJP…and that is how it should be.
LikeLike
karihaida:
Spare the poor Sardars. I survived all my stints in Europe because of the Sardar hotel owners, taxi drivers, etc. etc. Had it not been for them, I would have most certainly died of boredom and overdose of plain ol’ bread n’ butter.
:-)
LikeLike
Well, the IPKF fiasco was not a fiasco for the Lankans. It just made sure Indians died in their stead. Jayawerdene played his masterful game.
If the LTTE were alive and kicking, the Lankans would have loved another IPKF!
LikeLike
You don’t get to jump off a boat as a plantation worker and then 50 years later demand a ‘eeLam’ for yourself! You don’t get to be 20% of the population and hog 60% of public and private jobs except by some unabashed cronyism – ‘konga style’. Any government worth its salt will enforce affirmative action policies of some sort in such situations. Arguing against it while at the same time arguing for an extermination of “bremins” (thx TS) in konga-nadu is the height of hypocrisy. May be the tirukas should “aaarder” the gourment to carve out a homeland for the bremins first! Bremins too, have been at the receiving end of some extra special affirmative action in konga-nadu after all!
Making a case for an “eeLam” is as completely bogus and dangerous as making one for the taliban. Not just making a case, but even sympathizing with those who make a case is criminal – for it is on such “sympathy” and “understanding” that the ltte and taliban types thrive.
If anything, the taliban in Afghanistan/Pakistan are at least not foreigners. They have every right to fuck up their own place. The kongas otoh ought to learn to behave themselves wherever they go or they will be slapped hard and taught to behave — which is what is happening in Lanka right now.
If the so-called Konga “civilians” herded on Lankan beaches as we speak did not support the idea of an eeLam, they wouldn’t be finding themselves on those beaches right now. You don’t have to blow yourself up in a marketplace or kill others to be a criminal. You are every bit worthy of being culled if you lend moral and logistical support to such vermin. Every konga “civilian” is guilty of providing enthusiastic moral support, if not active and logistical support to the ltte or their official and unoffical agents in tn.
A significant number of those now on the run would have been directly on ltte’s payroll till 6 months ago — manning post-offices and check-posts and relaying intelligence. They have been directly responsible for millions of ruined lives over the decades. They simply deserve no mercy. sri lanka would do well to have them culled than risk national security.
and yes, if it was in my power, i’d rather have criminals and criminally chauvinistic anti-socials culled than risk, say, a KRS being blown up and millions of lives being jeopardized. If every state in India was a country like Sri Lanka, there’d have been state-level and district-level chapters of these vermin everywhere. It would have been a matter of time before they would have fought for a “homeland” in Chamarajanagara and Tirupati and perhaps one in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
LikeLike
Narsimha,
IPKF was not a fiasco..
1255 Indian soldiers sacrificed their lives fighting someone else’s war to bring peace and democracy to troubled parts of that country and what did they do?
SL govt headed by Premadasa at that time supplied arms and ammunition to LTTE to fight the IPKF. so it should be the other way round No Indian govt in its right mind should trust GoSL!
Here is an extract of Rajapakse’s interview (walk the talk, ndtv).
—————
After the IPKF experience? Is there no gratitude for what the IPKF did here?
That’s past. We have to build a new relationship. There is a new trend in Sri Lanka. Most businessmen are investing in Sri Lanka. In the past, I will admit, we have not shown gratitude. But as soon as I came I ordered a monument to be built for them (IPKF) and I will see the work is completed before our Independence Day, February 4. It’s under construction.
• Where is it being built?
Near Parliament.
• You don’t think this is an unpopular decision? Will Sri Lanka appreciate that?
I don’t think this will be an unpopular move. But the LTTE may not like it.
• So you are saying that the people of Sri Lanka should have some gratitude for what the IPKF did here?
Certainly. They came here and sacrificed their lives.
• And many limbs. And what did they achieve for Sri Lanka that people at that point of time did not appreciate?
That was a political campaign by Premadasa. If Premadasa had allowed IPKF to continue for another few months, they would have done something substantial.
• Finish the LTTE? Do you think they were that close.
In a way, yes. They would have at least given the Sri Lankan army a better position.
• And Premadasa sabotaged it? He was a Sri Lankan patriot.
The problem was that he wanted to become the president of this country and wanted the support of some of the extremists, some of the Left parties.
• Like the JVP then. And just for the cynical pursuit of presidency he did this?
Yes.
• Because when I used to come here as a travelling reporter, people used to say that the Sri Lankan government used to supply weaponry to the LTTE and at the same time used to leak the movement of the Indian units to the LTTE.
I don’t want to comment on the (allegations of ) the Sri Lankan army supplying weapons or giving information about the (IPKF) troops. But that was an allegation by the opposition.
• No, not your opposition, but your own party people: Chandrika Kumaratunga once told me, he supplied weapons and later Lalith (Atulathmudali) went a step further and said these weapons were supplied to the LTTE by Premadasa in Tata trucks supplied (by India) to the Sri Lankan army.
Quite right. But I don’t want to comment on what he did because he’s dead and gone.
• It’s almost exactly 20 years since the IPKF came here or Pawan was launched. I was also here in Jaffna in exactly the same week, covering the tail-end of Pawan and also reconstructing what went wrong in the first five days of military operations. If you were to sum up the Indian military campaign at that time, how close did they come to breaking the back of the LTTE?
First, I think, they miscalculated the power of LTTE.
• And the intention.
Yes. But then they were catching on. They were studying the ground situation and trying to consolidate themselves. And that was the time they were sent out.
• Premdasa got them out.
Yes. Only for a political issue.
• Has the political class in Colombo done some introspection about it? That they lost a chance, lost a good friend in India?
Quite. We lost a friend by doing that.
————–
LikeLike
Hiker,
That is what I meant by IPKF fiasco. Sri Lankan government played double game with Rajiv Gandhi’s government. In fact, Rajeev was nearly killed when he was observing the guard of honour given to him by SLA, when a soldier swung his rifle at Rajeev’s head, but missed by few inches.
That is just one part of the story. Even, when IPKF had a chance to capture Prabhakaran ( I believe it was around 5-6 times), they were asked not to do so, by the, then HC to Sri Lanka, J N Dixit. This has been mentioned by Major Kalkat who headed the IPKF at that time.He also mentioned that IPKF was literally asked to fight with its hands tied to the back and hence the high IPKF casuality.
LikeLike
@Sisya @Vinay and every one else who argues that the LTTE/Taliban parallels are inappropriate or irrelevant:
“The Tigers use India in much the same way that the Taliban and al Qaeda use Pakistan.” – from a Stratfor report of May 6 available here:
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20090506_sri_lanka_cornered_tiger_deadliest_sort
–
At another level, I find it odd that what could have been an informed discussion here gets reduced to ridiculous name-calling: I mean, can’t we discuss issues without branding communities as “konga” and “kaangi”?
It’s tempting to discount even the good points that are made here if you cannot discuss them without resorting to venomous hate rhetoric – particularly of the sort that Sisya and Doddi Buddi invoke. Shame on you guys
LikeLike
Peacock,
Shame on you lame-ass and candy-ass types, first! Beyond the name calling which is essential to turf out the meaningless politically correct but suicidal types who are playing with Indian sovereignity we need to use the harshest language possible within limits. If you cannot handle it stay out of it because you are too comfortable in your own ThiruKa admiration.
I don’t what is your agenda in all this but Konga is a name earned and kept by bad Tamils like DMK and PMK and a lawyer named ‘Kanthi’ actually Gandhi with his ridiculous petition against Kannada getting Classic Language status. Who the **** is he to oppose that? So he is a Konga. QED. Also, witness the corruption in UPA regime indulged to the hilt by DMK and PMK . Kongas again!. There you go, your first real lesson in life identifying Kongas.
LikeLike
@Hiker, rightly said.
The IPKF’s job was a thankless one. They went in as a peacekeeping force mainly to restore order and did succeed to an extent. They did not go as an invading army and used limited firepower and people even under great provocation. Most armies who go on peacekeeping missions suffer casualties and any successes are rarely ever highlighted. There can be different opinions about whether they should have gone to SL in the first place. The IPKF was subjected to a lot of pulls and was not given a free hand. But sections of our countrymen have been insensitive to their sacrifices mainly because they do not sufficiently realize that the main role was a peacekeeper.
LikeLike
@Doddi Buddi
There you go again, with your foul-mouthed name-calling, passing it off as informed opinion… But I’m sure you can top that without having to try too hard.
Contrary to you, I don’t have an “agenda” as you call it. I don’t, for instance, know what the slang word for your community of hate-mongers is. But I sure would love to know…
LikeLike
Peacock,
You are welcome to call ‘us’ Konga-bashers!
LikeLike
Fast Unto Death: “Breakfast to Lunch”
LikeLike