Pro-LTTE posters appear in Chennai

By Radha Venkatesan

CHENNAI, MAY. 6. With the LTTE advancing towards Jaffna in Sri Lanka, the fringe groups in Tamil Nadu supporting the outlawed outfit are back in fierce action. Posters hailing the ``LTTE victories'' have appeared in many places in Chennai and a conference to mark the Tigers' ``triumph'' is slated to be held in Chidambaram tomorrow.

``Now, it's Elephant Pass; Next, Jaffna will be ours,'' screams a poster on the arterial Anna Salai in the City. Another poster saluting the daring Tamil ``brothers and sister'', announces that the ``20,000 racist Sinhala soldiers are on the run''.

If these posters are not blatant enough, there are posters hailing ``Mother Tamil's Tiger flag being hoisted in Jaffna fort''. Curiously, the outfits behind these posters make no bones about baring their identities. For instance, in the poster in question on Anna Salai, the name of one of the pro-LTTE groups in the State, the Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam, a break away of the Dravidar Kazhagam have been printed in bold letters.

``We have expressed solidarity with the LTTE. There is nothing wrong about it. We are only giving ideology-based support for the LTTE,''defends Mr. K.Rajendran, a senior functionary of the Kazhagam.

Though the posters have been put up in prominent places in the city, they have still not caught the attention of the police, it appears. When contacted, the ADGP (Law and Order), Mr. S. Kumarasamy said, the police would take action if there was anything illegal.

The posters apart, pro-LTTE groups spearheaded by Mr. P. Nedumaran of Tamizhar Desiya Iyakkam, are holding a `victory conference' in Chidambaram tomorrow. The outfits have already held such pro-LTTE meets in the past few weeks in Tiruchendur, Tiruvarur and other places in the State. While the conference in Chidambaram is officially labelled as a Ealam protection meet, Mr. Nedumaran told The Hindu that ``it would be a pro-Eelam and pro-LTTE conference.''.

Political parties with an avowed pro-Ealam stance, particularly the PMK and the MDMK joining the ruling DMK camp in the State and the NDA at the Centre, seems to have come as a shot in the arm for these pro-LTTE groups. The PMK and the MDMK which are part of the NDA Government at the Centre joining the chorus of demands of the LTTE sympathisers for grant of clemency to four Rajiv Gandhi assassins has emboldened these groups to launch a high-decibel propaganda for the banned outfit, say sources.

While the MDMK carefully couches its Sri Lanka stance in subtle pro-Eelam sentiments, the PMK has been rather overt in its support for the LTTE. From holding a ``Tamils Right to Life'' rally, a couple of years ago, in which pictures of LTTE chief Prabhakaran and Rajiv Gandhi assassins Sivarajan and Dhanu were displayed unabashedly to demanding the lifting of ban on the LTTE and its latest appeal to the Centre to recognise the Tamil Ealam liberation struggle ``waged by the LTTE'', the PMK leadership has been consistently articulating pro-Tiger sentiments.

With the ban on LTTE unless extended, expiring this month, the voices in support of the Tigers are certainly getting more alarmingly strident in Tamil Nadu.

A wall poster in Chennai, without naming the LTTE, salutes the ``brothers and sisters'' who have ``upheld Tamils' self-respect'' and hails the ``capture of Elephant Pass and imminent fall of Jaffna.'

Another poster contrasts the triumph of the LTTE in Sri Lanka with the ``plight'' of ``Mother Tamil'' in Tamil Nadu following the Madras High Court judgement on Tamil medium.

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