Innumerable pitfalls

Sir, - This refers to your Editorial ``Eelam and Erode'' (July 4). Your assumption that the devolution proposals will solve the problem is far-fetched. If you look at the history of post- independent Sri Lanka, you could perhaps get some clues.

The first PM, the late D.S. Senanayake enacted citizenship laws with a view to restrict Tamil population. Even eligible Tamils of Indian origin were reduced to second class citizens. Unfortunately, the Jaffna Tamils did not fully realise the danger then.

When the father of the present President, late S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike was PM, he made `Sinhala only' as national language. Tamils protested. Realising his mistake, Bandaranaike brought in an amendment to include `Tamil also'. Sinhala hardliners staged a violent protest, followed by the first linguistic riots on a large scale. The Jaffna Tamil leader, late S.J.V. Chelvanayagam, pressed for a federal set-up; a compromise formula was worked out. In a violent protest, a Buddhist monk shot the PM and with that the compromise too was dead.

Sinhalese as a people are very friendly and hospitable. But, politicians and Buddhist clergy, at least some of them, have been hardliners, who would not accept the compromise. Differences between Sinhalese and Tamils continued and in 1983 another big riot took place. In Sinhala areas, Tamil shops were burnt and shopkeepers caught and burnt alive. That led to the rise of the LTTE and Prabhakaran. Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga's current efforts may be genuine, but there are innumerable pitfalls.

LTTE's cause cannot be said to be unjustified. Certainly, their methods are cruel and reckless. While detesting their senseless tactics, Tamil sentiments towards their cause deserve understanding and sympathy. To criticise the Erode conference and the Home Minister is unfair.

R. P. Chockalingam,

Kochi (Kerala)

* * *

Sir, - One would, perhaps should, readily disagree with your view that the Home Minister's presence at the Erode meet was regrettable. Without Mr. Advani's attendance at the deliberations of the conference an official resolution demanding creation of a Tamil Ealam in Sri Lanka would have been in all probability passed.

The Home Minister perhaps anticipated this and pre-empted such a development with his participation.

It is strange that neither your editorials nor the self- proclaimed Eelam warriors of Tamil Nadu have ever considered publicly what the fate of 5.5 lakhs of Indian origin tea estate workers and the white-collar bread-winners and businessmen in Colombo would be. These hapless people would have to continue to work in Colombo and tea estates in Sinhala majority areas even if Eelam were created.

In this connection it would be appropriate to recall what the undisputed leader of the Indian origin tea estate workers, the late S. Thondaman, used to say: His people would have very little to gain from Tamil Ealam if ever it became a reality. In fact the Jaffna Tamils, who are fighting for Eelam did pretty little to help or support Indian origin Tamils when the latter were disenfranchised by the Colombo Government in the early Fifties.

If ever an independent Tamil Eelam were created, apart from posing strategic and political problems for India in the South, the future of the Indian origin estate workers would once again become a problem of gigantic proportions eliminating all the advantages gained as a result of the Shastri-Sirimavo and Indira Gandhi-Sirimavo pacts concluded during the Sixties after protracted deliberations between the two countries on granting Sri Lanka citizenship to these hapless people of our flesh and blood. It would be another Fiji for Indian origin Tamils!

D. Ramanathan,

Chennai

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