18July 2024

Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

TAMIL  EELAM & LOTUS BUD

 

My husband’s batchmate, Krishnamoorthi came to mind when I responded this morning to a Tamil Community Elder, regarding  the Hon Rajavarthiam Sampanthan who passed away on 30 June, at the age of 91.

 

Krishnamoorthi  had a scientific mind and expressed belief in Time and place being change agents. My expressions below are supported by his belief also.

 

Community Elder: You are entitled to your opinion ! Gaja

 

Gaja: An opinion could be a mere thought. In this case, I took Mr. Mario Arulthas’ work to based on academic research which when it is past. As Yoga Swami said ‘Eppavo Mudintha Kaariyam.’ – meaning completed matter.   There are two ways in which matter gets completed.  Permanent Time and Place changes.  Immigration & Academic research come under place changes. This requires one to take no benefits or feel responsibility for losses from the competed matter. My expressions were Belief based.

 

Etched in my memory is the following warning to former  President Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa, in Parliament:

 

‘..if you persist in this agenda, I want to tell you, Eelam will bloom, not on account of us, on account of your lotus bud’.

 

Is such a claim a reality? Recently, I shared as follows , on gratitude through Thirukural 110:

 

‘Kural – 110

This Kural confirms that every fact generates its pair/ other being.  Hence in junior gives birth to senior & v.v. in autocracy. If in autocracy,  junior caste was unjustly treated, then, in Democracy they would be distant from former seniors. Hence separatism – not from Sinhalese but from former seniors.’

Hence Hon Rajavarthiam Sampanthan’s warning effectively stated Newton’s third law.

 

Below are excerpts from relevant discussions based on  the report  ‘Tamil politics in Sri Lanka after R Sampanthan, the elder statesman that never was by Mr  Mario Arulthas – published by Tamil Guardian:

 

Report by Mr  Mario Arulthas: ‘ I will make my people ungovernable!” Rajavarothiam Sampanthan exclaimed, banging on the table.

 

Gaja: This could be interpreted as Mr Sampanthan saying that we are already self governing. Such a belief is essential to earn the right to Oppose and form an alternate form of government in a Federal structure.

 Report by Mr  Mario Arulthas :He was at a private meeting with diplomats of a powerful Western state in 2016, his expression giving away his frustration over the failure of the ruling Sri Lankan government, then led by Maithripala Sirisena, to make progress on the Tamil national question. ]

 

Gaja: Not just the Sri Lankan government, but the would-be Tamil government, in the form of armed rebels who Opposed politics. Like Mr Gotabaya Rajapaksa who lacked Political experience, armed rebel leaders were structured  differently. Armed rebels operated to takeover power from politicians. Hence the  ‘ungovernable warning.

 

Report :R Sampanthan was one of Sri Lanka’s longest-serving members of parliament and the leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the main political coalition representing the Tamils of the country’s North and East. ]

 

He had promised Tamils ahead of the 2015 election that there would be a political settlement to meet their long-standing demands for autonomy by 2016 – and when that did not materialise in time he promised it by 2017.

 

Gaja: Politics, like emotions, is one way. The People who have the need would have naturally completed the ‘other’ side. Until then there is no completion, but – mere testing of waters. Hence I quoted  my friend KKS Perera as follows, on 03 July:

“Politicians promise to build bridges even when there are no rivers.”-- Khrushchev :Premier of Russia-1958/1964

 

 

Report : Since his death in June, glowing tributes for Sampanthan have poured in from politicians and diplomats in Colombo, highlighting his pragmatism and his undeniable service.  

Gaja: This confirms that there was a global need for Tamil Political promises that Mr Sampanthan competed on behalf of Sri Lankan Tamil Community.

 

Report :India’s prime minister and foreign minister praised his advocacy in pursuit of justice and dignity for Tamils. Some, including senior TNA figures such as M A Sumanthiran, pointed out his commitment to a “united, undivided, indivisible” Sri Lanka, pre-empting any questioning of his past affiliation with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

 

Gaja: As per Hindu belief, we pray to Lord Shiva, the destroyer of the physical aspect, of our life, to free the Spirit. One is thus able to thus merge one’s own truth with the one who has departed, to render Common form.  In secular language,  this is presented as ‘Of the dead nothing but good is to be said." — Nil nisi bonum. Thus Sumanthiran has become a true Political Heir of the Hon Rajavarothiam Sampanthan.