It is an open secret that the internal security of our nation has been in peril since May 2004, when the Congress-led UPA came to power. An effete Prime Minister and an inept Home Minister allowed the Naxalites, Maoists and Terrorists to regroup and strike at will, causing huge loss of life and immense damage to public and private property. When spates of Jihadi terrorism reached new heights with the Mumbai attack on 26 November 2008, the government was forced to replace the incompetent Shivraj Patil with an arrogant P. Chidambaram, who is now bent upon painting the majority community as “Saffron Terrorists”.

Chidambaram, who doesn’t have the courage to talk about the existent ‘Green Terror’, ‘White Terror’ and ‘Red Terror’, has been peddling this non-existent ‘saffron terror’, even  as terrorists of all three hues are emerging bigger and stronger with the support of a considerable gang of anti-nationals masquerading as “liberal” writers and intellectuals.

One such gang of separatists indulged in “Azadi mongering” in the capital on Oct. 21. The gang included Syed Ali Shah Geelani of the Hurriyat Conference; People’s War Group supporter poet Varavara Rao; Dr. N. Venu, secretary general of the Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR); Harcharanjit Singh, president of Dal Khalsa; Malem Ningthouja from the Committee for Peace and Democracy, Manipur; G N Saibaba, deputy secretary, Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF); Sujato Bhadra, Gursharan Singh and writer Arundhati Roy. Mr SAR Geelani of the Parliament attack fame conducted the proceedings of the so-called seminar titled “Azadi – The Only Way”, organised by a Maoist Front organization called “Committee for the release of Political Prisoners”. The venue where the function is held is reputedly owned by the state government!

Arundhati Roy indulged yet again in her favourite anti-India rhetoric. Advocating “freedom” for Kashmir from the “clutches” of India, she instigated the University students assembled there to fight for the liberation of Kashmir from “Bhookey-Nangey Hindustan”. While Syed Ali Shah Geelani harped on his separatist stand, speaker after speaker advocated freedom for Kashmir and supported separatism.

When the nation erupted in shock and anger at the Delhi Government’s act of giving permission to such an anti-national gathering, at the speakers’ anti-India rhetoric and at Delhi Police’s outrageous act of apprehending the nationalists who opposed the separatists, the Union Government preferred to lie low, once again exhibiting its impotency. Home Minister Chidambaram, refusing to take any action, brazenly said that any legal action against Roy and Geelani would give them unnecessary publicity and badly impact the dialogue process being initiated through a team of “interlocutors” specially constituted to solve the five month old internal imbroglio in Kashmir. Yet, earlier the Home Minister had committed to take action saying, “If it is established prima facie that the laws have been violated, the Delhi Police will take action in accordance with the law.” 

Close on the heels of the Delhi meet, Arundhati Roy continued her anti-rhetoric in yet another meet titled “Whither Kashmir – Freedom or enslavement” organized in Srinagar by the Coalition of Civil Societies (CCS) on Oct. 24. She audaciously reiterated her stand, “Kashmir has never been an integral part of India. It is a historical fact. Even the Indian Government has accepted this”. Terming India a colonizing power, she instigated Kashmiris to fight for freedom from India. She advised Kashmiri youth not to join the Armed Forces or Police Forces.

The Srinagar meet coincided with the visit of the “interlocutors” to Srinagar. Exhibiting their “liberal” mindset and probably emboldened by the Home Minister’s stand on the separatists and Azadi-mongers, the team shocked the nation by saying, “Kashmir problem cannot be solved without taking Pakistan on board. Pakistan must be involved and it has a role to play. There is a Pakistan dimension to the issue since 1947 and our Prime Minister has also conveyed the same opinion. We will talk with those who have been protesting against the security forces by pelting stones. We will talk with them, not for a few minutes but for a whole day and understand their feelings. We will also talk with those who advocate autonomy, self rule, azadi and even those who support merger with Pakistan.”

Thus the interlocutors literally endorsed the anti-national stand of Arundhati, Geelani and their ilk. While the majority of the people of Jammu and Kashmir denounced the unwarranted statements of the interlocutors, the opposition BJP demanded the Prime Minister to clarify the stand taken by the interlocutors. While the PMO remained unresponsive, the Home Minister waxed eloquent on the ‘integrity’ and ‘credibility’ of the interlocutors. Till date, the government has not come out and clarified the stand of the interlocutors which goes totally against the resolution on J&K unanimously passed by Parliament.

The government didn’t seem to take note of the nation’s anger on its inaction on the separatists. Arundhati and Geelani met with protests wherever they went outside the Kashmir valley. BJP women cadres protested in front of Arundhati’s house; she had to face protests in Orissa too. Separatists like Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Bilal Lone were roughed up by nationalists during a seminar in Chandigarh, titled “Kashmir problem in reference to Indo-Pak relations” wherein Mirwaiz said, “Kashmir is a dispute that India and Pakistan must sit together and find a solution, which suited the aspirations of the people of the state”. He demanded the repeal of the “draconian” Public Security Act and Armed Forces Special Forces Act and demilitarisation of Kashmir.

One cannot understand the idea behind the authorities giving permission for such seminars and allowing separatists to address the general public, including students. One can only wonder at the stupidity of the Chandigarh authorities in not learning any lessons from the Delhi episode.

Meanwhile, acting on a petition, a local court in Delhi directed the Delhi Police to file FIRs against Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Arundhati Roy, SAR Geelani, Sheikh Showkat Hussain, Shubhabrata Sengupta and Sujato Bhadra, who participated in the Delhi Seminar on Oct. 21. The court has made stringent observations regarding the attitude of the Delhi Police, “Though the police have admitted that the totality of the speech made by Geelani was regarding the independence of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, they have not registered FIR despite the law saying that the police has to look only for a cognizable offence declared by the complaint at the time of registration.”

The Delhi Court’s observations and direction to Delhi Police is nothing short of a tight slap on the face of the UPA government, which decided not to take any legal action against these anti-national elements. Now it has to be seen if the UPA government will give a free hand to the Delhi Police to proceed as per the court order.

Meanwhile, the Kashmir Police has discovered that the Kashmiri separatists have an unholy nexus with LeT and that the stone-pelters have been trained and organized by this Pakistan-based terrorist organization. The police investigations have led to the arrest of more than 50 government employees for their involvement in stone-pelting incidents. It is also revealed that the five month-old protests were not spontaneous but planned meticulously by LeT with the connivance of local separatists.

Coming back to the Delhi separatist meet, the media failed to report the “Tamil Nadu connection”. While the separatists from Kashmir, Punjab, Andhra, and the North-East were present along with supporters of Naxalites and Maoists, Thiagu, general secretary of the Tamil National Liberation Movement had excused himself from personal attendance due to unavoidable domestic exigencies, but sent a note of solidarity titled “My Name is Kashmir”. It said, “It is the birthright of the Kashmir nation to determine whether it is to remain part of India, or to join Pakistan, or to retrieve its old status. For as a nation it is entitled to the right to self-determination. Those who think it is well and good that Kashmir should be with India are of course free to go to the people of Kashmir and mobilize support. What sort of democracy is this to occupy and keep Kashmir by force of military strength and repressive laws?...”

Cleverly bringing the issue of ceding Kutch Islands to Sri Lanka, the known LTTE supporter noted, “If the Government of India would never under any circumstances cede any Indian territory to anyone, how did it cede Katchatheevu of Tamil Nation to the Sinhalese Sri Lankan government without the consent of any one Tamil? How does S.M. Krishna, the External Affairs Minister even now assert that once given it is given forever and they would not ask for its return?...”

After demanding the repeal of AFSPA, PSA and DAA (Disturbed Areas Act), Thiagu concluded, “Mass campaigns and mass mobilization in support of the Kashmiri struggle everywhere would only serve to defeat India’s conspiracies. We viewed the Vietnamese struggle as our own. In the same way we should also view the Kashmiri struggle as our own. As we then raised the slogan: My name is Vietnam, your name is Vietnam, our name is Vietnam! (mera nam Vietnam, tera nam Vietnam, hamara nam Vietnam) now let us say: My name is Kashmir, your name is Kashmir, our name is Kashmir! (mera nam Kashmir, tera nam Kashmir, hamara nam Kashmir).”

Thiagu’s note must be viewed in the backdrop of another seminar (sic) organized to observe the death anniversary of LTTE commander Dileepan on 26 September in Thirunelveli. The meet was organized by an LTTE front called “May 17 Movement”. The special invitee was lecturer SAR Geelani, who spoke about the “sufferings” of Kashmiris under the clutches of the Armed Forces, which have caused “death and destruction” in the valley, the only solution being “freedom” for Kashmir from India.

Though the organizers were disappointed by his not making any mention about the struggle for Tamil Eelam, they seemed to have deliberated with him in detail about the LTTE and Eelam struggle and requested his support for their movement. Poet Kasi Anandan, a pro-LTTE man and Lena Kumar, Thirunelveli district convener of May 17 Movement, requested Geelani to organize a meet in Kashmir in support of Tamil Eelam, as the sufferings of the people in both places are similar. The organizers plan to bring Varavara Rao from Telangana, Jagmohan Singh from Punjab and Syed Ali Shah Geelani to Tamil Nadu to support LTTE and Tamil Eelam. They plan to form a national alliance and the participation of Thiagu in Delhi and Geelani in Thirunelveli clearly confirms this.

Meanwhile, president of Viduthalai Chiruthai Katchi (VCK) Thirumavalavan, a well known  LTTE supporter who was part of the all party delegation which went to Kashmir, has been openly talking in support of Kashmiri separatists since his return. A majority of vernacular newspapers and magazines, which are flooded with Dravidian racists, Marxists and fundamentalist minorities as columnists, writers and correspondents, have been regularly publishing essays and reports in support of separatist movements.

Even while the LTTE was active before and during the Eelam war IV, it used to train Naxalites and Maoists in handling arms and ammunition. It has been widely reported that even a section of Islamic terrorists made LTTE connections then. The connection of LTTE to Islamic Terrorism goes far back to the late 1970s and early eighties (1976-1984) when they got training from the “Popular Front for the Liberation for Palestine” at the Bekaa Valley in South Lebanon, where they picked up rhetoric regarding ‘taxation", martyrdom (suicide), political assassination/killing, war memorials, and "internationalising" the cause of the LTTE. The PLO office in Delhi was in regular touch with late LTTE Leader Pirabhakaran. The PLO representative was clandestinely interacting with Pirabhakaran, the late Kittu and other LTTE leaders (likely also extending financial assistance to them).

LTTE was been training terrorists in Afghanistan in the 1990s. Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Abu Sayyaf Group, both closely linked to al-Qaeda, have also got training from LTTE. Its Islamic connection has continued, as evidenced by the frequent visits of LTTE’s chief procurement officer Kumaran Pathmanathan alias KP to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Dubai.

LTTE is believed to have trained the Coimbatore-based “Al Umma” activists, perpetrators of the 1993 blasts in the RSS office in Chennai and 1998 Coimbatore serial blasts. Indulgence in trafficking narcotics, smuggling drugs and extortion rackets has sustained the connection between LTTE and Islamic Terror Groups.

Though LTTE has been comprehensively defeated within Sri Lanka, the Island Nation is wary of the fact that the LTTE is still active in US, Canada and European countries through many front organizations. Sri Lanka points to the formation of a “Transnational Government” by the LTTE and has requested all those countries, which have considerable Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora, to clamp down those LTTE front organizations.

As far as Tamil Nadu is concerned, Tamil Separatism is like a burning ember, kept alive by dubious organizations like Tamil National Liberation Movement, May 17 Movement and a few others. These organizations are well connected with LTTE fronts in US, Canada and Europe. Foreign funded NGOs and Christian Missionary organizations help them financially and politically, as in our North-East. The Christian control on LTTE is an open secret!

The rise of the Popular Front of India, an amalgamation of south India-based Islamic  bodies such as the Manitha Neethi Pasarai, Karnataka For Dignity, National Development Front, Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam, People’s Democratic Party and Social Democratic Party of India, etc, causes huge concern. The name “Popular Front of India” is similar to “Popular Front for the Liberation for Palestine”. This organization has been growing not only in southern but also in northern cities like Lucknow and Goa in the west. Its immediate focus is on Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Thus we see the growing proximity of Kashmiri separatists, Maoists and separatists from North-East in Delhi, and convergence of Tamil and Kashmiri separatists in Thirunelveli and plans to take the Tamil Eelam agenda throughout the country. We also see the LTTE-Jihadi connection. The union of all these anti-national organizations and movements portends a serious threat to our internal security and our nation is truly in a perilous state. The country awaits disaster.

References:   

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article842902.ece

http://www.dailypioneer.com/292079/%E2%80%98India-colonising-Kashmir%E2%80%99.htmlhttp://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20101126/main4.htm

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/BJP-women-protest-outside-Arundhatis-residence/articleshow/6846055.cms

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/Govt-not-to-file-case-against-Geelani-Roy/articleshow/6829993.cms

http://www.dailypioneer.com/299515/Court-orders-lodging-of-FIR-for-sedition-against-Geelani-Roy.html

http://westminsterjournal.com/content/view/28/40/http://www.lankamagazine.com/2010/11/25/keheliya-urges-vigilance-against-ltte-revival

http://www.antiimperialista.org/en/node/6676

Tamil Bi-weekly “Kumudam Reporter” dated 3/10/2010

(Concluded)

The writer is a senior journalist, based in Chennai