The whole Lankan Tamil issue has been bothering me for a while. The reasons are pretty obvious and rather simple. For one, the country is very close to us and whether we like it or not there is some sort of a neighbour relationship going on. Also Lanka has been a part of my bedtime stories thanks to Ravana hailing from there.
And then ofcourse the big reason, the Tamils.

SriLanka was originally occupied by Vijaya, the then king of Orrisa.So in a way they are our people. It is the same people who then adopted Budhism and became the singhalese as time passed by. The tamils that occupied Lanka were mostly business people and traders who settled in the island nation.Like all problems be it the subcontinent, the middle east or anywhere else, this conflict too arose as a result of religion. The singhalese were Buddhists and Tamils were Hindus.

If history has ever been a teacher, it has been that opression never holds good. It never has and never will. Whatever good that it seems to be doing is only temporary. It is the lull before the storm that is waiting to topple any semblance of normalcy. This is exactly what has happened in SriLanka. The Singhalese tried to opress the Tamils who constitute the second biggest ethnic population in the nation. And the result was the birth of LTTE.

Now if we were to see this as a movie I am sure we would all be putting all our enerigies in to a big fat clapping extravaganza for the LTTE standing up to thier rights. THe udnerdogs fighting for thier respect, uprooting everything that attempts to stop them from thier goal. Who are we kidding, this would be a blockbuster and in a way it was. The LTTE was running a parallel govt in thier heydays much to the embarrasment of the SriLankan govt.

Whilst I have no issues about the ideals and goals that led to the formation LTTE, I have much consternation about the direction they decided to head. Killing thousands of civilian singhalese was no excuse, no matter how ideological thier goal was.A certain sense of personal grouse is also embedded in my antipathy towards LTTE . That is due to the Rajiv killing.While Sonia and Priyanka may have forgotten and forgiven the LTTE, maybe because that was the best way for them to move on, it hurts my nation's ego that a terrorist organization brutally assasinated our former prime minister.It is an insult and a very big one.

Having very clearly said that I do not believe in the LTTE's means to achieve thier goal, I also think this is the most opportune time for the Lankans to make the right decisions. It would take probably another 5- 10 years for the LTTE to emerge out of this blow or maybe even sooner. One can never be sure, Look at the taliban. They are back in 8 years and seem to be pretty strong too. This is the time the politians of Sri Lanka should look above thier prejudices for the tamils. If not all the demands they should atleast take in the tamils as an important part of thier country and provide them with all rights that a citizen deserves in thier country and try to make amends before another fresh set of youngsters start a simliar rebellion. If the Lanka govt manages to do that, it would probably be one of the smartest decisions ever made , more importantly a humanitarian decision.

As for addressing the current burning issue, which is the killing of civilians, it is an extremely unfortunate situation. The LTTE had a human shield to protect thier leader who for all we know could have either died or escaped long before. This could all be one big wild gooose chase for the army. Nevertheless the truth is there are innocent lives trapped there and innocent lives lost. Is the govt right for doing that, maybe not. But when I think of the reality, internal terrorism is something India has been facing for years. Be it the naxals in Andhra , Maoists in the north east, terrorism in punjab and our very own beloved Kashmir.We know terrorism like no other country in the world can. I think I can understand why SriLanka wants to get rid of thier terrorists for good. Is it right in putting innocent civilians lives at stake? Maybe not. But then again who is putting the innocent lives at stake? Is is the govt or is it a tactical move by the LTTE hoping that the international pressure would prevent the president from getting to them because of the heavy civilan causualty. One can never know.It is somehat a relief that some civilans are indeed seeing light at the end of the tunnel with the recent developments and the govt saying they are going to stop heavy shelling etc.

Having said all this, I probably am coming to address the most important thing that has been eating my mind for a while. As a community the tamils have been quite mum about the whole issue. The Indian tamils I mean. Except for the lone politicos trying to ride the the whole "Tamil blood in my viens" wave, the aam junta has been rather loud in thier silence. Its almost deafening. I dont see or hear the tamils talk about it , its not even in our tea time discussions. Nope nowhere. It is a topic that is being clearly avoded. Some people go back to the usual critique that tamils are the one community who dont stand up at all. Had this been in the case with any northern state , things would have been so different. We dont care, we are too laid back. These are a few of the comments that I have heard. And I must admit that it definitely made me think. Surprisingly it did not upset me, it just made me think.

As a community I dont think tamils are the aggresive kind. Maybe a few districts in the south are, but mostly we are the "Let me do my job" kind. We dont like deviating from our schedules, we hate anything that does it. We go by the rules or atleast we like to go by the rules and I think somewhere LTTE defied the rules. They started innocent killings and the image that got stuck in to us was terrorists. While the entire country was being attacked by terrorists every few months, how can us support an organization that does the exact same thing in the neigboring country.In a way I think it says a lot about the community. I think it stands up to what it beleives. And we dont beleive in terrorism. I dont speak for ailing idiots like Karunanidhi or his MP daughter Kanimozhi whose only achievement in life has been her initial or the likes of PMK and Vaicko who dont give a shit about anyone but themselves and use the LTTE as a political tactic. I talk for the man who does not want innocents killed in dastardly terrorist acts, anywhere. I believe I talk for the man who has a pretty darn good idea of what is right and what is wrong. It is probably most hard to stand up and say " you're wrong" to your own kind, when you know they are. And that is what we have done.

I hope and pray for all innocent civilians trapped in this impossible situation and more than anything wish that the future holds great peace for the beautiful island nation.