TAMILNADU'S POLITICAL ORPHANS

The people of Sri Lanka have had their say. In the just-concluded elections, Mahinda Rajapakshe (with a vote percentage of 47.58) has been voted out of power as the all-powerful President of the island nation. Even Salman Khan’s overt support could not save him. In his place, the combined opposition candidate, Maithripala Sirisena (with 51.28% of the votes polled), has been installed with a narrow, but decisive mandate.

None can grumble about the verdict. The elections were conducted in a peaceful atmosphere. Since the incumbent actually lost, no one can accuse Rajapakshe of having rigged the polls. With nearly 70 percent polling in the Northern and Eastern Districts, there can be no talk about the long-suppressed Tamils being kept out of the electoral process. No one can even accuse Rajapakshe of having tried to stymie a smooth transition of power. Even as the trends were established, he had tweeted conceding defeat. And by evening, he had even graciously vacated his Temple Trees Presidential  residence to make room for his successor (a gesture that many Indian politicians would do well to emulate).

In the final analysis, the ruthlessly brutal annihilation of the LTTE, which propelled him to his second term in power, proved to be Rajapakshe’s undoing. At a time when he was being pilloried for his war excesses by the international community, the Tamil population of Serendip hammered in the last nail on his political coffin with their decisive vote.

Rajapakshe’s defeat has been hailed by the so-called Tamil nationalists of Tamilnadu. Dubbed as the “butcher of the Tamil race”, his loss was celebrated by many political groups in Tamilnadu with the bursting of fire crackers and the distribution of sweets. But what these worthies lose sight of is the fact that this could well bet their own last hurrah.

For several years now, Mahinda Rajapakshe has been the favourite whipping horse of outfits like the Dravidar Kazhagam, Vaiko’s MDMK, Seeman’s Naam Thamizhar Katchi and Thol Tirumavalavan’s Viduthala Chiruthaikal Katchi. With the fall of Rajapakshe, these outfits will become political orphans without a cause. For they had over the years focussed solely on the Sri Lankan Tamils’ problems to the total exclusion of local issues. Years have been spent on emotional rabble-rousing on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue. Velupillai Pirabhakaran, the slain LTTE supreme, has been eulogised to the level of a demi-god. And Rajapakshe has been for them a whipping horse which could not kick back at them. Now suddenly, with the electoral fall of Rajapakshe, these Tamil Nationalist gasbags will find themselves bereft of gas to keep themselves afloat. With the Tamils of Sri Lanka, themselves having endorsed Sirisena’s candidature, these political non-entities, who together do not have the support of even 3% of the Tamilnadu electorate, but who are responsible for almost 97% of the political noise, cannot rave or rant against him. At least not for the time being.

As the new government in Sri Lanka gets down to business, it will be interesting to see how the “Tamil Nationalists” of Tamilnadu re-orient and re-position themselves. Whether they will continue harping on the Sri Lankan Tamils’ issue, which had never really become a poll decider in Tamilnadu, or whether they will look for issues of local relevance to make themselves politically relevant in the years to come.

Post Script :If Karunanidhi’s utterances at the just-concluded General Council of the DMK party (most of the “Tamil Nationalist” parties have always indirectly looked up to Karunanidhi for direction) are any indication, their guns will now be trained on Narendra Modi and the “saffron brigade”. As the gloves come off and the rumble starts let us sit back and see who will ultimately emerge the winner in this bout.