7500, 15000, or 20000?



When Bob Dylan wrote ‘How many people will it take till he knows that too many people have died?’ he would not have known how many times this question is going to be raised till we realise it is people we are talking about. Such was the plight last week when UN, Amnesty and the Sri Lankan government fought over the number of civilians died in the final and ultimate battle between the Sri Lankan Army and the Tamil terrorists. As the bloodthirsty Prabhakaran’s death got finally acknowledged by his outfit, few really questioned how one man’s unyielding hunger for power has wrecked such carnage, and after Darfur, after Rwanda, and Serbia, we still haven’t learned the lesson. In Sri Lanka, the carnage was unlike the other pogroms where they were caused either by military regimes or due to ethnic conflicts. In Sri Lanka though, what started as an ethnic conflict quickly transformed into a fight for one man’s self obsession.

Then there were arguments about how many were killed by the army’s shells and how many died in the hands of the rebels. The UN did not ask the question of why that many people who died from the shells will have to be hanging around the place where the shells were due to fall. Why thousands of people will have to surround a mere hundred and odd rebels shooting from the shoulders of the civilians. Why, the man whom the media in Tamil Nadu branded as a martyr and Alexander has had to hide behind the civilians. Those who question the determination of Sri Lanka to finish off the militancy even at the cost of the civilians, do not seem to question the obstinacy of the rebels to go on fighting even at the cost of the civilians, whose welfare incidentally is the cause for which the fights began in the first place. After chasing out thousands out of the country and after killing the rest, what kind of governance did the rebels intend to establish in Eelam? Those who clamoured for ceasefire during the war, what kind of plan did they have if Sri Lanka had declared ceasefire? Allow the rebels to regroup, rearm, and live to fight for another day? And then witness the death of a million people? And then hail Prabhakaran as the greatest, indefatigable militant leader of the world? A suggestion to Sri Lanka: Why not declare that 20,000 people have indeed died in the last phase of the war? Let the world know how obdurate their leader was, that in the midst of hundreds of his own people falling, knowing very well that they have all died defending him -voluntarily or otherwise-, he did not flinch an inch and continued to allow them to die and even killed those who attempted to flee.

And imagine what would have happened if we had created Eelam and made him at the helm!

Team Manmohan



As the new, energetic Manmohan Team takes charge, as the media hails the people’s verdict, shower praises on the prime minister and iconize Rahul Gandhi, it is important to observe the ground realities before we get swept by the avalanche of the buoyant reports.

It is not, by any stretch of imagination, the greatest team. With 79 members, it might end up being the largest team, though the records will have to be verified.

Below, deep below all the upbeat peons and prayers of the pseudo-secular media personalities, and its okay to stamp this adjective because they are proud about it, it has all the usual suspects of typical congress governance seen in the previous regime, if not worse.

For once, this government is still going to be headed by Sonia Gandhi, despite what Rajdeep Sardesai or Vinod Mehta want to believe. Perhaps Rahul may join her as an apprentice. Fresh from the memories of a rigged counting, Chidambaram is still going to man the home department in which he did nothing more than issuing statements containing banal aggression. Pranabh Mukherjee had been a Finance Minister from Indira Gandhi days so there is nothing much to expect from. Same is the case with the rest of the pack termed fondly as ‘veterans’.

Another tragic humour is the gang termed by the media as the young and restless. Again the media projects as if this new young breed is hand picked by Rahul Gandhi to lead Congress to the future. Most of these young leaders are sons or daughters of Congress leaders of yesteryears, dead or alive. Giving seats to sons and daughters is a simple political calculation to capitalise on the fame of the elder prevalent across India. Rahul Gandhi neither invented it nor mastered it. If Karunanidhi’s dynasty politics were to be condemned, so should this be. Terming this sons piggybacking on their father’s political wealth as the Future of Hope does not dwell much about either the future or hope.

Talking about Karunanidhi the despair about the central government gets worse. He seems to live somewhere in second century CE and believes that he is some Pandya King of Tamil Nadu. True to his delusion, he has mastered the art of dynasty politics. Three of his family members are going to be part of the ministry, the son who rules the South Tamil Nadu like a Mexican drug lord or a Somali pirate, the grand nephew whose only claim to fame is being the grand nephew, and a brother of domineering, unscrupulous TV baron, and the daughter who calls herself a poet but hasn’t done anything more than being the interpreter to what her father blathers. Finally, a non-family representative from the party A. Raja whose claim to fame is the grand Spectrum scam, about which media does not seems to speak much lest cause any embarrassment to TEAM MANMOHAN. The scam cost 60,000 crores to the exchequer and he is back manning the IT portfolio. Don’t be upset if more Satyams break out in the future.

Above all else, it is going to be highly difficult for Singh to handle a proxy PM and PM’s aide (Rahul) on the one side and a pack of 79 ministers running helter-skelter on the other. However, the media can easily overlook these things just like how they did with Spectrum, Shibu Soren, Terrorism, Satyam, Quattrocchi and scores of other blunders by the previous government, and be extremely happy that there’s after all a ‘secular’ government in place in the centre.

The broken cyanide chain



'It's a tragic incident, that's all' was all Prabhakaran had to say about Rajiv Gandhi's assassination twelve years after he executed it. He, however, didn't have much say about the numerous Tamil leaders whom he ruthlessly eliminated. That’s notwithstanding the hundreds of Indian soldiers, Sinhalese civilians, and thousands of Sri Lankan Tamils who died in these three decades.

As the proverbial final nails begin to fall on Velupillai Prabhakaran's coffin, it is worth relaxing in your couch to think about how one man caused so much of destruction in the world.

The mad and obdurate battle waged by Prabhakaran's terrorist outfit has damaged peace in the South Asia for well over twenty five years. Having eliminated other Tamil leaders like Siri Sabharathinam, Amirthalingam, Lakshmanan Kadirgamar, Padmanabha, and countless others, LTTE, having no competition at all, assumed the role of the sole representatives of Sri Lankan Tamil's interests. With that, Prabhakaran consolidated his hold over the Northern and Eastern region and began to rule it with iron hand. Extorting money from the Diaspora community, making various weapon deals, and hence flush with funds, the militant outfit went onto acquire military capabilities. Playing hide-and-seek with the Colombo leadership, the tigers used peace talk buffers to upgrade their weapons and fortify their hideouts. Any dissent, whether it came from inside or outside, was eliminated brutally. Having honed their warring capabilities, the Tigers decided on to acquire propaganda skills. Internet, TV, sponsored leaders in Tamil Nadu, and spokespersons across the world sang peons in a desperate attempt to make LTTE look clean and good. Some of the trained demagogues indeed made a fine job of defending the indefensible.

Meanwhile, civilians continued to die, the economy of the island continued to shrink and the world began to lose their patience. As the most dreaded terrorist of the planet continued to wreck havoc, Sri Lankan army decided to beat him in his own game. While peace talks continued, the army, a weak band not better than NCC cadets, trained, upgraded and expanded themselves for the final assault. LTTE – the group that brought infamy to the term 'Tamil', which otherwise was known for the great civilisation, amazing battery of literature and a hardworking, peace loving community – was in for a nasty surprise when the Sri Lankan government abruptly called off the ceasefire and decided to wage war. As the unexpected war broke the backbone of the tigers, clamour for ceasefire began. The oiled propaganda machines were kicked off and the B leaders of Tamil Nadu who were on the payroll began to whip up emotions. When the war raised its pitch the horrified world stood helplessly at the loss of civilian lives. Tigers, who had tested the beta version of Human Shield during their battle with the IPKF, this time used the most sophisticated version of Human Shield with the latest capabilities: wounded children, women and hospitals. The B leaders and the Diaspora organs cried foul in the deepest pitch accusing Sri Lanka of genocide.

The ploy didn't work. Nobody, just nobody, seemed interested in intervening. Including Karunanidhi, the glorious leader of all the Tamils in the world, the protector, the benevolent, the mightiest and the most powerful living Tamilian eventually failed to protect the Tigers. As Karunanidhi busied himself in his only goal in life, that of expanding the power and financial base of his immediate family, the army continued its campaign with renewed aggression. Though the fears of some kind of international intervention halting the war loomed, thankfully, the world stood at the sidelines and watched the tigers getting crushed whilst offering mere lip service and some obligatory tears for the dying civilians.

Finally, yes..., the campaign has come to an end now. The era of terror is over. At least in one part of the world. The most powerful, most dreaded, ruthless, and megalomaniac terrorist leader has been kicked out of this planet. As thousands of civilians flee desperately hoping for a few morsels, the world is heaving a big sigh of relief. The morsels will come. Life will return, albeit limping, to those human shields. Those who were on the payroll will go finding a new job elsewhere. The organs will fall silent. The Ring has been drowned in the Mount Doom. The towers of Sauron won't take long to crumble. Devoid of their leader, the Orcs will run away and will never return.

Jaffna can hope to become a Shire again.