Indian Tamil Bar Association spits into the chutney

The deceptively titled All India Bar Association (it is neither All-India nor is it a legally recognised Bar Association) based in Chennai has called for Manmohan Singh to intervene in the Sri Lankan conflict on behalf of the Tamils. Yes, you read that right. On behalf of the Tamils. Feels like the 1980s again, I better get out my copy of Scarface and start practicing lines. I do not wish to paint all Indian Tamils with the same brush, but I am saddened that AIBA's suggestion was not killed on its way to Manmohan Singh. I cant help thinking that the majority of Indian Tamils must share AIBA's bone-headed ideas.

The AIBA solution involves India's direction intervention in Sri Lanka's conflict to give the LTTE its seperate state. This would ammount to nothing short of an invasion for the following reason:

1. The vast majority of the country does not want to give the LTTE a seperate state.
2. It is not India's state to give.
3. It can only be given by military force. Uninvited military force, as Mr. Rajapakse has used his famous blunt diplomacy and told the AIBA exactly where it can put its intervention.

The AIBA cites the deteriorating human rights situation in Sri Lanka has the root cause of its concern. While I feel deeply about the failings and stupidity of the GOSL and am violently opposed to the occasional barbarity of the villager-manned Armed Forces, their behaviour pales in comparison to the LTTE. The LTTE is a terrorist organsiation that uses suicide bombs, child soldiers and has blown up a civilian airport, stock exchange and Sri Lanka's largest Buddhist temple. It has exploded bombs in front of hospitals, schools, churches, mosques and almost every other place of human gathering. It has also ruthlessly executed political opponents on both sides of the conflict.

Even if these travesties can be put down to the misfortune of war, the treatment of Tamils in their dubious "jurisdiction" bears testament to how the LTTE will govern their seperate state. Having a highly developed logisitics chain to bring in weapons, men and money into the warzone, they have somehow managed to not feed the people in the North and East, neither have they provided water, electricity or healthcare. Instead, they claim that these are the GOSL's responsibilities and the GOSL is responsibile for the deplorable living conditions of the Tamils in the North and East. I will not spell out the hypocrisy for you, if you've made it this far into the post, you have a heart and half a brain. What is even funnier, is that the GOSL has been pressured by the international community and the anti-war faction in Colombo, to provide exactly these things. Its like India sending food aid, water pipelines and electricity cables to Pakistan-administered Kashmir. I hope that one day the Indian Tamil community will wake up and realise that the situation in Sri Lanka is not some Tamil movie, where Tamil heroes kill 100 soldiers each, erect infrastructure in the afternoon and finish the day in the busty embrace of a female cadre.

Non-Tamil Indians will also be sobered away from gung-ho dreams of an Indian Peace Keeping Force when they recall the hundreds of soldiers and an excellent Prime Minister India lost when she last tried this stunt. India was betrayed by the same people it was trying to "protect". The LTTE never thinks it owes anyone any favours. Just ask the widows of countless Tamil politicians who have supported it in the past, only to receive a hail of bullets when they pressed for peace. Further, any escapade on behalf of the LTTE would also badly damage India's international reputation, fast growing economy, internal politics and the Central Government's control over Tamil Nadu. It would put the last nail in the coffin of Indo-Lankan relations and potentially lead to a greater role for Pakistan in a conflict wherein they can produce immeasurable irritation for India.

My distaste for pro-LTTE intervention aside, I do believe that India needs to intervene. Not like America in Iraq, twisting a knife into deep ethnic divisions, but instead following their own example in shadow diplomacy in Nepal, where they threatened, cajoled and convinced both sides to the negotiating table. As an excellent article in the Daily News (did I just say that?) concludes "India's only realistic option is to support Sri Lanka politically, diplomatically, economically and materially, and as the price tag, ensure the accelerated implementation of an adequate devolution package. All other options are fraught." (yes they messed up at the end with the "fraught" thing, its the Daily News, you cant expect them to have an entirely error-free article).

The people in the North and East are living in an earthly purgatory, with both the GOSL and LTTE as tormenting demons. By choosing sides, their kinsmen in Tamil Nadu are just prolonging their misery.