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Eye of the Tiger: LTTE may get that hunted feeling, again

IANS[ MONDAY, MAY 17, 2004 12:50:49 AM ]

NEW DELHI: With Congress president Sonia Gandhi set to become prime minister, the man who ordered the assassination of her husband, over a decade ago, will certainly be worried. Those who follow Sri Lankas Tamil Tigers closely, will know that by now its chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, wanted in India for the 1991 killing of Rajiv Gandhi, will be holding consultations with his aides to discuss the unexpected political upheaval in New Delhi. There is no doubt he will be very, very concerned, a senior Indian official said, referring to Mr Prabhakaran, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) chief.

Significantly, the pro-LTTE media has made no comment on the dramatic election outcome that has catapulted Sonia Gandhi to power. A LTTE suicide-bomber blew up her husband at Sriperumpudur while he was on a comeback trail.

Tamil sources agree the LTTE would have even otherwise closely followed the election process in India, but Ms Gandhis dramatic victory would have certainly unnerved them. It may not have struck many, but the fact is that Mr Prabhakaran is the reason why Ms Gandhi is in politics today. Had he not killed her husband, she would have continued to be a housewife and would have remained at a safe distance from the hurly-burly of Indian politics.

Ms Gandhi has probably never expressed her views publicly on the Sri Lankan conflict, and the LTTEs fight for a Tamil state. But she met many actors of the Sri Lankan drama, including Tamils opposed to the LTTE.

The first consequence of Ms Gandhis rise to power is that the LTTE can forget the possibility, however remote, of India not extending the ban on the group in August this year. The LTTE was first outlawed by New Delhi in August 1992, and every two years the ban has been extended.

Since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took power in New Delhi in 1998, and even earlier, the LTTE had tried to warm up to it and its allied organisations, such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). The VHP is one of the rare groups the LTTE has allowed to operate in areas under its control in eastern Sri Lanka. When India exploded a nuclear device in May 1998, journals linked to LTTE wrote effusively about the feat.

In April 02, when Mr Prabhakaran addressed his first press conference in 12 years, he announced that the LTTE was in touch with India and expected New Delhi to lift the ban on the group. It also sought permission for its ideologue, Anton Balasingham, to be based in South India. New Delhi, however, did not accede to either of the requests.

The fact remains that the LTTE has not forgotten that it was Mr Gandhi who signed a peace pact with Sri Lanka in 1987 and sent the Indian Army to the island.

About a year ago, Mr Balasingham told a meeting of Sri Lankan Tamils in London that the LTTE is wary of three women Chandrika Kumaratunga, the Sri Lankan president, Jayaram Jayalalitha, the Tamil Nadu chief minister (who Mr Balasingham contemptuously referred to in Tamil as gundamma or fat woman) and Sonia Gandhi.

The LTTE is also constrained by the ban on it by the US, and is desperate to shed its terrorist tag. Also, knowing that killing Mr Gandhi cost the LTTE very heavily in the long run, it is highly unlikely that Mr Prabhakaran would try anything similar vis-à-vis Ms Gandhi. But the LTTE is a highly unpredictable group and it would do well for Indian agencies to review Ms Gandhis security arrangements.