NEW DELHI: Is the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi becoming the LTTE’s elder statesman? This question was posed by an American diplomat in a cable sent on April 17, 1990, a year before the Rajiv Gandhi assassination. “Since December, and especially in the last two months, the Chief Minister has gone out of his way to demonstrate his commitment to the Tigers — at what would appear to be a significant political cost. No political figure here, least of all from the DMK, can explain the gamebook Karunanidhi is using. As he becomes more and more of a “Tamil Eelam hardliner”, some may feel he is burning bridges with Delhi. “We are at present baffled,” noted the diplomat when Karunanidhi staunchly refused to attend an IPKF (the Indian Peace Keeping Force) welcome reception on March 25, 1990. He also publicly admired LTTE while refusing to permit Tamil refugees associated with other militant groups to land in the state, all this at the expense of alienating own party members. Hard evidence of the then Chief Minister’s change of heart towards the LTTE emerged at a DMK conference in Tiruchy. With his nephew Murasoli Maran, present on the dais, Karunanidhi himself read out the party’s resolution which endorsed the “LTTE’s brave and successful defence against the Indian army”.The LTTE had never been Karunanidhi’s favorite, principally because of its close ties with his arch-rival, the late M G Ramachandran.The US diplomat then reached three conclusions: “One extreme view, to which we do not subscribe, is that Karunanidhi is interested in a Tamil Eelam variant for his Indian state. Another, perhaps more credible theory, is that the LTTE has threatened Karunanidhi with a significant increase in the level of militant violence in TN, enough perhaps to lead to the imposition of President’s rule, if he doesn’t boost their cause. There are also those who continue to believe that he sincerely dedicated himself to the earlier negotiations, wants to bring about real peace among the Sri Lankan Tamils, and believes that he can only position himself to resume these discussions if his credibility with the most important player — The LTTE — is unquestioned.”
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