Jayalalithaa dubs Karunanidhi’s Tamil conference a farce

By Gopal Ethiraj, Chennai

CHENNAI, 26 September (asiantribune.com): Tamils world over are in a state of distress and in turmoil. Chief Minister Karunanidhi has done little for the cause of Tamils world over. Former chief minister and AIADMK general secretary Ms. Jayalalithaa, launching a tirade against the former organising the World Tamil Conference, dubbed the proposed meet a farce and “self aggrandizement.”

In a statement from Kodanadu where she staying, Ms. Jayalalithaa, referring to the state government's announcement that the conference would be organised in Coimbatore in January 2010, said ''like all utterances of Mr Karunanidhi, this one too smacks of vested interest and has nothing to do with his self-proclaimed love for Tamil language''.

The fact that no country has come forward to host the 9th World Tamil Conference for 14 long years since 1995 is an indication of the turmoil the Tamil world is going through, she said.

Ominous silence when Tamils suffered

“What does Karunanidhi plan to do about the fate of Tamils world over? What does he have to say about the ominous silence when the Tamils were being massacred in Sri Lanka, with the support and backing of the Indian government, of which his party is a part? Why was he unperturbed by the suppression of Tamils in Malaysia? What has he done to ensure that the classical status of Tamils in India exists beyond mere nomenclature?,” Ms. Jayalalithaa asked.

Malaysian Tamils, who hosted the first International Tamil Conference in 1966, feel that they are relegated to the status of secondary citizens in that country. Last year they had given vent to their feelings by coming out on the streets in protest, but were put down by brutal suppression without evoking even a token protest from Karunanidhi, the self-proclaimed saviour of the Tamil race, she said.

The Tamils of Sri Lanka, who hosted the fourth International Conference in Jaffna in 1974, are living in refugee camps in their own country. Their struggle for self determination was ruthlessly snuffed out by the Sri Lankan government with military aid and logistical support from Indian government in which Karunanidhi’s DMK party is a vital component

Karunanidhi never raised his voice, let alone his little finger, when the massacre of Sri Lankan Tamils was on, she alleged.


‘No’ for Tamil in Parliament

“Here in India, Karunanidhi’s own son M K Alagiri, who is a cabinet minister in the Union government, thanks to his father’s bargaining capabilities, is unable to even speak in the Parliament in Tamil. Obviously, Karunanidhi has been unable to do as much for Tamil as he has done for his sundry sons and grandnephews,” Jayalalithaa said.

“Why is he unconcerned about the fact that his son Alagiri has been disallowed to speak in Tamil in the Indian Parliament? Why is he still backing a central government that has heaped such a great indignity on the Tamil language and the Tamil people?” she asked.

''With this sort of track record in the service of the Tamil language and the Tamil people, Karunanidhi’s World Tamil Conference is nothing but a farcical charade for self-aggrandizement and holds nothing whatsoever for Tamil and the Tamil people. Those on show will be himself, literary figures in his party, his children and grandchildren.”

Does it qualify 9th Tamil conference?

The past eight conferences—Kuala Lumpur, Chennai, Paris, Jaffna, Madurai, Kuala Lumpur, Mauritius and Thanjavur—held were organized under the auspicious of the International Association of Tamil Research (IATR). “The 1995 conference at Thanjavur, which was held when I was Chief Minister, was organized by Japanese academician and an authority of Tamil language, Prof. Noboru Karashima, the president of IATR. Karunanidhi’s announcement of ‘his’ World Tamil Conference makes no mention whatsoever of the IATR.

Karunanidhi’s government has no locus standi to organize IATR’s series of International Tamil Conferences. If the 2010 conference is being organize by Karunanidhi, independent of IATR, then it cannot qualify to be called 9th International Tamil Conference as it is being made out to be, she said.

Karunanidhi, who talks so much about his so-called “political decency” was the first leader of Tamil political party to boycott International Tamil conferences.

He and his DMK party men stayed away from the fifth World Tamil Conference in Madurai in 1981, simply because the AIADMK government had hosted it under then Chief Miniser M G Ramachandran.

The DMK leader did it again in 1995 at the eighth World Tamil Conference in Thanjavur, which was held when she was the Chief Minister, she said.

''Having injected a brand of ''political decency'' into the International Tamil Conferences, does he expect the Tamils the world over to forget everything and
participate in the farce that he is organising in Coimbatore?'', she asked.