Why did Tamil Nadu forget Lankan Tamils this time?

This year’s TN State election held without the late stalwarts M. Karunanithi and Jeyalalitha

DMK won 159 seats while the main rival AIADMK led coalition won only in 75 constituencies

A sea change in the recently concluded Tamil Nadu State Assembly election compared to the past elections was that the Sri Lankan Tamil problem was not a campaign issue for any of the main political party in the State this time. Tamil problem across the Palk Strait did not figure in speeches by the main aspirants to offices of the Tamil Nadu government during their campaign.

The only exception was the film director-turned-politician Seeman who is also the leader of the Naam Tamizhar Katchi. Nonetheless, his party which is a fringe group failed to shine as it could not secure even a single seat in the 234-member State Assembly.

This sweeping change in the election campaign was observed after about four decades. Since the anti-Tamil pogrom in 1983 the issues concerning the Tamils in the island had become a poll plank at every local or national election.The situation had such an impact on the political decisions of the Indian Central government that Indian leaders in turn put pressure on the Sri Lankan leaders on various issues.

For instance, it was owing to the pressure exerted by the Tamil Nadu politicians that the Indian government organized the first peace talks between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil groups, including armed outfits and political parties in Bhutanese capital Thimphu in 1985. 

Also, towards the end of the last lap of the war between the security forces and the LTTE Indian Lok Sabha elections were held and the Tamil Nadu leaders were exerting pressure on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to prevail upon the Sri Lankan government to stop the war. Sri Lankan leaders who saw an imminent end to the three decade-long armed conflict within months, if not weeks, did not budge, but agreed with its northern neighbour’s suggestion to refrain from using heavy weapons against the Tamil rebels who were then on the run.

This year’s Tamil Nadu State elections was significant in that it was also an election held without the participation of both the strong leaders of the two main political parties, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), after around three decades.

AIADMK leader, a onetime popular film idol Jeyalalithaa Jeyaram died on December 5, 2016 while in power in the State, leaving her party to split, while the DMK leader Muthuvelar Karunanidhi who headed the party for nearly a half a century died on August 7, 2018. He who was also heavily involved in the film industry had written screenplay for 75 movies.

The DMK has captured power in the State after 2011 when it was reduced to mere 23 seats in the 234-member State Assembly. The party this time in alliance with some minor parties swept the State bagging 159 seats while the main rival AIADMK led coalition had managed to win only in 75 constituencies. The pro-LTTE Nam Thamizhar Katchi which contested in all 234 constituencies and other parties and coalitions failed to secure a single seat.

There were several parties in the DMK led coalition some of which contested under the DMK’s Rising Sun symbol while others fielded their candidates under their own symbols. However, the DMK candidates alone had secured 125 seats in the State Assembly where one party had to get 118 seats to capture power. Hence the new government under Chief Minister M. K. Stalin, son of the late Karunanidhi is a strong one which is not compelled to rely on other parties in his coalition.

Stalin had two important plus points at this election; one was that his party had not split with his father’s death in 2018 as what happened to its main rival, the AIADMK which originally divided into three factions immediately after the death of Jeyalalithaa. Karunanidhi had groomed his son as the second-in-command in the party before his death. Secondly, Stalin’s blood relationship to the late DMK patriarch, Karunanidhi played a tremendous role, as has been happened in many countries including Sri Lanka and India.

Another major factor that contributed to the DMK’s landslide victory was what is called in Sinhala “The rella” or the trend. As the local government victory of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) in 2018 became the trend setter for its big win at the Presidential and Parliamentary elections in 2019 and 2020, the Parliamentary (Lok Sabha) election in 2019 had ensured a big win for the DMK at this year’s Assembly election. The party had won 38 out of 39 seats at the last Lok Sabha election.

Elections in Tamil Nadu had been a topic in Sri Lanka as well in the past, since Sri Lanka had been a significant campaign issue for almost all political parties in the State. Launching demonstrations against the Sri Lankan government and courting arrest in hundreds, writing petitions to the Central government over issues in the island, calling on the United Nations to conduct a referendum in Sri Lanka to create a separate State for Tamils were some of the agitations evident in Tamil Nadu in the run up to local or national elections. The State saw nothing this time.

A senior journalist based at Chennai, R. Bhagwan Singh says “Although it (the Sri Lankan Tamil Issue) occupied significant media space and high decibel political rhetoric, the Sri Lankan Tamils issue has hardly ever been an election issue where the voter has had a multitude of other issues concerning his life, such as livelihood, irrigation, and corruption. The only time it came close to being a poll issue was in 1991, and that too because of the killing of an Indian leader (Rajiv Gandhi) on the state’s soil.” 

Singh, who has tracked the civil war in Sri Lankan closelysaid the Lankan Tamils issue, just became an easy topic for all political parties to deliver sermons on and further their election agenda. “If the problem was a potent poll issue, Vaiko, a staunch supporter of Lankan Tamils, would have been Chief Minister by now,” he had told the Deccan Herald.

In the run up to the Northern Provincial Council election in 2013 the Chief Minister aspirant of the TNA, C. V. Wigneswaran also had expressed the same sentiments. He then told the Chennai-based ‘The Hindu’ newspaper “In Tamil Nadu, unfortunately, our problems have been taken to be the ball to be played in the tennis court between the two or three parties. They [Tamil Nadu politicians] start hitting the ball from one side to the other and it is we who get hit by that” he said and added “We will fight, but maybe sometimes we might come together. The next door neighbour must not come and say ‘you must divorce, you must divorce, and you must divorce’. That is not your business.” 

When the Tamil Nadu politicians were shouting themselves hoarse on Sri Lankan Tamil issue during the 2016 State Assembly election, the then National Co-existence, Dialogue and Official Languages Minister Mano Ganeshan too in his twitter account advised them to take up the issue after the Assembly election. 

President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s defeat at the Presidential election in 2015 has largely contributed to the slump in the Tamil Nadu politicians’ interest and concern about the Sri Lankan Tamils, according to some analysts in the State. 

Rajapaksa may be the most hated Sri Lankan politician in Tamil Nadu, especially during and after the war between the armed forces and the LTTE. Hence they agitated even at the drop of a hat in Sri Lanka during his tenure. With his ouster from office and the new government pursuing a pacifying policy towards the minorities along with the support of the main Tamil alliance in the country, the TNA, the Sri Lankan issue seems to have gradually but largely faded away from the Tamil Nadu politics.

Even the Indian Central government takes up the Sri Lankan issue just to strengthen its interest in Sri Lanka and the region.