{"id":204833,"date":"2019-09-16T19:06:48","date_gmt":"2019-09-16T13:36:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=204833"},"modified":"2019-09-16T19:06:48","modified_gmt":"2019-09-16T13:36:48","slug":"eluha-tamil-3000-turnout-to-save-tamil-honour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/eluha-tamil-3000-turnout-to-save-tamil-honour\/","title":{"rendered":"Eluha Tamil \u2013 3000 Turnout To Save Tamil Honour"},"content":{"rendered":"

By N. Lohathayalan<\/a> –<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s (16 September) Eluha Thamil demonstrations were called by The Tamil People\u2019s Council\u00a0 where former Northern Province Chief Minister CV Wigneswaran is Co-Chairman and the power behind it all. The parades and demonstrations were to make certain points:<\/p>\n

Against Sinhalese colonization of Tamil homelands<\/em><\/p>\n

For the prosecution of war criminals<\/em><\/p>\n

For the release of Tamil political prisoners,\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

For an international inquiry into the disappeared<\/em><\/p>\n

Against the militarization of Tamil areas<\/em><\/p>\n

For the resettlement of those who were displaced during the war.<\/em><\/p>\n

Wigneswaran badly needed a political blood transfusion \u2013 an infusion of new life. There were few takers for his party. It was just a week ago that his contempt of court case for defying the court order to reappoint NPC ministers whom he had discontinued unlawfully was to be taken up. Lady Luck smiled on him as the case was put off. If he had been convicted, he would have lost his political rights and that would have put to rest his plans for his political party. He has been given time before the final reckoning \u2013 18, 20 and 21 November when the matter would be heard and finished; that is all.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

C.V. Wigneswaran Leading the Eluha Thamil Demo<\/p><\/div>\n

Jaffna University academic Mahendran Thiruvarangan was harshly critical of the slogan \u201cThis land is our land\u201d by Eluha Thamil demonstrators. He said it sounded horrifically like the Sinhalese nationalists who shout \u201cSri Lanka is ours.\u201d It is a pity said another academic \u201cthat a once-fine jurist is leading this communal fanaticism and misdirecting our youth; and our priests of all religions come forth to give respectability to all this nonsense.\u201d<\/p>\n

To the TNA too Eluha Tamil presented tough choices. All the demands being made under Eluha Tamil were the aspirations of nearly all Tamils. But Wigneswaran had called for it first and it was his show. He had hijacked a project common to most Tamils. A large crowd would show support for him. If the TNA refused to participate and a good crowd showed up, it would be interpreted as the TNA being against the aspirations of the Tamil people and signify its failure to lead.<\/p>\n

R. Sampanthan, TNA leader, told his followers not to participate because they were not invited, but not to disrupt either. \u201cThat is how a leader must lead,\u201d said an admirer who had for long been put off and annoyed by Sampanthan for saying \u201cI have left Jaffna matters to my Jaffna MPs.\u201d Said the admirer with renewed hope in Sampanthan as elections near, \u201cHe has become his old self. We now have a leader.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Clerics at Eluha Thamil<\/p><\/div>\n

In the event, Sampanthan\u2019s instincts proved right. The most notable presence among the demonstrators was that of TNA Kilinochchi District MP Shreetharan. The others, were Aunthavapalan (former TNA stalwart from Chavakacheri and now a regular speaker at Wigneswaran\u2019s events), Iyngaranesan (an NPC Minster dismissed by Wigneswaran but still friends with him) and former EPRLF MP Suresh Premachandran and his brother Dr. Kandiah Sarveswaran (NPC\u2019s former Minister for Education).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The crowds were bused in. Judging from the buses, the main participation was from the Vanni. The demonstrators gathered at the Nallur Temple and Jaffna University. Marching from these two starting points, they joined at Kantharmadam, took the route along Navalar Road and Kasthuriar Road, and ended up at the Open-air Field (Muththaveli) where a stage was erected for the speakers. It was about noon when the speeches began. Some religious leaders were present \u2013 about 10 priests in cassock whom I did not recognize, the Chinmayananda Mission Head and the Nallai Adheenam Priest.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In Mannar it was practically a no-show with all shops open. Forthetones of money from the Tamil Diaspora spent, theevent was a failure. That failure has to be hidden from the bankrollers to keep the cash coming.<\/p>\n

The crowd that turned up in Jaffna, I would estimate as 1500 although a French reporter asked me for verification of the10,000 number that had been fed to her. She seemed not to believe me when I told her. I found her later at the field and she expressed shock at the discrepancy.\u00a0 <\/span>Another reporter commented, \u201cMay be to save Tamil honour we can exaggerate a little and say 3000, but not more.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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