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Elegy to Tamilchelvan a great act of courage
Jagmohan Singh
 Hon’ble Dr. Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi
Greetings with the hope of success for peoples fighting for separate
statehood.
I was immensely
touched by your humane gesture of writing an elegy in the memory of
Tamil nationalist leader and head of the political wing of the LTTE,
Suppayya Paramu Tamilchelvan, who was killed in an aerial strike by
the Sinhalese airforce on 2 November 2007 in Kilinochchi. I am
more amazed by the fact that though you are the head of a state, you
did not hide behind the pretense of “compulsions of state” and have
audaciously spoken your mind without fear of any kind whatsoever.
Tamilchelvan was merely 40 years old at the time of his death. He
started his life as a barber and rose to be part of the LTTE
delegation for negotiating peace in Tamil Eelam with Norwegian
intervention. It should be a proud feeling for all political
activists that his wife too serves in the women’s wing of the LTTE.
You are reported to have said, “The one who was
killed in Sri Lanka was a Tamil. And it is Tamil blood that courses
through my veins.”
The resolution of your party, the Dravida Munetra
Kazagham (Dravidian Progressive Conference) condemning the role of
Sri Lanka is timely and appropriate. Your ode to Tamilchelvan is
inspiring. It is a genuine call of a person who in the early
fifties had given a call for a separate state of Tamil Nadu. Every
individual who is struggling for the rights of his people anywhere
in the world would salute you for your courageous requiem:
“A face that was
ever smiling,
A heart that singed all opposition,
A youthful man with a heart as strong as the Himalayas,
A commander who blossomed in the footsteps of Balasingham, the old
lion,
A noble youth who deemed his life but a bit of manure for his
liberation struggle,
One who was like life to us, like a brother to us,
Oh, Selva, he who etched his fame on every Tamil heart,
And every Tamil home,
Where art thou gone?”
 Another Tamil leader, but presently your political
adversary has also sung similar notes. Condemning the murder of
Tamilchelvan, the leader of Pattali Makkal Katchi –a Tamil
nationalist party, Mr. Vaiko, has said, “It was an unforgivable
crime in which the Government of India too had acquiesced by
supplying arms and equipment to the Sri Lankan military
establishments.”
It is
further encouraging that leaders of Dalit Panthers of India, writers
and filmmakers held a public condolence meeting and condemned
Tamilchelvan’s killing.
I fondly remember my meeting with Mr. Vaiko, when
some years back I accompanied Simranjit Singh Mann to meet him in
Vellore prison. More than a year in prison had not broken the man
and he continued to stick to his pro-Tamil Eelam stand. I was quite
surprised when he supported the same political party which had
jailed him and I thought that his opportunistic manoeuvre would fail
him and it did. His party lost miserably. It is another matter
that even earlier too he did not command much political clout, but
has remained unswerving in his love for Tamil nationalism.
I also recall that to go to
Vellore from Chennai, we had to pass through
the town of Sriperambudur,
where Rajiv Gandhi was killed. Death, anybody’s death, should never
be an occasion for glee for anyone and definitely not for a Sikh.
While traversing the road through that town, I could not help but
recollect that Rajiv Gandhi condoned the brutal killing of the Sikhs
in Delhi and ordered mayhem and killing through his kill-boys in
Panjab.
During the last two and half decade long struggle in
Panjab, we did not produce any Sikh nationalist poet or writer,
except one. If there are more, I do not know. The only one I can
recall is my friend and co-revolutionary Gajinder Singh, who is in
exile from his homeland Panjab. In the year 1973, when the state of
Haryana killed four Nihang Sikhs in cold blood, this author of the
revolutionary poem collection, Panj Teer Hor, penned, “Pootan
terean da kahi vaari taan khoon dulya, halle kal hi ohh Pundri vich
nottan naal tulya.” –Many a time the blood of your sons has been
spilt, but yesterday it was bartered for money (by the Sikh
leaders)!
You are a strong
Tamil nationalist and I admire you for that. Though I have yet to
fathom the intricacies of the politics of your state, I am awestruck
by the transnational nationalism of the
 Tamil people. While
studying the progress of the Tamil Eelam military and political
leadership, I
have come across the cases of many Tamil leaders and commoners all
over the globe, who identify with the cause of Tamil nationality.
Though the Sikhs are blessed with an outward appearance which
strongly forges their identity, but on the threshold of nationalism,
I have no hesitation in saying that the Tamils have taken the lead
over the Sikh people.
Revolutionary Sikh
leaders of the past two decades, during discussions at various
levels have always had a high regard for the Tamil leadership in Sri
Lanka fighting for their legitimate social, cultural and political
rights.
I think that
somewhere inside your being, you want a separate Tamil state for
which you had decades ago launched an agitation. In a recent
interview to a news channel you have said that the reasons for
secession which you advocated in the fifties do not exist and that
you would be satisfied if the country has another
Constituent Assembly to draft a new Constitution which will propound
a truly federal form of government.
It was indeed
stimulating to know that you have been the chief minister of Tamil
Nadu for five times and that you are an accomplished writer who has
published more than hundred books. It is amazing to note that you
joined politics at the age of fourteen and that you continue to echo
your ideals.
I would like to
share a note with you. It may be politically correct to follow and
advise a non-violent approach when one is pursuing nationalistic
goals, but a question which bothers me is, “Does the world listen
when there is no violence of any kind?”
I am sure that
Tamilchelvan, wherever he is after death, must be taunting the
Sinhalese armies and all dictators by repeating the holy sonnet of
the metaphysical poet, John Donne, “Death Be Not Proud”:
 DEATH be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,
Die
not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
As a Sikh nationalist, presently I can do no more that endorse the
call of the leader of the Dalit Panthers, Thol Thirumavalavan, who
while urging for immediate intervention to find a political solution
to the ethnic problem of Sri Lanka has said, “Even after all these
challenges, Eelam (a separate Tamil land). I solemnly repeat his
slogan: “Eelam vellum, adhu kaalam sollum (Time will prove
that Eelam will win).”
Sincerely
Jagmohan Singh
(Jagmohan Singh is a
social, religious, health and political activist based in Ludhiana, Panjab. He may be
contacted at
jsbigideas@gmail.com )
7 November, 2007
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