Chennai British mission insults protestors, say grassroot Tamil organisations

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 June 2012, 21:31 GMT]
The Periyar Dravidar Kazhakam (PDK), the striking and pioneer section of the Dravidian movement of Tamil Nadu, on Wednesday condemned the British mission in Chennai for not receiving in person the memo of the 19 mainstream political parties and grassroot organisations of Tamil Nadu protesting the hosting of Rajapaksa by the British Queen celebrating 60 years of coronation. The diplomatic mission, despite prior intimation of a memorandum to be submitted, made the demonstrators to put their memo into the mailbox at the gate of the mission. Tamils had a relationship with British imperialism since its initial years of founding the Madras Presidency, a major constituent of today’s India. Kolathoor Mani of PDK asked whether the British government and the international community want Tamils to be anti-imperialistic in the current context.

When the British Deputy High Commission in Chennai (the former Madras of British Raj) has been informed in advance of the demonstration and submission of a memorandum, the response was that to give the memo to the watchman. But on Wednesday when 19 mainstream political parties and grassroot organisations gathered at the Deputy High Commission there was not even a watchman and the demonstrators were insulted to put the memo into the mailbox.

The demonstrators, including MDMK, VCK, CPI, TMMK and other mainstream political parties and grassroot organisations had informed the Deputy High Commission a day before, through e-mail and telephone, of their wish of an audience and petition, the organisers said.

But, “we were greeted with sheer indifference and insult from the part of the Deputy High Commission,” the organisers told TamilNet.

Whether the genocidal Sri Lanka of today has become more important in geopolitics to the British than their former presidency in South Asia from which they conquered the island in 1796, ask the Tamil Nadu activists.

During the genocidal war, even the diplomatic missions of New Delhi such as in Mauritius refused to receive memos from the global Tamil diaspora.

The larger question is whether the so-called international community and the establishment in New Delhi are driving the Tamils into an altogether different thinking, commented a veteran political analyst in Chennai.

The policies of Washington and New Delhi would ultimately make China to have the last laugh in South Asia, commented a veteran South Asian diplomat served in many of the countries in the region.

Meanwhile, the Chinese money directed through Colombo, is playing in many ways in India and among sections of Eezham Tamils in the island and in the diaspora, commented informed circles.

Following the line of the British imperialism during the Second World War, the island of Sri Lanka and Burma are considered important to counter any move coming from the East by the today's ‘International Community’, and unless the Tamils in the region prove their pre-eminence, imperialism would not listen, said a student of History.

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