The pull-out drama
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: March 21, 2013 -

As they say, history repeats itself, but 'first as tragedy and second as farce', to borrow the words of Karl Marx.

This is exactly what is happening to the partnership of DMK and Congress at the Centre today.

In a repeat of the tragic history of what the Congress did to DMK Ministers 15 years ago in its bid to pull down the IK Gujral led United Front coalition Government at the Centre, DMK has withdrawn support from the Congress-led UPA coalition Government at the Centre over the Sri Lankan issue on Tuesday, thus putting an end to their 9-year old political honeymooning, which was crucial to the defeat of NDA and the return of Congress to the power at the Centre after a gap of eight years.

Not so long ago in November, 1997, the Congress forced the coalition United Front Government of IK Gujral to tumble down after seven months in office in the wake of the Jain Commission report which held DMK, a key coalition partner, of giving 'tacit support' to the LTTE whose militants had assassinated former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in a suicide bombing.

But after remaining political adversaries for some years with the Dravidian party joining the NDA, Sonia Gandhi, Congress chief and wife of slain Sonia Gandhi, managed to bring DMK on board of UPA for ousting the NDA in May 2004. Since then, the two opportunist parties have been sharing power not only at the Centre, but also forming alliance in Tamil Nadu during Assembly elections.

And now, in a farcical repeat of said tragic history, DMK, the second biggest constituent in UPA after the exit of Trinamool Congress, has called it quit from the alliance and pulled out all its five Union Ministers, one Cabinet Minister and four Ministers of State, in protest against what it described as UPA Government's failure of taking up its concerns in the proposed UN resolution against Sri Lanka on the issue of human rights violations of Tamils in that Island country.

The resolution is to be tabled tomorrow (March 21) in the session of United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) at Geneva. It's true that many people around the world are no stranger to the brutal treatments of Tamil people by the Sri Lankan Government and its Army in the name of suppressing LTTE.

Last month, a report of Human Rights Watch has pointed out clearly how the Sri Lankan Army personnel are using rape to torture suspected members of LTTE for years after the end of the civil war.

The recent report and the accompanying video images on how 12-year old Balachandran, the son of the slain rebel leader of LTTE Velupillai Prabakaran, was shot dead, firing several times from close range on his chest, is simply shuddering to think over.

So, the Government of India definitely needs to make its clear stance on the issue.

However, the pull-out of DMK from a beleaguered coalition partnership only at the fag-end and after numerous threats of withdrawal in the past is rather nonsensical.

If Mr Karunanidhi was so serious about the Tamil issue in Sri Lanka, then why did he have to enact the drama of a 'three-hour fast' in 2009 when the Eelam war was at its peak instead of pulling out then and there?

This is a question we would like to ask.