DMK ideology was a factor in Rajiv's assassination by LTTE

Everybody knows that Velupillai Prabhakaran, slain chief of the dreaded Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), had organised the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in the early 1990s. Everybody also assumed that he was killed because he had sent in the Indian Peace-Keeping Force (IPKF) to end the armed struggle and enforce a solution to grant Tamils autonomy in a federal Sri Lanka.

But few know that Prabhakaran’s hatred for Rajiv also had some ideological roots in the radical anti-Brahmin movement in Tamil Nadu started by EV Ramasamy Naicker (Periyar), who started the Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) movement in the first half of the 20th century. The DK is the intellectual parent of the DMK and other Tamil parties formed after independence.

According to Kumaran Pathmanathan (KP), the current head of the LTTE, whom VK Shashikumar of Mediagrove interviewed recently, Prabhakaran hated Rajiv Gandhi. While a large part of this hatred emanated from the former Indian Prime Minister’s quick-fix approach towards the complex Tamil-Sinhalese conflict in Sri Lanka (which included sending in the IPKF), some of it was also the result of the DK’s ideology that Prabhakaran had imbibed. (See video)

The role of Prabhakaran in the assassination is well-known, but a frank admission of the fact from the organisation’s top brass has so far been elusive. Now, we get it from KP, chief arms procurer of the LTTE in its heyday, now in Sri Lankan custody after his capture in 2009. Firstpost is the first online publication to carry KP’s first-ever video interview to Mediagrove.

Those who were involved in Rajiv’s murder were from the LTTE’s intelligence wing. The conspiracy was hatched by “Prabhakaran and his intelligence chief Pottu Amman”, KP says. However, he adds a new spin to the former LTTE chief’s animosity towards Rajiv: the lingering influence of Dravidian ideology on LTTE chief’s views.

According to KP, the “Dravida Kazhagam, which has been there for 100 years, even after Periyar is gone, is still passing on its ideas to (people like) Prabhakaran, especially anti-Brahminism. Prabhakaran’s idea was to struggle against the Brahmins. Because of this (DK background), Tamil Nadu politicians made a marvelous hero out of Prabhakaran. They compared him to old Tamil Kings, and his colour changed. That’s why he made this blunder against Rajiv Gandhi.”

When asked specifically if the DMK’s ideology played a role in the murder of Rajiv, KP demurs. “This I cannot say yes, but you know that influence…they (Tamil politicians) fed him against the Brahmins. That’s why he hated the Prime Minister of India.”

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