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Eyebrows raised on Advani's plans to attend MDMK meet

N Sathiya Moorthy in Madras

With a pro-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam stand high on the party's agenda, eyebrows are being raised over Union Home Minister L K Advani's plans to attend a two-day MDMK meet at Erode this weekend.

While MDMK sources claim that nothing will be said or done to embarrass the Centre or ministers and their parties, some Bharatiya Janata Party leaders in Tamil Nadu are not too sure.

They say that peripheral pan-Tamil forces may use the occasion to raise slogans praising the LTTE and demanding a separate Tamil Eelam.

"It happened at a PMK meet in 1992 in Madras," recalled a senior BJP leader. "Possibly, even the PMK leadership did not expect it. At the end of the day, however, you have only memories of some processionists shouting slogans condemning India and hailing former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's assassins. The propriety of it all apart, that hindered the PMK's plans to join the Congress alliance in the state, when the AIADMK 'exposed' the party before Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi, with videotapes of the procession."

The MDMK is planning a procession on July 1, to flag off its meet. The procession is scheduled to be viewed by leaders of friendly parties, including Advani, Union ministers George Fernandes and Mamta Banerjee, and Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and his counterparts from Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, and Jammu and Kashmir. They are likely to address a rally at the end of the procession.

The second day's proceedings will be an internal affair of the MDMK.

''We are taking care not to embarrass the visitors from Delhi, particularly the home minister and defence minister," an MDMK source said. "We know Fernandes' sympathies lie with freedom lovers across the world, but we also know that he has a definite role to play in the Vajpayee Government at the Centre. As for Advani, we respect his personality as much as we respect the individuality of his party."

However, the state BJP unit is not convinced. It says that MDMK chief Vaiko is emotive and can get carried away by circumstances.

"He may also not have as much control over peripheral groups, as he has over party cadres, and he cannot dictate discipline to them. There are those who want to see him more committed to the LTTE cause, and painting him pro-LTTE, by starting a national debate."

While the state police are not taking chances with security arrangements, they have not received any official word on Advani's plans. "Given the crucial stage in which negotiations in Sri Lanka are, Advani and Fernandes' presence could send out wrong signals to Colombo, on New Delhi's real intentions," a source stated.

"It can also irritate BJP sections in the state, who identify Erode with the start of the Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu, as Periyar E V Ramaswami Naicker was based there," the source added.

"It's obviously for this reason and to attract residual pan-Tamil groups to his side, by stirring up nostalgic memories about Erode, that the MDMK has selected the town for hosting the conference."

Farooq Abdullah may be another absentee, if his autonomy resolution entails his presence in Srinagar or New Delhi.

But the MDMK is confident of going ahead with the conference. It does not want to be cheated again, after Karunanidhi reportedly robbed the party of its earlier day in the sun. A party leader said, "The chief minister made us cancel a pro-Tamils Chennai rally on June 5, but made a more acerbic speech mooting a Czechoslovakia model, two days ahead, on his birthday. The nation then had only the DMK to speak about and all forgot us."

Independent political observers are watching developments with their fingers crossed. "The MDMK has declared its intention to revive the state autonomy call at Erode. While it may have broad hints for Sri Lanka, its importance for India too cannot be lost sight of," said an observer.

"With Abdullah scheduled to attend the meet, the likes of Karunanidhi, Chandrababu Naidu of Andhra Pradesh and Prakash Singh Badal of Punjab, may end up trying to outsmart each other on the autonomy issue. Thus, the Erode conference could turn out to be harsher on the autonomy front."

He referred to the Salem declaration of Karunanidhi earlier this week. Answering newsmen's queries on the Jammu and Kashmir autonomy resolution, he recalled how the DMK was the first political party in the country to call an autonomy conference in 1974, and how his government had then appointed the Justice Rajamannar Commission. "We continue to stand by our principle for autonomy to states and a coalition at the Centre," Karunanidhi said.

With a coalition at the Centre, it may be the turn of parties like the DMK to pursue autonomy in states. "This will also be required to ensure that nationalist forces do not enter the Tamil Nadu polity in a big way," said an observer, adding that the Erode conference could provide a platform, where the host may try to upstage the DMK parent, if not other friends of the party, given its political compulsions.

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