Concerned about the extremely “active role” being played by the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora in fuelling anti-Lanka sentiments in Tamil Nadu (TN), intelligence agencies are now said to be looking at the funding such banned and proscribed groups are channelling to political parties in the state.
The Tamil diaspora groups, among them the British Tamils Forum (BTF) and the Global Tamils Forum (GTF) are believed to be flush with funds.
The government feels that money which was earlier being used to fund the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) which was locked in a civil war with the Sri Lankan forces for over two decades is now being used to rally public opinion in the southern state which has been witnessing frequent protests against the island nation in recent weeks.
It’s felt that there is a “determined effort to keep up the momentum” in TN by local outfits, among them the Vaiko-led MDMK “at no cost” to them while a strategically and commercially important neighbour is being alienated.
The diaspora groups are also believed to be behind the LTTE flags, logos and pictures of LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran that have found their way into the southern state. Also, questions are being asked on how TV channels and photo-journalists have found themselves at the right spot and time when Buddhist monks from Lanka have been attacked in TN.
A disturbed government is keeping a watchful eye on the role being played by pro-LTTE Tamil diaspora organisations that have become “very active suddenly” and are busy mobilising public opinion in the southern state. They are even believed to be providing the “intellectual inputs” in TN against Lanka with whom India has traditionally had close and warm ties.
It’s also been noted that words like “genocide”, “unfettered access” and “independent international investigation into war crimes” whose inclusion parties like the DMK and the AIADMK demanded in the recent resolution on Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) have been bandied about by these Tamil diaspora groups.
What has also raised the government’s antennae is the manner in which these groups have been lobbying at various international fora including the UNHRC in Geneva and demanding that India “take the lead” on matters against Lanka. The demand by what is described as a “self-serving” diaspora is one that has little regard for India’s own national interests and security or even those of Tamil Nadu, say observers.