Vaiko bats for referendum on Eelam

Despite the Tamil Tigers’ military defeat at the hands of the Rajapakshe regime, he said the latter would be “living in a fool’s paradise” if it thought that the resettlement of the “internally displaced persons” from camps in northern Sri Lanka would give quietus to the Tamil Eelam issue.

Vaiko, addressing a press conference here on Friday, said the history of the ethnic struggle in the Island-Republic clearly showed that “formation of a sovereign independent Tamil nation” was the “Magna Carta” for the Tamils of the Island. But the Government of India also sought to reduce it to resettlement of the war-torn Tamil refugees there, he noted.
Referring to “referendums” by the Tamil diaspora in various European countries overwhelmingly backing the creation of a Tamil Eelam as the final solution to the ethnic problem, Vaiko surprisingly added, “when time is ripe, in Tamil Nadu also we will hold a referendum” on this issue.

There could be no time-frame for this, but when such a referendum is held in Tamil Nadu, “I believe a majority here will also back formation of a Tamil Eelam,” Vaiko said, taking several questions on this issue. In his view this issue “is not dead”, even as he reiterated that LTTE chief Prabhakaran “is still alive.”

Condemning the DMK rule for not permitting Sri Lankan MP Sivajilingam to participate in a conference recently in Tamil Nadu, Vaiko said at the other extreme, the Centre rolling out the red carpet for Sri Lankan President Rajapakshe at the Lord Venkateshwara Temple in Tirumala recently, was “an unpardonable betrayal of the Tamils cause.”