DMK’s domestic political compulsion

DMK pulling out UPA has been necessitated by the domestic political compulsion of Tamil Nadu where each Tamil political party is in race to score political points on its rival over the issue of Sri Lankan Tamil. It has nothing to do with the national interest. Whether the DMK pulls out of the Congress-led UPA and breaks its 9 year old relations with the government at the Centre to keep its political interest in Tamil Nadu intact or not matters little for the UPA as it would make no impact on its health. DMK has taken this drastic step to show full solidarity with Sri Lankan Tamils to put pressure on the UPA government to adopt stringent amendment to US sponsored resolution at UNHRC against Sri Lanka. DMK’s pulling out of UPA-II is also not a matter of any significance for the nation. It is the interest of the nation that matters most. It must be kept above all domestic political considerations. DMK has pulled out of UPA government for allowing the watering down of US resolution against Sri Lanka at UNHRC and not considering its suggestion on the matter. Though the three UPA ministers had met DMK Chief and persuaded him not to pull out of the UPA a day earlier in Chennai, he saw the interest of his party in going with Elam Tamil and announced the pulling out of the UPA on Tuesday. DMK has 18 MPs in Lok Sabha. Its pulling out will make no impact on the stability of the UPA government at the Centre so long as both the archrivals SP and BSP of UP continued to support it from outside. This shows the management skill of Congress that has struck fine balance between the two arch rivals. As far as the stand of India at UNHRC on US sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka is concerned, it is for the government to tackle the issue diplomatically and not come under domestic political pressure of its ally to deal with the issue. The UPA government has already voted on UN resolution against Sri Lanka under pressure from southern Tamil political parties. It is for India to decide to decide how to handle the issue at UN. The interest of the nation must be kept above all considerations. One of the amendments that the DMK suggest is to declare that genocide and war crimes had been committed and inflicted on the Eelam Tamils by the Sri Lankan Army and the administrators. The second is establishment of a credible and independent international commission of investigation in a time bound manner into the allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and violations of international human rights law, violations of international humanitarian law and crime of genocide against the Tamils.