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The Rediff Interview/L Ganesan

'Every party can air its opinion'

The general secretary of the Tamil Nadu unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party is in a fix. Two National Democratic Alliance partners are taking a different stand from the Centre. Even though he is unhappy with the way the MDMK and the PMK are rooting for a separate Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka, L Ganesan tells Shobha Warrier that in a democracy, every party has the right to air its opinion. With the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (I) and a partner of the NDA, the TRC seeking a ban on the MDMK and PMK, the state unit of the BJP has to answer several embarrassing questions. Excerpts from the interview:

The Centre has banned the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, but two NDA partners are supporting it and also propagating a separate Tamil Eelam. Are they not antagonising the Centre?

The NDA government has extended the ban on the LTTE by two years. The decision was taken by the cabinet, and MDMK and PMK ministers are party to it. They supported the move. The NDA government feels that it is not going to support the LTTE and Sri Lankan government. We are interested only in safeguarding the interests of Tamils.

All partners are one with the government on the issue. The United States and United Nations also support our stand. The major national opposition party, the Congress, supports Prime Minister A B Vajpayee. The Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India-Marxists have also supported the government. The Tamil Maanila Congress has supported the prime minister. We expected a different reaction from the AIADMK, but J Jayalalitha also has supported it.

All major parties are supporting the Centre, except your partners

The MDMK and PMK support the government. When the government sanctioned Rs 460 crore to Sri Lanka on humanitarian grounds, Vaiko had apprehensions. After he met the prime minister, he agreed Vajpayee was right. Immediately after M Karunanidhi advocated the Czech model, the prime minister called the DMK representative to the defence council and Maran said that he supported the government. Vajpayee is capable of getting support from all quarters.

NDA partners have not expressed anything against the government. Even today, Vaiko and Ramdoss support him. There are two considerations; one is the government and the other the party. Parties, which have come together as the NDA, have their own agenda too. Outside the government, every party has the right to express its views.

It is known that the MDMK and PMK are supporters of Eelam and the LTTE and they are committed to those causes. So far, no cabinet minister has spoken anything against the government. But as party leaders, Vaiko and Ramdoss are expressing their party views.

Is it right to talk in a different voice when they are partners of the government?

Yes, it would have been better if they expressed the government's view. But there is nothing wrong in expressing a different view, because they are running political parties and their political parties are committed to a cause. They are not exerting pressure on the government to do anything.

Why is the prime minister not asking them to keep quiet?

It definitely gives the impression that the NDA government is not thinking as one. It would have been better if the PMK and MDMK stopped talking about a Tamil Eelam. But we cannot ask them to keep quiet as they are committed to the issue. We are not bothered about it.

You have to divide the period into two; before the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. Before the assassination, everybody felt that by helping the LTTE, we were helping the Tamil cause. Even the central and state governments were helping the LTTE. People, the press, almost everybody felt that the LTTE was the only saviour of Tamils in Sri Lanka. In those days, Cho Ramaswamy, the BJP and the Dina Malar were the exceptions.

After the assassination, those supporting the LTTE became the exceptions. I may differ with Rajiv Gandhi but he was my prime minister. I cannot tolerate an outside organisation killing my prime minister. No patriotic citizen will tolerate that. Today, the people of Tamil Nadu do not support the LTTE.

If that is so, why are Vaiko and Ramdoss taking such a big risk?

When there are no takers for the cause of the LTTE, it is quite natural that parties like the PMK and MDMK had to go to the people to try and regain lost ground. And, now they want to make the people believe that it is a good cause. But I do not have to propagate my views because people in general have rejected the LTTE.

LTTE supporters have become exceptions and are few.

The general impression is that Vajpayee is soft on these two parties because he doesn't want anything to happen to his government

Vajpayee is known for accommodating people. That is his speciality. He is not known for confrontation. Vaiko had doubts when the government decided to give aid to the Sri Lankan government. Immediately, Atalji convinced him. A problem will arise only when they oppose the government.

You are party general secretary of the BJP's Tamil Nadu unit. Are you happy with the manner in which the MDMK and PMK are behaving?

I am not bothered because people are not going to accept their views.

So, you are not unhappy.

I am not unhappy. But I will be happy if they change their views. Because we differ on certain issues, we are maintaining our identity in the NDA. Even we at the BJP had different opinions on issues like Ram Janmabhoomi, the uniform civil code and Article 370. Of course, as a disciplined political party, we decided in our Chennai declaration not to speak about those issues.

Now, the MDMK is planning a convention at Erode and L K Advani will participate in it. If Vaiko talks in support of the LTTE and a separate Tamil Eelam, what will Advani do?

Advani ji is a very seasoned leader and he will manage any situation.

Are there posters hailing Vaiko as the Prabhakaran of Tamil Nadu?

It is known that the MDMK is supporting the LTTE and Tamil Eelam. Let the people decide later.

I may not agree with various political parties but in a democracy everybody has got the right to express their views.

In Kashmir, the assembly passed a resolution calling for autonomy. Karunanidhi also spoke in favour of autonomy for states. What will the BJP do about it?

Even at the cost of losing power, we will not grant autonomy to Kashmir. We will not give Kashmir its pre-1953 position because Dr Shyam Parsed Mukherji gave his life to save Kashmir.

Karunanidhi was right. There is a difference between autonomy and special rights that Kashmir is demanding. Even when Vaiko convened a meeting at Kacheepuram, it was called the State Autonomy Conference. Advani ji was invited but I had apprehensions about the caption given to the conference. In fact, I discussed this with Vaiko. I told Advaniji about the caption, but he said he would explain his opinion at the conference. He came there. Karunanidhi was there. Ramdoss was there. Advaniji spoke about the BJP view from the Jan Sangh days on state autonomy. Advaniji said, "We want strong states for a strong Centre." Everybody appreciated the view.

State autonomy has been misunderstood by some. State autonomy is not seceding from the country. We will not allow that. We will not allow an inch of land to go. We are for strong states. But Farooq Abdullah's demand is entirely different. He wants his own rajya there. We will not allow that.

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