Though tagged as LTTE admirer, Karunanidhi may fall prey to Tigers

The Centre had forwarded to the then Jayalalitha government information from the Intelligence Bureau that LTTE had planned to eliminate Karunanidhi as the Tigers felt that he was not useful to them and wanted the then DMK MP V Gopalsamy (now MDMK general secretary) to take over the DMK and provide the outlawed outfit assistance in Tamil Nadu.

It is ironic that barring a brief period in 1989 and 1990 when the LTTE moved closer to CM Karunanidhi, the DMK chief never got along with the militant organisation.

However, the problem for Karunanidhi is that it was after the two-year link that the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi took place.

In the early eighties, the focus shifted to militant groups, prominent among them being the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation, which was backed by the Indian government as the late prime minister Indira Gandhi was keen to cut J R Jayewardene down to size.

Although most of the groups moved to Tamil Nadu for safety after the 1983 riots in Sri Lanka, Prabhakaran enjoyed considerable clout due to his proximity with MGR and the AIADMK government. The PLOTE suffered casualties as did the TELO.

In Tamil Nadu, the alignment was clear – MGR backed Prabhakaran and Karunanidhi backed Saba, as Sabaratnam was called. The LTTE did not care much for the DMK stalwart.

LTTE carried out a decisive attack against TELO, and Saba and his men were encircled. Karunanidhi made an impassioned plea to Prabhakaran to spare the life of Saba but the Tigers chief ignored it and the TELO leader was killed.The incident shook Karunanidhi, who vowed not to take up the Sri Lankan Tamil issue any more.t was only after MGR’s death in 1987 and the DMK’s return to power in 1989 that the LTTE established its links with Karunanidhi. The then prime ministers Rajiv Gandhi and V P Singh also wanted Karunanidhi to hold talks with the militant groups including the LTTE and get them to support the Indo-Sri Lanka accord. A man, who for most part of his life was identified as an LTTE-hater, is now seen as its closest ally, thanks to his two-year intense affair with the militant outfit. It is obvious, whether or not Karunanidhi loved the LTTE in the manner Jain Commission perceived, the LTTE did not reciprocate any such love. True to its own known trait to betray all those who helped it even once, it betrayed Karunanidhi also and planned to eliminate him, perhaps by the very guns he allowed them to carry when he was the CM. To his political opponents he is an LTTE admirer, but to the LTTE he is a possible victim.