Veerappan caught…on the Net

The TNLF — the militant wing of the Tamil Nadu Liberation Army (TNLA) — sings paens to 61-year-old Koose Munnisamy Veerappan, hailing him as the Tamil Robin Hood. In fact, the one-time poacher and sandalwood smuggler, recently in the news for kidnapping Kannada matinee idol Rajkumar, has turned `Brigadier’ Veerappan for his new-found friends. Maran, the TNLA leader and the brain behind the abduction of Rajkumar, has been hailed as a “true Tamil warrior”.

And how is Veerappan the Tamil Robin Hood? The TNLF has lifted a couple of recently published articles in newspapers and e-newspapers to distort facts. That all these articles expose the TNLA’s links with the bandit in the Rajkumar kidnapping case and are merely analysis is something the TNLF has conveniently chosen to overlook.

On a worrying note, the website which is currently privy to anyone on the globe, also lists out the TNLF’s primary aim: “Secession from the Indian Union.” Their `Greater Tamil Nadu’ extends across Kerala, parts of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, Lakshwadeep and an imaginary Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka. Oops! did we forget Maldives — a great destination for tourists.

The map also boldly proclaims that it has been designed by the “research division of the TNLF”. Incidentally, the map and the idea sounds familiar. Didn’t someone once upon a time, not too long ago, propagate a similar hypothesis in the name of Dravidian nationalism, only to drop it under “good advice”. Only, the hypothesis then had talked about places inside Indian territory.

The TNLF — the map and the literature on the website reveals — “wants to ensure that it has control” over some of the major rivers in southern India, industrial towns and even the Kolar gold mines! Also, there are a lot of new names all over the place — whatever does not sound 100 per cent Tamil has been renamed. And all these names have been recklessly poached from classical Tamil literature. So what have we? Ven Nadu, Pandi Nadu, Panri Nadu, Punal Naadu, Aruva Naadu, Mal Naadu, Erumai Naadu, Pool Nadu (wrongly spelt, real name is Poozhi Nadu) and Kuddam Naadu.

While the website can be dismissed as the ravings of a mad man, it is surprising that a lot of research, most of it conveniently misinterpreted, has gone into its making. There is even a reference to the Rig Veda under the head of `Brahmin Nuclear Bomb’. And there are newsletters propagating a Dalit counter-fight to years of suppression.

A more damning article claims that the STF action plan to nab Veerappan was actually leaked to alert the brigand, who made good his escape immediately after the release of Rajkumar.

But what is more worrying is that the website propagates terrorism and carries harmful literature. “How to kill a man with bare hands”, “How to send a car to hell”, `How to grow marijuana’ etc.

Is someone in the Government watching. Sorry, surfing?