Yes, Veerappan Sir

Just whose emissary is Pazha Nedumaran anyway? Setting out for the forest as part of the all-new official negotiating team that will resume talks with Veerappan, Nedumaran himself has been disarmingly open about where his sympathies lie. The crisis, he said, was the result of the government neglecting Veerappan’s "just" demands. Nedumaran has been equally forthright about his leanings in the past too. At a recent conference in Madurai, he reportedly exhorted Tamils in India to "register yourselves as Tamil nationals", and not as Indian citizens, in the ongoing Census enumeration. It is easy to understand why Veerappan asked for Nedumaran as negotiator. What with new-found friends in extremist groups like the TNLA and TNRT, the ageing criminal’s desperation to don the Tamil nationalist mantle has been showing for quite some time now. But surely the governments of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu should have known better than to capitulate to this demand too. They cannot have been unaware of the implications ofbestowing the respectability of "official emissary" status on an unabashedly pro-LTTE proponent of Tamil nationalism.

The despatch of Nedumaran along with two others with marked Tamil nationalist sympathies to the robber’s lair signals a crucial — and enormously dangerous — shift in the governments’ strategy in the kidnap drama. While it was considerations of access that dictated the choice of Nakkeeran‘s R.R. Gopal as mediator ever since the crisis began on July 30 (though questions have been raised about why Gopal has such embarrassingly easy access to Veerappan in the first place), Nedumaran and co. have been selected by Veerappan and approved by the state governments for one reason alone: their partiality to a brand of Tamil chauvinism that veers towards extremism and secessionism. By putting the official seal of approval on their mediation, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi in particular has conceded legitimacy and space to a brand of adventurist politics in his state which could well spin out of his control. It has been suggested that Team Nedumaran has been sent as a prelude to the release of thecaptives, as a facesaver for Veerappan before his climbdown. The problem with that line is too obvious to be missed. Why should the government ensure that the bandit comes away from the entire sordid affair smelling politically good?

There are other questions here as well. Even if this latest initiative yields the release of Rajkumar, and it is fervently hoped that it does, at what cost this success? As the governments of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka succumb and then succumb to Veerappan, they show no signs of asking themselves about the precedent they are setting. Is it too much to expect that even as they deal with the crisis at hand, they should also acknowledge their responsibility to the future? This query seems visibly out of place in the short-term politics that dictates state policy today. But the truth is that long after the abduction drama is over, it will return to haunt.