Vaiko appeal to Jaya on death sentence to 3 in Rajiv case

MDMK leader Vaiko today requested Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to take efforts for cancelling the death sentence awarded to three convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assasination case.

Velupillai lives in our heart: Vaiko

CHENNAI: In his characteristic poetic Tamil, MDMK general secretary Vaiko paid rich tributes to Thiruvengadam Velupillai, father of slain LTTE chief V Prabhakaran, on Sunday and said his name would adorn for ever the history of sacrifice of Eelam Tamils.


Vaiko delivered his obituary speech through phone from Chennai and it was broadcast through loudspeakers in Valvettithurai, the hometown of Vellupillais in Sri Lanka, where Prabhakaran’s father was cremated on Sunday.

Vaiko said Velupillai was an epitome of virtue, an honest and upright gentleman, who came from a cultured family, which gave Valvettithurai its Siva temple.

Reminiscing the visits of Velupillais to his house, he said the couple was made for each other and added that it was they who had christened his grandson as Prabhakaran.

“Velupillai never took help from anyone and lived as a paragon of self-esteem and dignity,” the MDMK chief said.

Asking why the Velupillais were put in a camp, he sought to know the medical treatment that was given to them and offered to take care of Prabhakaran’s mother Parvathi Ammal by bringing her to his house in Chennai.

The Lankan government should send Prabhakaran’s mother to India, he added.

“My heart goes out to the bereaved family,” Vaiko said and emphasised that Tamils worldwide would always cherish the memory of Velupillai.

“Though his body would be consigned to flames, he would live in our hearts for ever,” he said.

Seeking to comfort Eelam Tamils by saying that the people of Tamil Nadu would stand by them, he reiterated that “Prabhakaran lived in people’s hearts and in the world” and that he would come one day to lead from the front. “Long live the glory of Thiruvengadam Velupillai, I pay my tearful homage on behalf of the people of Tamil Nadu.”

Vaiko bats for referendum on Eelam

MDMK leader and LTTE supporter Vaiko on Friday hurled another political bombshell saying parties sympathetic to the Sri Lankan Tamils cause will build a campaign for a ''referendum'' on the Tamil Eelam issue in Tamil Nadu, on the lines of European countries.


Despite the Tamil Tigers’ military defeat at the hands of the Rajapakshe regime, he said the latter would be “living in a fool’s paradise” if it thought that the resettlement of the “internally displaced persons” from camps in northern Sri Lanka would give quietus to the Tamil Eelam issue.

Vaiko, addressing a press conference here on Friday, said the history of the ethnic struggle in the Island-Republic clearly showed that “formation of a sovereign independent Tamil nation” was the “Magna Carta” for the Tamils of the Island. But the Government of India also sought to reduce it to resettlement of the war-torn Tamil refugees there, he noted.
Referring to “referendums” by the Tamil diaspora in various European countries overwhelmingly backing the creation of a Tamil Eelam as the final solution to the ethnic problem, Vaiko surprisingly added, “when time is ripe, in Tamil Nadu also we will hold a referendum” on this issue.

There could be no time-frame for this, but when such a referendum is held in Tamil Nadu, “I believe a majority here will also back formation of a Tamil Eelam,” Vaiko said, taking several questions on this issue. In his view this issue “is not dead”, even as he reiterated that LTTE chief Prabhakaran “is still alive.”

Condemning the DMK rule for not permitting Sri Lankan MP Sivajilingam to participate in a conference recently in Tamil Nadu, Vaiko said at the other extreme, the Centre rolling out the red carpet for Sri Lankan President Rajapakshe at the Lord Venkateshwara Temple in Tirumala recently, was “an unpardonable betrayal of the Tamils cause.”

Mullaperiyar case: Kerala taking a 'misleading' stand, says Vaiko

Chennai: Accusing the Kerala government of taking a "misleading" stand that the inter-state Mullaperiyar dam was weak, Marumalarchi DMK (MDMK) leader Vaiko today said an economic blockade by Tamil Nadu was ''inevitable'' if the government in the neighbouring state, did not ''change its ways.''"We have nothing against the people of Kerala. But we want to tell them that the government is misleading them, saying that the dam is weak and is likely to collapse, killing lot of people. They even circulated CDs with computer-generated graphics for this purpose," Vaiko told reporters here.

He said most of the farmers in five districts of Tamil Nadu would be affected if a new dam came up as "Tamil Nadu would be denied water". The state had lost a bulk of its share of water, following Kerala's refusal to increase the storage level to 142 ft, despite the supreme court order, which it had tried to circumvent by an Act, he said.

"The dam is strong, and it was on this basis that the supreme court allowed Tamil Nadu to increase storage level from 136 to 142 ft," he said, charging chief minister M Karunanidhi-led DMK government with failing to implement the court order.

Both, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, are at loggerheads over constructing a new dam across the inter-state Mullaperiyar river.

Vaiko also said the ''struggle'' by the Sri Lankan Tamils for a separate homeland was not over with the elimination of the LTTE, as Tamils and Sinhalese "cannot co-exist."

He said the concept of a separate Ealam was propounded even before the "armed struggle"(of the LTTE) started.