14th May 1076 – TAMIL VIOLENT POLITICS -SEPARATISM AND VIOLENCE ARE INSEPARABLE

May 14, 1976 is one of the most underreported, underestimated, underexamined dates in the political calendar of independent Sri Lanka.

It was the date on which the Tamil leadership which had gathered in Vadukoddai passed a resolution declaring war against the democratically elected state demanding a separate state.

Stitching bits and pieces of selected events from here and there, they painted their version of history which consisted of highly controversial accusations to demonize the Sinhala-state” – their terminology to stigmatize the democratically elected state as a racist entity with no space for the minorities, particularly the Tamils.

So shedding copious tears for the Tamils, the Vadukoddai Declaration of War urged the Tamil youth to take up arms and never rest until they had achieved Tamil Eelam – a political haven of the Tamils. …..

The live-and-let-live policy of the Sinhala majority did not go beyond sporadic violence of the fringe freaks against the provocative acts of the minorities. Without condoning any kind of violence, it is clear that those explosions were like the fizz of the soda bottle. Sinhala violence has always gone down almost instantly, soon after its explosion, returning the nation to peaceful co-existence.

Only the Tamil leadership decided to declare war against the Sinhala state” at Vadukoddai, creating the longest period of brutal violence. Their politics of hate leaves no room for peaceful co-existence. Vadukoddai Resolution was a recipe for separatist violence and chaos. But it was a wave of tsunamic violence that came from the volcanic sifting of the territorial plates in Vadukoddai and nowhere else.

I repeat, separatism and violence are inseparable. It is the kind of politics that can breed only hatred and not reconciliation.

H.L. D. Mahindapala

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