Blog: Why the Congress may not find partners in Tamil Nadu

Chennai: The Congress party might find it difficult to get a political partner in Tamil Nadu after the UPA's failure to toughen a resolution moved by the US against Sri Lanka at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and its perceived role in watering it down to placate the neighbouring country.

Right now, the national party is seen as a liability in the state and no political party will want to align with it to fight the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

In Tamil Nadu, the Congress is being accused of negating public and political sentiment by failing to ensure any of the three demands that parties and civil groups had made - to term the killing of Lankan Tamils a genocide, to seek an independent international probe into allegations of genocide and rights violations and to call for a referendum in Tamil-dominated areas of Sri Lanka. The UPA, says angry protestors, only diluted the US resolution further - the phrase "seeking international probe" was removed and Sri Lanka was asked to investigate itself.

The UPA's perceived indifference amid reports of ongoing, post-war atrocities against Lankan Tamils is serving to further isolate the party in the state. In 2009, when Sri Lanka waged its final war against the Tamil Tigers, India defied public sentiment to supply radars and sent defence personnel. A UN appointed committee estimated that more than one lakh Tamil civilians could have been killed in that phase. In general elections that year, pro-Tamil groups ensured that eight of the 15 Congress leaders who contested, lost. Even a heavyweight like P Chidambaram, the country's finance minister, won with a wafer thin margin, one that has been challenged in court.

In the 2014 elections, the Congress could face more heat. Both the DMK and AIADMK, which had not long ago offered an olive branch to the ruling party, look at it as a blood-stained party right now and leaders here say it will be suicidal to ally with it. A few senior Congress leaders in Tamil Nadu might even be forced to consider contesting away from home.

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Even the more minor players like Vijaykanth's DMDK, which fell out with J Jayalalithaa, is now having second thoughts on shaking hands with the Congress. The DMK is trying to woo Vijaykanth.

The Congress last ruled Tamil Nadu in 1967. Since then, it has only run piggyback, a bride's maid to either of the two main Dravidian parties - the the DMK and AIADMK. The UNHRC resolution on Sri Lanka was a good opportunity for the party to attempt a political comeback. That opportunity and more has been lost now.

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The ruling party will come against more than just political boycott in the state. Pro-Tamil protests are no longer confined to a few fringe groups. On social media students, many from the elite IITs, IT professionals and others have joined hands to underscore that though India voted against Sri Lanka in Geneva, the resolution adopted by the UNHRC ensured a win-win for Lanka, regardless of whether it won or lost. New photographs released by Channel 4 of Britain suggesting that the 12-year-old son of LTTE chief Prabhakaran might have been executed in custody struck a chord and triggered a fresh wave of protests.

In Tamil Nadu, many also compare the Centre's swift action in the case of the two Italian marines accused of killing two fishermen with its alleged inaction on the issue of fishermen from Tamil Nadu being harrassed by the Sri Lankan Navy. In the Kerala incident, they say, the Italian Ambassador was summoned and the Prime Minister made a strong statement in Parliament when Italy refused to send back the marines for trial. But over the last 20 years more than 500 Indian fishermen from Tamil Nadu have allegedly been killed by Sri Lankan forces, around 2000 have been injured, but there has been no action.

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