What would  LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran say tomorrow when he addresses the Tamil people after paying homage  to the 22,000 cadres who died since the armed struggle began in 1982?

At 6.05 p.m., the exact hour the first cadre died on November 27, 1982, Prabhakaran will light the ‘Eekai Sudar’ (The Light of Self Sacrifice) and follow that up with a statement outlining his future course of action.

When he resurrected the 2000-year-old martial tradition of the Tamil people in a secret location in the Nithikaikulam jungle in the Mullaitivu district in 1989, he was under siege by the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) and was faced with the problem of dwindling cadres. He gathered around him 600 of his cadres and paid homage to the 1,307 fallen fighters killed since November 27, 1982 when Shankar died with his head on his lap at Madurai.

Addressing the cadres at that simple ceremony, Prabhakaran said: “Today is an important day in our struggle. Today we have started the Hero’s Day in order to pay homage to the 1,307 fighters who sacrificed their lives to attain our sacred objective of Tamil Eelam. We have started this for the first time. You know that many countries in the world honour their freedom fighters by remembering them. We too have decided to proclaim a day of remembrance.”

Since that austere observance and the extemporaneous statement, the maveerar ceremony had grown elaborate and the plain statement had become a policy declaration. Last year, he vowed to continue the war and argued his case for a separate Tamil state. “We are a people who boast ancient, distinct and distinguished characteristics. We possess our separate identities and have lived maintaining distinct national infrastructure. We lost our independence only when we were conquered by foreigners through war,” Prabhakaran said. He added that they took up arms because the non-violent struggle their leaders waged had failed to yield results.

He called for the support of the entire Tamil race for his struggle.  He exhorted, “I call on the 80-million Tamils to rise together and commit themselves to attain our goal of Tamil Eelam on this blessed day, the day on which we honour the valour of our heroes.”

The entire Tamil race has now emotionally risen together. What will be Prabhakaran’s next objective?  It may become clear tomorrow.

In Tamil Nadu and among the Tamils in other countries things are moving fast. In Tamil Nadu, pro-LTTE activists, Vaiko, Ramadoss, Thirumavalavan and Nedumaran, have begun their effort to turn the Tamil emotional upsurge into LTTE support.  Vaiko and Nedumaran are leading that campaign. Vaiko, in a hard hitting statement, dubbed Sri Lanka’s rejection of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly’s resolution calling for a ceasefire as a slap in the face of the 1000 million people of India. He had also said that Manmohan Singh’s Government is unable to pressurize President Mahinda Rajapaksa because it was behind his war policy.

Nedumaran has unleashed a severe attack on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi. He accused him of bolstering the Manmohan Singh regime at the cost of Tamil interests. They had managed to push Karunanidhi into a tight corner.

On Sunday, Karunanidhi gave vent to his frustration in his acceptance speech at the function where San Thome Literary Society, a prestigious Roman Catholic literary organisation, presented him with its Achievers Award. He said that he would consider the achievement of peaceful life for Sri Lankan Tamils as his greatest and last achievement.

He expressed his frustration in these words: “We see before us a race being destroyed. Which race? The race that once ruled that country.  We see the people of the race being destroyed in the country which Raja Raja Cholan conquered and ruled.” Then he highlighted his frustration thus: “We are placed in a pitiful state. We are placed in a state that we are unable to help them.  We are in the plight that we are unable to stretch our hand to help them.  This situation should change. It should be changed. Tamils in Tamil Nadu and the Tamils worldwide should demand in unison that change.”

Ramadoss acted quickly. He met Karunanidhi and worked on his frustration. That resulted in the summoning of the All Party Leaders’ Meeting which was going on when this column was written yesterday morning. It was considering the next step it should take to pressurize Delhi into action. Meanwhile, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has entered the fray. Its Tamil Nadu branch chief Ila Ganeshan issued a statement last week promising the Tamils the party’s support and vowing to solve the Sri Lankan Tamil problem within six months if it was elected to power. He said that promise would be included in the BJP election manifesto. With Kilinochchi under siege, Prabhakaran is bound to exploit this development. What will Prabhakaran say to the Tamil people whom he addresses endearingly as “My people”?