Tamil aspirations and the
13th Amendment: Part 1

I recall an interview I had with S.J.V. Chelvanayakam, founder of the Federal Party and later Tamil United Liberation Front, on February 21, 1977 when he returned home after the conference of Tamil and Muslim MPs Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike held.  He looked pleased.
“Has the Prime Minister accepted any of your demands?” I asked.
“No” he said and added that the meeting had identified the grievances of the Tamil and Muslim people. The meeting identified the following grievances:
*. Use of the Tamil language
*University admissions
*Unemployment
*Problems faced by Tamil public
servants.
* Decentralised administration, and
* Problems faced by Tamils of Indian origin in the plantation sector.
Chelvanayakam said, “The Sinhalese have been telling the world all these years that the Tamils are a privileged community, and they are fighting to preserve that. From now they cannot say that.”
Chelvanayakam died on April 5, 1977 and Amirthalingam succeeded him. He, M. Sivasithamparam and S. Kathirvethapillai had a secret meeting with J.R. Jayewardene, UNP leader in June at CWC leader S. Thondaman’s flat. They identified the following grievances:
*Education,
*Colonisation,
*Use of Tamil language,
*Employment in the public and semi-public corporations.
The UNP incorporated them in its election manifesto. LSSP and the Communist Party also promised to redress Tamil grievances.
The UNP swept the election in the south with 138 seats in the 165-member parliament and the TULF the northeast with 18 seats, SLFP was reduced to eight seats and left parties were wiped out. The UNP obtained the mandate to preserve the unitary structure of the state and the TULF mandate for separate state.
Though the TULF obtained the mandate to establish a separate state, it decided to work with the Jayewardene government to find solutions to the problems of the Tamil people. It accepted the post of the Leader of the Opposition in 1977, and undertook to administer the District Development Councils scheme Jayewardene offered in 1981, a weak alternative to separate state. Youths mocked, calling the DDCs “glorified municipal councils.”
The TULF also attended the monthly meetings of the High Level Committee Jayewardene set up in August 1981to find solutions to the problems of the Tamil people. Problems were identified and solutions worked out at those meetings but they were not implemented.

Frustrated
The TULF was frustrated by the beginning of 1983.  Amirthalingam wrote to Jayewardene listing ten matters which the government had not implemented and the first item was: District Development Councils. Nothing was done to make them effective, as agreed, powers mentioned in the law were not devolved and funds not made available.
The people were disenchanted and militancy grew. Yet the militant organisations – LTTE, TELO, RROS, PLOTE and EPRLF- had less than 200 cadres.
The series of riots- 1977 August, 1979, 1981 and finally 1983 July- changed the situation. India entered the picture.  Angry boys and girls uprooted from their homes and with hurt pride flocked to India for arms training.  From 1984 TULF played a leading role in negotiating with the Jayewardene government, and after President Jayewardene abandoned that effort in December 1984, India played a direct role though the TULF leaders Amirthalingam, Sivasithampapram and Sampanthan did the talking.
The framework for the Provincial Councils emerged during the talks spread over 1985 and 1986. And during that time India’s national security concerns grew. Jayewardene’s decision to get arms from Pakistan and China, and the closer ties he forged with the United States disturbed India and the Soviet Union. As that was the cold war era and India was firmly linked to Russia, the moves by the United States to bring the Trincomalee harbour under its influence upset India.
The rush of Rajiv Gandhi to sign an agreement with Jayewardene was motivated by India’s (and Soviet Union’s) foreign policy needs, rather than its desire to settle the Tamil problem. It is reflected in the Annexure to Indo- Sri Lanka Agreement of July 29, 1987.
Rajiv Gandhi’s letter to Jayewardene which forms part of the agreement, sets out India’s concerns : prevention of employment of foreign military and intelligence personnel, prevention of  Trincomalee or any other ports being made available for military use by any country in a manner prejudicial to India’s interest, restoring and operating of oil tanks in Trincomalee as a joint venture between India and Sri Lanka, and reviewing of Sri Lanka’s agreement with foreign broadcasting organisations.
In its hurry to sign the agreement India airlifted Pirapaharan to Delhi and tried to persuade him to accept it.  When he refused he was kept in confinement at Ashok Hotel. The draft agreement was shown to Amirthalingam and Sivasithamparam the day before the signing, July 28. In a letter sent to him on that day itself they raised eight objections including the holding of referendum to decide on  prolonging the merger of the north and east, and about the army camps in the north and east.
After studying the Provincial Councils Bill and the 13th Amendment bill,  Amirthalingam , Sivasithamparam and Sampanthan wrote on October 28, 1987 expressing their disappointment. In that letter they said, “These proposals do not meet the aspirations of the Tamil people, nor are they in any way commensurate with the loss of life, sufferings and privations suffered by the Tamil people.”
They also complained the TULF or representatives of India were not involved in the preparation of the bills. The TULF leaders pointed out under seven headings, the defects in the bills and accused the government of diluting the agreement reached during the drawn out negotiations.
The letter concluded: “The TULF regrets that it cannot recommend the contents of these bills to the Tamil people as being satisfactory, just and durable.”
Tamils have formulated their aspiration at Thimpu in 1985.  They were:
*Recognition of the Tamils of Sri Lanka as a distinct nationality.
*Recognition of an identified homeland,’
*Recognition of the inalienable right of self-determination of the Tamil nation.
*Recognition to the right of full citizenship and other fundamental democratic rights of all Tamils.
In brief, the Tamils asked for space where they could live preserving their identity and live as a people. Though they had opted for separation Tamil political leaders, Chelvanayakam and Amirthalingam had accepted less and worked under a unitary constitution. This, indeed, must be the way forward.