This information from KP is a significant addition to our stock of knowledge in suggesting that the currents of Dravidian ideology as espoused by Periya and others influenced Baby Subramanium and Pirapāharan [former name is my insertion] influenced the LTTE decision to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi. However, this facet must be placed alongside the several other factors that induced the LTTE leadership to embark on this course, a monumental error as it turned out to be. Among the factors a central one would have been the manner in which the Indian government twisted the LTTE’s arm, metaphorically speaking, to induce them to accept the Indo-Lanka Accord. This process involved the forcible ‘incarceration’ of Pirapāharan at the Ashok Hotel in Delhi. In my surmise there would have been another factor arising from within this process: namely, the manner in which the tall, cosmopolitan and patrician persona of Rajiv Gandhi treated the short, stocky figure named “Prabhākaran” who would have been — in Gandhi’s eyes – a ‘rustic outlaw’ from the backwoods. With the Indian general elections looming from late 1990 the LTTE looked on the imminent return of the congress Party to power with some alarm. They tried to test the waters by sending Arjuna Sittampalam and Kāsi Ānandan on separate missions to meet Gandhi and others in the Congress hierarchy. The reports thy submitted are not known to me, but we know in retrospect that they did not alter the distaste for Gandhi and the Congress Party in Pirapāharan’s mind. Michael Roberts. For fuller information, see “Killing Rajiv Gandi: Sacrificial metamorphosis in Death” within this site or in the journal South Asian History and Culture, January 2010, 1: 25-41.
Dhanu & Sivarasan wait for the kill
Dhanu appraoches Gandhi
Dhanu’s head after the blast .. now a maaveerar
Baby Subramanium ka V Ilankumaran
Influenced by DMK ideology, LTTE killed Rajiv –Q and A with KP
VK Shashikumar, from THL Mediagrove, 23 May 2011
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’s (LTTE) former international arms procurer and V Prabhakaran’s right hand man, Kumaran Pathmanathan, has revealed the reason behind former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. Kumaran Pathmanathan spoke exclusively to VK Shashikumar of THL-Mediagrove. Prabhakaran was deeply influenced by DMK ideology and the party’s anti-Brahmin outlook may have driven the Tamil Tiger supremo to kill Rajiv Gandhi, said Kumaran Pathmanathan. He said that he wants to apologise for killing Rajiv Gandhi but added that if the LTTE had a chance they would have killed AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa.
Transcript of the interview:
VK Shashikumar: Can you tell us once and for all, did Prabhakaran planned Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination?
Kumaran Patmanathan: It was well planned and done by Prabhakaran. It is the truth and everybody knows it. At this point I what to say to the Indian people and specially to the Gandhi family, I want to apologise for Prabhakaran mistake. I say please forgive us, we beg you, our people are struggling here, please help us to live as humans. Sorry for all this. We know the feeling of the son of Rajiv Gandhi and that his daughter. It’s a human nature. It is bonding with father and daughter attachment. Even sometime I left my daughter I feel very sad they know. You know the family sentiment.VK Shashikumar: you were a senior member of LTTE. You know the truth. Isn’t it a fact that several politician and political parties did support and push Tamil people into violence?
Kumaran Patmanathan: Actually you know still in Tamil Nadu, Periyar wanted Dravida Nadu meaning he wanted Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra separated from the north. This is the propaganda and he started the organisation. From this Dravidian politics emerged Annadurai and Karunanidhi. This ideology failed its course. This idea they passed to Prabhakaran. They influenced him with anti-Brahmin ideas. That’s why he made all those blunders like that against Rajiv Gandhi. They (Tamil politician) have lost their course and then moved on to use Prabhakaran to achieve their goals.
VK Shashikumar: Are you saying DMK ideologically influenced Prabhakaran to take the step of Rajiv Gandhi assassination?
Kumaran Patmanathan: This one I can’t say. But they fed him with some kind of influence against Brahmins. This maybe one of the reasons. That’s why he hated the Prime Minister of India.
VK Shashikumar: What about the DMK? How did they supported the LTTE?
Kumaran Patmanathan: Vaiko was a part of DMK earlier. Some DMK MPs and MLAs are very close with us. You know Karunanidhi is a senior politician but he also used the LTTE card time to time.
VK Shashikumar: What about Jayalalithaa? Was she or wasn’t she in the hit list of LTTE?
Kumaran Patmanathan: She always felt so. Also if LTTE got a chance they would have tried because she was always against LTTE.
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LTTE Leader Apologizes to India for Rajiv’s Killing
from Outllook India,http://news.outlookindia.com/item.aspx?722912
A top LTTE leader Kumaran Pathmanathan has apologised to India for V Prabhakaran’s “mistake” of killing former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. He said Rajiv’s assassination was “well planned and done actually with Prabhakaran and (LTTE intelligence chief Pottu Amman). Everyone knows the truth”. In an interview to CNN-IBN Firstpost, Pathmanathan, who was Treasurer of LTTE and its chief arms procurer, said, “I want to say to the Indian people and especially to the Gandhi family…I want to apologise for Prabhakaran’s mistake. Please forgive us. We beg you….Sorry for all this. We know the feelings of the son (Rahul) of Rajiv Gandhi….How father and daughter are attached (reference to Rajiv’s daughter Priyanka)”.
It is right on the part of the LTTE leader to ask apology. Periyar and Karunanidhi carried on their mission of upliftment of the Tamils in nonviolent means . Rajiv was more a nonBrahmin than Brahmin. KP has raised the fundamental issue of conflict between the Aryan Vs.Dravidian. Rajiv was advised by Brahman bureacrats who suppoted Aryan Rajapaksa.