Rajkumar may turn out to be the Rubaiyya Sayeed of the South, even as millions sighed with relief when Veerappan released the Karnataka matinee idol after 108 days of captivity.
Many who were in the National Front in 1990 now feel that had the kidnapping of the daughter of the then Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, which marked a downturn in the Jammu and Kashmir situation, been handled differently, the story might have been different.
The analogy between Rubaiyya Sayeed and Rajkumar is not limited to kidnapping VIPs for ransom. In her case militants were released, in his case huge sums of money–and the figure being mentioned by those who should know is Rs 200 crore–were paid to the sandalwood smuggler.
The two state governments were prepared to release the TADA and NSAdetainee demanded by Veerappan but for the Supreme Court. It actually came to their rescue by ruling against it. For once politicians of all hues are singing the praise of the judiciary, instead of grumbling about its proactive tendencies.
It is an open secret that just before the release of Rajkumar, the chief ministers collected money from industrialists in the South. Many of them coughed up large sums to buy peace, aware they may be sitting targets. The chiefs of Wipro and Infosys, Azim Premji and Narayanamurthy, have alreadybeen given `Z’ security. North Block has sent the southern governments a directive to give security cover to all those who are threatened.
Payment of ransom gives new life to kidnappers as well as political criminals. The Rubaiyya affair gave an impetus to kidnappings in the Valley. The message of the Rajkumar episode is crystal clear: in a society which has been sold the get-rich-quick dream, why work, when you can become rich by simply kidnapping a VIP? Small wonder then that Bollywood star Mithun Chakravarty wants adequate state protection.
Neither Rubaiyya nor Veerappan are overnight developments. Successive governments in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka did not catch Veerappan. It is simply not possible for the forest brigand to have killed hordes of elephants, murdered dozens of people, smuggled out logs of sandalwood, and this has to be done from ports, without involving a large number of powerful people in politics, bureaucracy and the world of finance. That the emissaries knew where exactly to locate the brigand shows that they had been in regular touch with him.
Somewhere down the line, Veerappan reinvented himself, and is believed to have developed links with the LTTE. AIADMK leader Jayalalitha has publicly warned that a safe passage to Sri Lanka may be one of the unstated demands of Veerappan. His association with the TNLA and TNRT, which have sympathies for the Tamil Tigers, is known. What Veerappan does with the huge sums of money he gets–his family lives very simply–is a question that remains unanswered.
Undoubtedly, opinion in Tamil Nadu today is not for a separate state as it was in the Kashmir Valley ten years ago. The geopolitical context of the two states is also very different. Tamil Nadu is not afflicted with a communal divide as is J&K, whose contiguity with an Islamic Pakistan has complicated the whole problem. Had Kashmir been located anywhere else in India, it might have been resolved by now.
But Tamil Nadu is near enough Sri Lanka. A greater Tamil Eelam may not fire the imagination of the Tamils in Tamil Nadu, but it is the goal of the Tamil Tigers. They are in a position to fish in the troubled waters of Tamil Nadu at any time when things go wrong. Ethnicity can be an emotive issue, though much is made of the differences that exist between the Tamils on both sides of the Palk Straits.
When MDMK leader Vaiko’s daughter got married recently, Pirbhakaran’s parents, Vellupillais, were given a pride of place on the podium besides central ministers who attended the wedding. One of Vaiko’s grandsons is named Pirbhakaran, an icon for many in Tamil Nadu.
Just as the militants had penetrated the power structure in Kashmir ten years ago, the LTTE has links across many parties in Tamil Nadu. Few Tamil Nadu politicians today would publicly take on the LTTE.
Chandrababu Naidu gave a voice to the South’s discontent by taking exception to the recommendations of the Eleventh Finance Commission.There is less inequality in the southern states than in the North where, comparatively, wealth is concentrated in fewer hands.
The Rajkumar affair is a pointer to the weakening of the Indian state, and that is the most worrying aspect of it. The more the state weakens, the more will other forces take over. That was the lesson of Rubaiyya Sayeed. And doubly so of Rajkumar.
The Rajkumar and the Rubaiyya incidents point to the weakening of the Indian state