On 19 May, the Eelam battle for Tamil homeland came to an end. Reminiscing the day, WSN columnist Prabhdial Singh Saini reflects on the role of the Indian Peace Keeping Forces sent to Sri Lanka by then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and how Sikh soldiers were used as cannon fodder. 

In the middle of the Tamil Eelam conflict with Sri Lanka, Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi sent the Indian Army to Sri Lanka under the garb of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF). It was a move by Rajiv Gandhi, without even taking his cabinet into confidence as exposed by then Foreign Minister K. Natwar Singh and even bypassing his advisors.  Troops were sent without preparation whatsoever only to provide maximum logistical assistance and back up to the Sri Lankan Army in its campaign of annihilation of Tamil Tigers.

Instead of helping the Tamil people’s struggle in Sri Lanka for their homeland, he chose to send the euphemistically-called Indian Peace Keeping Forces, though he pretended and portrayed to have links with Prabhakaran and his leadership.

The Tamil Tigers were fighting a war against Sri Lanka for their homeland over which they had a legitimate historical right and also to defeat the genocidal acts of the Sinhalese-led government of Sri Lanka against ethnic Tamils.

At that point of time, MG Ramchandran, -the CM of Tamil Nadu, was sympathetic with Tamil Tigers’ struggle against Sri Lanka. Knowing this, Rajiv Gandhi overstepped the state government of Tamil Nadu.

The Tamil Tigers and their Supremo Prabhakaran were no less brave than the Sikhs. It is widely believed that till the geopolitical situation turned the tide against the Tamil Tigers, Mossad -the secret service of Israel was assisting Eelam Tamils and that is why they were able to consolidate their hold and wage a relentless war against the Sri Lankan army for more than a decade.

K. Natwar Singh, in his memoirs, has said that India lost 15,000 soldiers for an unwanted and unnecessary intervention by Rajiv Gandhi. Sadly, most of them were Sikhs. It will not be wrong to say that Sikhs were used as cannon fodder by India, perhaps to pit one martial race against another and to also score his personal vendetta against the Sikhs, as most of the IPKF comprised Sikh battalions.

As Tamil casualties mounted, Rajiv Gandhi emerged as a symbol of state terrorism of Sri Lanka and India combined together and paid the price with his life.  Prior to the highly amateurish ‘excursion’ to Jaffna, Rajiv Gandhi and his close coterie of Arun Nehru, Arun Singh, HKL Bhagat, Kamal Nath, Sajjan Kumar and others were confirmed perpetrators of a pogrom against Sikhs in November 1984.