Gath­ered un­der the ban­ner of Tamil na­tion­al­ist party -Naam Tamizhar Katchi in Chen­nai to com­mem­o­rate the mem­ory of Tamil na­tion­al­ist Thiru Sankar­alin­ga­nar on his 65th mar­tyr­dom day, na­tion­al­ists from across the spec­trum -Tamils, Na­gas, Sikhs and Borok peo­ples at a Sem­i­nar chal­lenged In­di­a’s uni­tary frame­work and em­pha­sized the need for pro­tect­ing and pre­serv­ing dis­tinct and unique iden­ti­ties of na­tion­al­i­ties, re­gional iden­ti­ties, in­dige­nous peo­ples and oth­ers as there is grow­ing in­tol­er­ance and fed­er­al­ism has mis­er­ably failed the pop­u­lace. WSN re­ports.

Com­mem­o­rat­ing the 65th mar­tyr­dom an­niver­sary of Thamizh stal­wart, Thiru. Sankar­alin­ga­nar, who fasted for 77 days, de­mand­ing to re­name the erst­while ‘Madras State’ as ‘Thamizh Nadu’, and later died for the just cause on 13 Oc­to­ber 1956, Naam Tami­lar Katchi cadres and hu­man rights ac­tivists paid rich flo­ral and po­etic trib­utes and vowed to con­tinue his Tamil na­tion­al­ism legacy.

Wel­com­ing the eth­nic na­tion­al­ist lead­ers from Na­ga­land, Pun­jab and Tripura, NTK leader Sen­thamizhan See­man said that this was a great op­por­tu­nity when strug­gling na­tion­al­i­ties have come to­gether and we are par­tic­u­larly glad that Naam Tami­lar Katchi has had the priv­i­lege of host­ing this plat­form. Let me say it loud and clear that the Na­gas, Sikhs and Twiprasa Borok in­dige­nous peo­ples have our sup­port and we will con­tinue to show sol­i­dar­ity with them and stand by them. 

“Thiru Sankar­alin­ga­nar did not die in vain. It was be­cause of his sac­ri­fice that Tamil Nadu got its name, even if it achieved this 12 years af­ter his demise,” said NTK chief co­or­di­na­tor See­man, pay­ing trib­utes to him.

“I am deeply con­scious of the fact that those na­tion­al­i­ties who talk about rights are dubbed as anti-na­tional and ter­ror­ists by the Con­gress and the BJP. It is very sad that Tamil par­ties pay only lip ser­vice to the cause of true fed­er­al­ist gov­er­nance,” he added. 

Adding more fod­der to the on­go­ing Dra­vid­ian-Tamil de­bate, See­man said that the Dra­vid­ian par­ties have failed to pre­serve, pro­tect and up­hold Thamizh iden­tity. 

A del­e­ga­tion of the Naga Peo­ples Move­ment for Hu­man Rights (NPMHR), es­pe­cially came to Chen­nai to share the story of the Naga peo­ple with the NTK team and lead­ers from other na­tion­al­i­ties. 

Nein­gulo Krome of the NPMHR ap­pre­ci­ated the ef­forts of the Naam Tami­lar Katchi in hold­ing this his­toric sem­i­nar, which has very well served as an op­por­tu­nity for var­i­ous na­tion­al­i­ties to ex­press their views to the au­di­ence. He said that “though the gov­ern­ment of In­dia is dilly-dal­ly­ing and is al­ways on the of­fen­sive against strug­gling na­tion­al­i­ties, I am con­fi­dent that the sol­i­dar­ity that we have forged will help us all.”  

The re­pres­sion of Na­gas dur­ing their armed strug­gle and also while po­lit­i­cal talks have re­in­forced our re­solve to evolve a so­lu­tion with­out com­pro­mis­ing Naga ho­n­our and re­spect. He was hope­ful that, “Na­gas will at­tain jus­tice as theirs is a pure-hearted strug­gle for their peo­ples.”

Does the so-called land of Gandhi ho­n­our the role and prac­tice of non-vi­o­lence? Thamizh The­siya Periyakkam gen­eral sec­re­tary Ki. Venkatara­man said “All talk of non-vi­o­lence is a bo­gey to sup­press peo­ple and per­pet­u­ate state-or­ches­trated vi­o­lence. As far as de­mands of na­tion­al­is­tic iden­ti­ties are con­cerned it to­tally dis­re­spects such lead­ers who fast for their rights. The mar­tyr­dom of Thiru Sankar­alin­ga­nar is a case in point.”  

He pointed out to the au­di­ence, “how so-called lib­eral In­dia to­tally dis­re­spected the 16-year-long fast of Ma­nipuri leader Irom Chanu Sharmila for re­mov­ing the Armed Forces Spe­cial Pow­ers Act from the statute could put any lead­er­ship and peo­ple to shame.”

Dis­cussing the fail­ure of the cur­rent fed­er­al­ism as prac­tised in the states and at the Union level, Venka­tra­man said, “We are liv­ing in dan­ger­ous times. The in­flux of un­wanted pop­u­la­tions to change de­mo­graphic dy­nam­ics will have se­ri­ous reper­cus­sions to the func­tion­ing of democ­racy in In­dia, vir­tu­ally lead­ing na­tion­al­i­ties to work for the right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion.”

Seek­ing sup­port from all strug­gling na­tion­al­i­ties, Tripura Peo­ple’s Front Pres­i­dent -Patal Kanya Ja­ma­tia, land­ing from Agar­tala, high­lighted the tri­als and tribu­la­tions of the in­dige­nous Twiprasa Borok peo­ple of Tripura, the dan­gers to their life and cul­ture, the loot of their forests and en­vi­ron­ment, the non-de­vo­lu­tion of ad­min­is­tra­tive and po­lit­i­cal power on the lo­cal pop­u­la­tion and the grave dan­ger of in­fil­tra­tion of Bangladeshi in­fil­tra­tors from across the bor­der mak­ing them sec­ond-class cit­i­zens in their own land.

She ap­prised the au­di­ence that the TPF slo­gan was “Our Land Our Right” so that they could counter the dom­i­na­tion of il­le­gal im­mi­grants. She en­dorsed the call of See­man for states to be gov­erned by sons of the soil.

Po­lit­i­cal ac­tivist-ed­i­tor Par­m­jeet Singh Gazi of Sikh Siyasat from Pun­jab re­minded the au­di­ence that the In­dian Union has not re­spected the crit­i­cal as­pi­ra­tions of eth­nic na­tion­als. They have tram­pled the rights of peo­ples and that of states, usurp­ing power for the Union. So much so that cen­tral­iza­tion of power has be­come a dis­ease that needs to be cured while suf­fer­ing pain and agony. 

Elab­o­rat­ing the phi­los­o­phy of stand­ing by with those who are at the re­ceiv­ing end of the re­pres­sion of the gov­ern­ments, Par­m­jeet Singh elab­o­rated that fol­low­ing Sikh phi­los­o­phy,  he and his as­so­ci­ates and Sikhs, in gen­eral, would also be ready to lend sup­port.  We live by the prin­ci­ple of Sar­bat da Bhalla -wel­fare for all hu­mankind. 

Young spokesper­son of the pro-free­dom Dal Khalsa party -Paramjit Singh Mand re­called how like Mar­tyr Sankar­alin­ga­nar of Thamizh Nadu, Dar­shan Singh Pheru­man also fasted till death for 74 days to up­hold the cause of Pun­jab.  He cat­e­gor­i­cally stated that while his party ap­pre­ci­ated the sta­tus of all na­tion­al­i­ties, his party Dal Khalsa was con­vinced, based on the ex­pe­ri­ence of the sin­is­ter work­ing of the In­dian state, that they will con­tinue to peace­fully work through the right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion for an in­de­pen­dent and sov­er­eign Pun­jab.

 

With a show of hands amidst slo­ga­neer­ing the res­o­lu­tion call­ing for the re­jec­tion of the uni­tary ap­proach of the Union gov­ern­ment with its heavy tilt to­wards di­vi­sive Hin­dutva. All states at all times with all their prob­lems can­not have one same so­lu­tion. “To­day’s meet is a head-on chal­lenge to the uni­tary agenda,” read the res­o­lu­tion.

Adopt­ing an­other res­o­lu­tion to im­bibe the con­tri­bu­tion of Tamil na­tion­al­ist lead­ers like mar­tyr Sankar­alin­ga­nar, Naam Tami­lar Katchi urged the Tamil Nadu state gov­ern­ment to in­stall a por­trait of Thiru Sankar­alin­ga­nar at all dis­trict of­fices of the state and every year ob­serve his re­mem­brance day on 13 Oc­to­ber and make Tamils aware of his sac­ri­fice.

Adding a touch of fi­nal­ity to the day-long de­lib­er­a­tions, Thamizh The­siya Periyakkam Pres­i­dent Pe. Mani­yarasan em­pha­sized that the one thing that unites speak­ers from Tripura, Na­ga­land, Pun­jab, and Thamizh Nadu is their sov­er­eign sta­tus and their yearn­ings and as­pi­ra­tion to pre­serve their iden­tity, cul­ture and com­mit­ment to fight for jus­tice.