In connection with the assassination of Gandhi LTTE Theorist Anton Balasingham said it was a mistake. Balasingham made that statement with the knowledge of Prabhakaran. By Balasingham’s statement, LTTE may have hoped to gain goodwill with India, which had been damaged by Gandhi’s assassination. At the end of the war, LTTE changed its position regarding the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, recently the body of Shantan, who was convicted of the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, was brought to the north, and ITAK leader Shritharan paid his last respects to Shantan’s dead body, and the funeral of Shantan was held with the participation of a huge crowd. ITAK leader Shritharan and the LTTE sympathizers in the North welcomed Shantan’s body as a hero. Regarding this funeral, the Tamil diaspora websites ‘Lanka Sri News’ and ‘Tamil Win’ mentioned that India was shocked by Shantan’s funeral and it was clear from Shantan’s funeral that India could not change the opinion of the people in the North.
S. Shritharan became the leader of ITAK with the support of the Tamil diaspora loyalists. He also participated in the Tiger Hero’s commemoration Day held last November. He said in an interview given to the media that the 13th constitutional amendment is not enough and that a federal system is needed. Even when Sridtharan met the Indian High Commissioner, he got into an argument with the Indian High Commissioner accusing that India was not talking about the devolution of power.
Shritharan’s statements and Tamil Diaspora website news show that a campaign has been launched to free the North and East from Indian influence. The Tamil Tiger diaspora may be behind this. Making Shritharan the leader is a victory for the diaspora. Their next goal is to present Shritharan in the presidential election and turn the presidential election into a referendum for a separate state.
Shritharan’s victory also caused excitement in some political parties in the south. Pro-JVP political commentators said that Samagi Jana Balavegaya leader Sajith Premadasa had lost a voting block he was banking. President Ranil Wickremesinghe also congratulated Shritharan from Switzerland and last week he had phones and expressed his wish to meet Shritharan. Shritharan agreed to it. Ranil has connections with some Tamil diaspora who appointed Shritharan as the leader. Ranil may be trying to use Shritharan for his political agenda through that.
There is no doubt that Ranil is also happy due to the decrease in India’s ability to control Sritharan. Former TNA leader Sampanthan also had problems with India. Once when he met India’s former National security adviser Narayanan, he accused India of exploiting the Tamil people, but Sampanthan never angered India.
