"We were supporting Eelam Tamils, had no ties with LTTE": DMK's TKS Elangovan on Sonia Gandhi's memoir

"We had no relationship with LTTE. We were supporting the Eelam Tamils. We had conducted a TESO (Tamil Eelam Supporters Organisation) conference also. We wanted the Tamils to have their own country. That's all. Because they were insulted, ill-treated, treated as second-rank citizens by the Sinhalas. It was a question of human rights, nothing more than that," he said.

Responding to Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi's account of the political dilemma she faced while allying with the DMK following former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, DMK spokesperson TKS Elangovan on Wednesday said his party had no relationship with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and was only supporting the cause of Eelam Tamils on human rights grounds. Speaking to ANI, Elangovan said the DMK had supported the demand for a separate homeland for Tamils in Sri Lanka because they were being treated as second-class citizens, but maintained that the party had not been associated with the LTTE.

"We had no relationship with LTTE. We were supporting the Eelam Tamils. We had conducted a TESO (Tamil Eelam Supporters Organisation) conference also. We wanted the Tamils to have their own country. That's all. Because they were insulted, ill-treated, treated as second-rank citizens by the Sinhalas. It was a question of human rights, nothing more than that," he said. Clarifying the distinction between supporting the cause of Eelam Tamils and the LTTE's armed struggle, Elangovan said the DMK wanted the issue to be resolved peacefully with the support of the Government of India.

"LTTE was fighting for that. But we were supporting the cause of the Eelam Tamils. When two people are supporting the same cause, and one is forcefully doing it, while the other is doing it softly, you cannot say that we were all together. The cause is similar. But we were not like Naxals or extremists. We wanted it smoothly done with the support of the Government of India," he added. On Sonia Gandhi's recollection of the Congress-DMK relationship in her memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, Elangovan said the political equations between the parties had changed over the years, depending on their respective alliances.

"That is history. AIADMK was with Congress from 1974 to 1975 after the Emergency was declared. Subsequently, they were with Congress and Congress at one point of time had to come with us. But once again, they supported AIADMK. So politically, when Congress is with AIADMK, we have to oppose. But then Sonia Gandhi supported DMK. She wanted DMK to be with them. So we had been there because they thought that DMK would be a strong force to oppose BJP. I think that was what she had expressed in her book," he said. In her memoir, Sonia Gandhi recalled the emotional dilemma she faced before reaching out to DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi to explore an alliance against the BJP, given the party's alleged association with the LTTE, which was responsible for Rajiv Gandhi's assassination.

Recalling her initial hesitation, Gandhi wrote, "With those painful memories returning to torment me, I'd ask myself, 'What should I do? If I join hands with them, won't it amount to a betrayal of Rajiv?'" However, she said she eventually considered whether Rajiv Gandhi himself would have supported the alliance if it helped strengthen the Opposition against the BJP.

"Perhaps Rajiv himself would have gone ahead with this alliance, if he knew it was necessary to strengthen our front against the BJP," she recalled thinking. Gandhi also described her nervousness before making her first telephone call to Karunanidhi to initiate a conversation on the alliance.

"My heart was in my mouth, and I was trembling when I made that first telephone call to M. Karunanidhi to initiate a conversation with the DMK," she wrote. The Congress-DMK alliance subsequently became an important component of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) after the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.

The memoir revisits several personal and politically significant episodes from Sonia Gandhi's life, including her childhood in Italy, relationship with former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, entry into the Nehru-Gandhi family and the assassinations of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. It also touches upon events such as the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, the 2002 Gujarat riots, Operation Blue Star, the Emergency and the 2004 Prime Ministerial episode.

The book has triggered a political exchange between the BJP and Congress, with BJP leaders accusing Gandhi of attempting to whitewash the historical record of the Nehru-Gandhi family, while Congress leaders have defended her right to share her personal experiences and recollections. (ANI)