End defunct tokenism.

It was the first match of the 1987 Reliance world cup between Australia and India and most of my fellow schoolmates were restless, having to miss that game. Some of the backbench bullies in my 11th standard class were already conniving and soon we had the guys walking out of the class and so did I - often at the end of the line. When the head master came out, the boys just would not budge in and finally he had to relent and the school closed for few days. Reason – what else, Sri Lankan Tamils. It is a different story that India lost that game in the last over, in spite of sixer siddhu’s heroics.

Late eighties, in government aided schools and colleges like mine, all we needed was a reason to get few days off and the Tamils issue used to be the noble savior to pull the shutters down. The schools and colleges would close down for few days, as the students would take to the streets protesting in support of the ethnic Tamils and against the atrocities of the Sinhalese.

For the timid few like me, at times, we would not even know the reason behind the strike till we come back home. Anyway, reason mattered less, if that gives you few additional days to play cricket or to get burnt in the sweltering heat, roaming around the streets of Madurai.

Years later, it is a sad state of affairs and for whatever reasons, the Sri Lankan issue has disappeared from the people's minds and Tamil Nadu is strangely quiet these days, over this issue. May be, people lost the heart to stand up for the LTTE after the gruesome assassination of Rajiv. But, the attention is very much required, given the human calamity that is staring at Sri Lanka right now.

The once savior of the Tamils, now with his mobility curtailed to a wheel chair, is busy shopping ministerial births for his kin. Just few months back, Kanimozhi resigned her Rajyasabha seat for the cause of the Tamils. If at all there were a reason to be a renegade, it would be more appropriate right now.

Amma and the usual suspects of the other fringe political parties, who thrived under the guise of the LTTE, have gone hiding and there is seldom any hue and cry over the death of the LTTE leader and his family. All the noises they made during the election time, appear to be a perfunctory effort or rather symbolic.

But, what worries me is this very absence of a concerted effort from the administration of either Tamil Nadu or the Centre over the ominous humanitarian catastrophe in Sri Lanka. The issue is not ideology anymore, it is more of humanitarian. According to UNHRC estimates, nearly 300,000 civilians are living in hellish conditions and the country is thoroughly ill equipped to handle a crisis of this magnitude.

Agreed, in some way the determined Sri Lankan Government helped us fight a common enemy and we diplomatically looked the other way when the Sri Lankan Government went on rampage against the LTTE and the Tamil civilians who were caught in the cross-fire.

But, the time to act is NOW. With the LTTE wiped out, why does the Government of India dither with its action plan to save the helpless people? This is the time for tokenism to be replaced with meaningful assistance, to assert our prowess as a regional leader and to show the way for the troubled neighbors.

If this new Government requires a main agenda item, it has to seriously work on the almost non-existent foreign policy priorities towards our neighbors. If you look around, from Pak to Nepal to Bangladesh to Burma to Sri Lanka, we are engulfed in deep trouble across the borders all along. This is going to leave a serious dent on our state of affairs and sooner we realize, the better.