Click to play videoChennai: Lakhs of refugees are streaming out of the war zone in Sri Lanka as the Sri Lankan army pounds the LTTE fighters.
Thousands more are still trapped and reportedly starving as a 20-year-old war strains towards a bloody finish.
The Lankan army claims it has liberated Valayardaman which is just six kilometers away from the last frontier of the LTTE.
As guns blaze in Sri Lanka, the reverberations are felt in India, especially in Tamil Nadu. The Sri Lankan conflict has become a huge issue for political parties in Tamil Nadu.
All regional parties are now positioning themselves on the cause of Tamil Eelam, in the hope of improving their electoral prospects.
PMK founder S Ramadoss has supported AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa in her call for a separate Tamil state, which they say is the only political solution to the Lankan problem.
“Rahul Gandhi said in Kolkata that the Tamil crisis is very simple. Congress thinks that lakhs of Tamils being killed in Sri Lanka is very simple. What is Karunanidhi going to say about this?” asked PMK founder S Ramadoss publicly.
The BJP, never known to support the Tamil cause, has been quick to criticise what it calls the passive stand of the UPA government.
“Without supporting the Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka, I think the time has come when the government of India must make its intentions very clear to the government of Sri Lanka,” said senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha.
The Congress has reasons to believe that it has badly burnt its hands after sending Indian troops into Sri Lanka. It is widely believed that the action by the Indian government eventually led to the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Understandably, the Congress does not want to repeat the mistake.
“No sovereign country like India can interfere into the sovereign affairs of a sovereign country like Sri Lanka,” said Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
In fact, political compulsion in the middle of the elections is driving each regional party to go one step ahead of the other, in expressing their loyalty to the Tamil cause.
However, veteran political commentator Cho Ramaswamy says this will not yield any political dividends.
“I don’t think it is going to work because people are not going to vote on this issue,” Cho said.
But there is no denying the Lankan crisis has become a political issue. Every party in Tamil Nadu, irrespective of their divisions, makes no secret of their love for the Tamil Eelam.
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter and Google+)
displayed with permission. Use of the CNN name and/or logo on or as part of CNN-IBN does not derogate from the intellectual property rights of Cable News Network in respect of them.