At least one Tamil of Sri Lanka has backbone

(October 26, Colombo - Lanka Polity) As most of the former Tamil heroes in the mainstream have gone to oblivion with the ultimate perish of ‘boys’ they themselves spoiled with too many praises, at least one Lankan Tamil has showed his strength of the backbone in a time most of the other leaders are looking for honorable surrender to the system they once identified as apartheid and going after the Tamil Nadu leaders that back the regime created their plight.

Renowned Lankan Tamil scholar Karthigesu Sivathamby, 77, emeritus professor in Jaffna university and secretary general of the International Association of Tamil Research (IATR), chosen to head the main research session in the Tamil Nadu government's World Classical Tamil Conference due to be held in June 2010, has expressed reservations about participating in the meet, as he feels the Tamils in the island nation are not satisfied with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's response to the plight of their community.

Sivathamby has written to the Thanjavur Tamil University vice chancellor M Rajendran, who is coordinator for the international event, that Tamils in his country felt that "the chief minister has not responded well enough to the Sri Lankan Tamil crisis, and that Tamils expect a favourable response from him", reported The Times of India. "I have told him that I'm in total agreement with this position. I wanted Prof Rajendran to convey this to the CM so that he can come up with a swift and suitable response," Sivathamby said, but did not elaborate on what sort of response he expected from Karunanidhi, said the The Times of India.

Karunanidhi had named Sivathamby as the head of the committee that would select papers for the main seminar, the centrepiece of the conference.