Thiruvengadam Velupillai, LTTE leader Prabhakaran's father passes away
by D.B.S. Jeyaraj
LTTE leader Prabhakaran's father Thiruvengadam Velupillai has passed away. He and his wife were being held under "special" military custody
Thiruvengadam Velupillai
Mr. Velupillai who was 86 years old was housed in a chalet within the Panagoda Army cantonment. Authorities say it was for his own protecton
Mr.Velupillai was attended to by Colombo national hospital doctors frequently as his health had been deteriorating under protective custody
Mr. Velupillai an octogenarian was a former govt servant who retired as district lands officer when Gamini Dissanayake was Lands minister
Mr.Velupillai hailed from the reputed "Thirumeni" family in Valvettithurai. The family holds hereditary trusteeship of VVT Sivan temple
He was a peaceful, highly respected man described by VVT residents as someone who treaded so softly that grass too would not be crushed
Mr. Velupillai disapproved of violence and was estranged from Prabhakaran whom he regarded as the black sheep of the family
However the parents who lived in India for years reconciled with the prodigal son a few years ago&returned to Sri Lanka & lived in the Wanni
Mr and Mrs. Velupillai were in the Menik farm IDP camp until being relocated elsewhere under special military custody and kept incommunicado
Sarath Fonseka said recently that he was willing to receive money from anyone for his campaign including Prabhakaran's parents
Mahinda Rajapakse exploited that by announcing he would not solicit any money from Prabhakaran's parents and betray the country
The Velupillai's have a son&daughter living in Denmark&a daughter in Canada.Prabhakaran's mother who suffered a stroke is reportedly ailing ~ [ click for updates ~ http://twitter.com/dbsjeyaraj ]
The household of Velupillai Prabhakaran, leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), will not be included in the on-going Sri Lankan island-wide census on human and material losses inflicted by the civil wars in the country since 1982.
Explaining, the Director General of the Department of Census and Statistics, D.C.A.Gunawardena, told the media here, that there was no one in Prabhakaran’s family now alive to answer the enumerators’ queries about the losses it had suffered.
Prabhakaran had two houses. The first was in Valvettithurai in Jaffna district, where his father, Thiruvengadam Velupillai and mother Parvathy Ammal, lived prior to the disturbances. The second was a “transient” one in the Wanni war zone, but principally at Kilinochchi and Puthukudiyiruppu, where he lived with his wife Mathivathani, sons Charles Anthony and Balachandran, and daughter Thuwaraka.
The house in Valvettithurai had remained unoccupied since Prabhakaran’s parents fled to Tiruchi in Tamil Nadu in the 1980s. When they did return to Sri Lanka during the 2002-2004 peace process, they stayed with Prabhakaran’s family in the Wanni.
Prabhakaran and his immediate nuclear family perished in Eelam War IV and his parents died of old age and illness while they were under the Lankan government’s care after the war.
Census official Gunawardena further said that households which had migrated from Sri Lanka entirely, would also not be enumerated, for the same reason.
According to reliable sources, about 10 to 11 lakh Lankan Tamils had migrated from the country since the ethnic conflict took a violent turn in 1983. Over a period of time, whole families left the island seeking safety and economic opportunities in Canada, UK, Europe, Australia and India.
Large amounts of property, including houses and land, were laid waste or were taken over by the LTTE or the Lankan armed forces during the war.
The Bishop of Mannar, Rev.Rayappu Joseph has been alleging that out of the civilians who were in the Wanni region prior to the military operations in Eelam War IV, 146,679 have not been accounted for. According to the Presidential Commission on Disappearances, petitions have been received from 5,000 families in the Tamil-speaking North and East and from 4,000 families in the Sinhalese speaking South Sri Lanka.
http://www.newindianexpress.com/world/Prabhakaran%E2%80%99s-Household-to-Be-Left-Out-in-Lankan-War-Losses-Census/2013/11/30/article1920404.ece1
Prabhakaran's parents were among the early batch of Sri Lankan Tamils to go to India, where they settled in Tiruchi in Tamil Nadu before returning to Wanni in 2003, the report said.
They returned to Wanni in May 2003 after Norway brokered ceasefire between the then Ranil Wickremesinghe government and the LTTE, the paper said.
They had been accompanied by their Canada-based daughter Vinodhini and her husband Rajendran, it said.
The Sri Lankan government has decided to allow the feeble, injured or elderly sick persons among the IDPs to reunite with their families so that they can be taken care of, the state-run 'Daily News' reported quoting senior Presidential sources.
Why is India scared of Prabhakaran’s mother?
Although the biggest threat to India’s national security had been posed by the LTTE via the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, and Tamil Tiger leader Prabhakaran was held responsible for it, the Indian Government permitted the parents of Prabhakaran to stay in Tamil Nadu. Even when Prabhakaran was engaged in a fierce war in the North and East of Sri Lanka and was winning , India took no measures to deport them from India on the grounds that they were a threat to its national security. After the ceasefire agreement was signed in 2002, the parents of Prabhakaran left for Sri Lanka on their own accord.Today, Prabhakaran is no more; the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is also decapitated.
In these circumstances, India trying to convey the view that Prabhakaran’s mother is a threat to its National security is a matter of great shock and surprise. Prabhakaran’s mother who left for Malaysia from Sri Lanka went to India from there for medical treatment.
But, at the Tamil Nadu airport she was sent back for the reason that she was a threat to India’s national security .
After the war was over, when the parents of Prabhakaran surrendered to the Army, the Tamil Nadu politicians and the Tamil Nadu media began criticizing against them being kept in the Army camps.
It is also reported that the Tamil Nadu politicians who came to Sri Lanka to inspect the refugee camps had even questioned as to why the custody of Prabhakaran’s parents were not handed over to India.
Initially , the Sri Lanka Government stated that the parents of Prabhakaran were held in the Army camp because they were believed to be a threat to the Sri Lankan National security .
But, after the death of Prabhakaran’s father, the Sri Lankan Govt. agreed to entrust the custody of Prabhakaran’s mother to the former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP Sivajilingam. Perhaps, the Sri Lankan Government took this decision after it nursed the belief that she was no longer a threat to Sri Lanka’s national security.
The Sri Lanka Government truly understood that Prabhakaran’s parents were not a threat to national security and they were neither LTTE members nor sympathizers when they were in the Army camps.
The Government realized this after it received the report on them from the counter terrorism unit, that they were opposed to terrorism, and the link, if any they had with them was because they were the parents of Prabhakaran .
After Prabhakaran’s parents surrendered to the Army, only two or three officers of the counter terrorism unit of Sri Lanka had access to them in order to get a clear picture of the final days of Prabhakaran.
During the final days of the war when Prabhakaran told his parents to move to refugee camps along with the other civilians, Prabhakaran’s father, it is reported has viewed Prabhakaran with bitter disappointment and dismay.
Earlier, when Prabhakaran fled leaving his parents, there had existed no cordial relationship between him and his father.
After the ceasefire agreement in 2002, even though he got down the parents so as to be close to him, there had hardly been any exchange of words between him and his father. This is attributed to the fact that, while his father desired and dreamed that his son should become a top rung officer in the civil service, Prabhakaran on the contrary, chose to become the deadliest terrorist leader in the world. After he fled from his home , there had been no communication whatsoever between him and his father, not even regarding Prabhakaran’s armed or political campaign .
Prabhakaran and his father were both aware that if they discussed and subject a stormy dispute would erupt.
Yet, when Prabhakaran told his parents to leave during the last days of the war, his father understood, that his son was confronted with imminent defeat, and he would be in a state of uncertainty during the next few days .
He perceived that as his son could not face his aged parents in that situation, he is giving these instructions.
It was at this juncture, Prabhakaran’s father had occasion for the first time to question Prabhakaran on his politics and terrorism. It is stated that he had questioned, “What went wrong ? Didn’t you realize earlier that this will be the inevitable final result ?” It is reported that, Prabahakaran has given evasive answers, because he had not expected such questions from his father “this is not the time to discuss these issues of the past. Now, it is time to think of what is to be done ahead,” he had replied. Prabhakaran answered this way as he had no time to spend on arguing and answering questions. What Prabhakaran’s father truly implied in his questioning was that he had foreseen this result from the very beginning. Prabhakaran too was aware that his father was going to tell him this.
Not only in the final phase of the war, but even from the very outset, Prabhakaran’s parents had been opposed to Prabhakaran’s terrorism and armed campaign.
India is fully aware of this.
This was precisely why India allowed them to stay t even when Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated. Now, India being seized by a monumental fear for Prabhakaran’s mother who is an invalid in a wheel chair, stating that she is a threat to India’s national security is only an indication that India is frightened of a dead Prabhakaran more than of a living Prabhakaran.
It is worthy of note that in my earlier articles , I had pointed this out. In the event of Prabhakaran dying suddenly in the final days of the war, a dead Prabhakaran will be a greater threat to Tamil Nadu than a living Prabhakaran, I emphasized.
I further foretold, after the war , the political ghost of dead Prabhakaran will be haunting India, and the next threat will be via a political force originating in Tamil Nadu.
Given the extreme fears and jitters manifested by India on account of Prabhakaran’s mother who is in a wheel chair , it is evident that India is in mortal fear and possibly facing grave threats posed by the LTTE to Tamil Nadu.
These threats are being viewed by the Indian Congress Central Government and Karunanidhi’s State Government as more against the political security of the Indian Congress Government rather than against the National security of India. It was on account of this that Prabhakaran’s mother was sent back, citing National security threats . The Congress Party as well as Karunanidhi are frightened that the Opposition may have Prabhakaran’s mother on their stage at the forthcoming Tamil Nadu elections.
It is becoming increasingly clear, as the Tamil Nadu elections are closing in, that the Congress party and Karunanidhi are being increasingly haunted by Prabhakaran’s ghost.
~ www.dailymirror.lk ~ by Upul Joseph Fernando
http://infolanka.asia/opinion/sri-lanka/why-is-india-scared-of-prabhakarans-mother
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