 |
| Banned for 5 years! |
Devesh K. Pandey
The Union Home Ministry on Wednesday issued a fresh notification extending ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in India for five years. “The Government of India, under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, has proscribed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as an ‘Unlawful Association’. The declaration of LTTE as an ‘Unlawful Association’ has been extended for a further period of five years with effect from May 14, 2014,” said an MHA notification made public on Thursday.
LTTE was banned in India after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. The ban on the outfit was extended the last time in May 2012. The gazette notification then noted that LTTE was an association based in Sri Lanka, but having its supporters, sympathizers and agents in India; and that its objective for a separate homeland (Tamil Eelam) for all Tamils threatened the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India for the Union and thus, fell within the ambit of an unlawful activity.
“The LTTE, even after its military defeat in May 2009 in Sri Lanka, has not abandoned the concept of ‘Eelam’ and has been clandestinely working towards the ‘Eelam’ cause by undertaking fund raising and propaganda activities in Europe. The remnant LTTE leaders or cadres have also initiated efforts to regroup the scattered activists and resurrect the outfit locally and internationally,” read the 2012 notification, adding that the Tamil chauvinist groups and pro-LTTE groups continued to foster a separatist tendency amongst the masses and enhance the support base for LTTE in India and particularly in Tamil Nadu.
The notification also mentioned that the Diaspora continued to spread through articles in the Internet portals, anti-India feeling amongst the Sri Lankan Tamils by holding the top Indian political leaders and bureaucrats responsible for the defeat of the LTTE. “Such propaganda through Internet, which remains continued, is likely to impact VVIP security adversely in India,” it said.
The MHA justified the extension of ban in 2012 stating that the Central Government had “information that the activities of the LTTE remnant cadres, dropouts, sympathisers, supporters who have been traced out recently in the State of Tamil Nadu suggest that the cadres sent to Tamil Nadu would ultimately be utilised by the LTTE for unlawful activities