M.R. Narayan Swamy

By M.R. Narayan Swamy When Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillaiyaan was first told that his former aide Azad Maulana was planning to stir up some trouble from Europe, the former’s instant reaction was: “Really? What could it be about?” Pillaiyaan, a former chief minister of Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province, could only recall the mountain of difficulties Mohammed Hanzeer Mohammed Mihilar, alias Maulana, had been in due to his own family problems. The Amparai-born Maulana had apparently

By M.R. Narayan Swamy When EPRLF leader K. Pathmanabha was gunned down with 12 party colleagues (and two Indians) in Chennai in 1990, it was a clear signal that the LTTE was set to take individual terrorism to a new level even as it waged an armed struggle in Sri Lanka. Most unfortunately, the red flag was mostly ignored by the Indian state, Tamil Nadu politicians, and the larger Sri Lankan Tamil society. Most people in the Indian establishment and among Tamil Nadu leaders viewed the cold-bloo

By M.R. Narayan Swamy A long time ago, numerous homes in Sri Lanka’s Tamil region proudly displayed framed photographs of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. August 15, India’s Independence Day, was also celebrated. To Tamils at large, India was as much their motherland as it was to Indians. As Tamil militancy transformed into a full-blown insurgency in the 1980s, most Tamils fleeing Sri Lanka were relieved to take refuge first in India, thanks to geographical proximity, even if their final d

By M.R. Narayan Swamy If the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) government is to be believed, it has uncovered a treacherous Kim Philby, the Cold War's most infamous double agent, in Sri Lanka, who committed a bloody horror against the country and its people. No, Suresh Sallay did not send trained agents behind the now routed Tamil Tiger lines to die; far worse, he colluded with the Islamic State to orchestrate a string of bomb attacks that killed around 260 people on Easter Day in 2019. Some of

By M.R. Narayan Swamy “One month is too short a time to be disappointed!” The comment from a middle-aged Chennai resident, who voted for cinema star-turned-politician Vijay and remains one of his loyal supporters, neatly sums up the mood on the ground as Tamil Nadu’s first coalition government in decades completes its first month in office. As Chief Minister, C Joseph Vijay retains much of his personal popularity that propelled millions in Tamil Nadu to vote for his two-year-old Tamilaga Vett