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PM consults Karunanidhi as Jaffna's position becomes precarious

George Iype in Madras

As the fighting between the Sri Lankan armed forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the Jaffna peninsula escalates and the military situation changes rapidly, there is a flurry of activity in the southern Indian cities of Madras and Bangalore.

Official sources said Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee spoke to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Sunday night, indicating that the government will now embark on an action plan to help evacuate the 35,000 or so Sri Lankan troops trapped in Jaffna.

"India's action plan to help Sri Lanka could be in any form. It could be humanitarian assistance of food, medicines and clothes to the troops or the civilians in Jaffna. It could also be the evacuation of the Sri Lankan troops from Jaffna," a senior official in the Karunanidhi government told rediff.com

But he said that since the Vajpayee government views any decision on Sri Lanka as "politically important and sensitive", the prime minister is in regular touch with the Tamil Nadu chief minister.

On Sunday, National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra reviewed the evolving military situation in Sri Lanka with the three service chiefs, General V P Malik, Air Chief Marshal A Y Tipnis and Admiral Sushil Kumar, in New Delhi.

While India is yet to finalise the mode of assistance it will extend to Sri Lanka to retain Jaffna and repulse the LTTE onslaught, key Sri Lankan military and political officials have concluded what officials say were "emergency trips" to Madras and Bangalore.

Official sources said Sri Lankan Chief of Defence Staff General Rohan de Silva Daluvatte and the country's Deputy External Affairs Minister Lakshman Kiriella held high-level talks with India officials in Bangalore, chalking out the modalities of the logistical and humanitarian assistance that India could extend to the beleaguered island nation.

Though both General Daluvatte and Kiriella played down their visits as strictly private and informal, officials said they separately conducted "fruitful brainstorming exercises" in Bangalore and Madras.

General Daluvatte is believed to have sought India's intelligence and military assistance to interpret the surveillance data on the LTTE strongholds as the Sri Lanka Army is finding it difficult to understand them.

Kiriella directly sought Indian military intervention to help the beleaguered troops.

Analysts say that if Sri Lanka frantically seeks India's immediate help, the Vajpayee government can no longer duck its responsibility. "I expect an Indian intervention in Sri Lanka very soon. It could most possibly be the evacuation of the trapped Sri Lankan forces in Jaffna," K V Sathyanarayan, a Madras-based Lanka expert, told rediff.com

He said the timing and magnitude of the Indian intervention would depend on what exactly Sri Lanka expects of India.

"I think the Vajpayee government is examining various options. The government will have to take a decision sooner than later because the situation in Jaffna seems to be precarious," Sathyanarayan added.

For Prime Minister Vajpayee, any decision on Sri Lanka has a political dimension as "consent" from his crucial allies from Tamil Nadu -- the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Marumalarchi DMK and Pattali Makkal Katchi -- is a pre-requisite for military action or even humanitarian assistance to the troops.

But as Vajpayee prepares to chalk out a politically correct decision on the crisis, Indian forces have been told to be in full readiness for any military action. The Indian Navy has already positioned a fleet of ships along the Indian Ocean to show operational readiness and make logistical supplies to the Sri Lankan forces.

Vessels and a detachment of naval aircraft have been moved to strategic locations around the Indian Ocean from Cochin, Bombay and Visakhapatnam. Some frontline ships like landing ship tanks, Kashin-class destroyers and minesweepers have already been positioned along the South Indian coastline.

The southern commands of the IAF and navy are also ready with planeloads of medicines and other emergency relief items like food and clothes.

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