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Here are some facts: LTTE leader V Prabhakaran was responsible for the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. He ordered the assassination of a host of Sinhalese leaders and other Tamils including long standing leaders of repute and men of unquestioned scholarship and wisdom. Prabhakaran killed almost all Tamil leaders including close associates who didn’t quite agree with him in his single minded quest for Tamil Eelam.
Prabhakaran’s methods were often brutal, sometimes shockingly so — although his supporters explain it away as conduct of war. Prabhakaran used child soldiers extensively, especially in near suicidal attacks, such as on the Jaffna Fort. In his chasing of an unattainable dream, he scorched the earth of Tamil Eelam, was responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths, many of whom were Tamils, and destruction of property. In a brutal denouement fitting of a suicide cult that the LTTE had become, Prabhakaran chose to use his own people as civilian shields in the final standoff with the Sri Lankan defense forces.
Here are some other facts: The Indian Army sent by Rajiv Gandhi was responsible for unleashing brutality on the civilian Tamil population and had turned against Tamils from being guarantors of peace and their protectors. Rajiv Gandhi, as a representative of Indian thinking, did not want an Eelam. Many Tamil leaders compromised, even collaborated with the Sri Lankan establishment.
Sri Lanka has been and continues to be a nation that does not give equal rights to Tamils in many ways, positively discriminates against them, and is engaged in a continuous process of displacing Tamils and their culture. On paper as well as in practice, Sri Lanka is a Sinhalese country where minorities are not recognized as equal citizens legally. Tamils have had to face brutality from Sinhalese mobs in the past with the authorities either staying silent or actively assisting.
Mahinda Rajapaksa is on record stating that India helped Sri Lanka vanquish the LTTE in the final phase of the war in which tens of thousands of innocent Tamil civilians were killed by the Sri Lankan defense forces. If the LTTE used civilians as a shield, so was the Sri Lankan government guilty, even more than the LTTE, of not caring about killing innocent civilians in the tens of thousands – of genocidal proportions.
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Raako Yoagandran, director of Methagu series of biopics on Prabhakaran, wants to see only the second set of facts. They explain away the first set, as far he is concerned. His films are a point of view of the voice of the voiceless, he grandly claims.
Sri Lanka has been and continues to be a nation that does not give equal rights to Tamils in many ways, positively discriminates against them, and is engaged in a continuous process of displacing Tamils and their culture
Yoagandran is a believer. He, like Prabhakaran, believes only Eelam is the solution for Sri Lankan Tamils and it is possible to achieve it. Faith is his armour.
Yoagandran says not only is Prabhakaran God for many Sri Lankan Tamils, he is God for Yoagandran, too. And he has set out to record the life of Prabhakaran from the perspective of the second set of facts although he says he has used many Sinhalese sources to establish facts that he has narrated.
Yoagandran is a believer. He, like Prabhakaran, believes only Eelam is the solution for Sri Lankan Tamils and it is possible to achieve it. Faith is his armour
Methagu 1 could not get censor certificate so couldn’t get a theatrical release in India. Yoagandran says the censor board official told him her hands were tied since India did not want a film that would offend Sri Lanka. Methagu 2 chronicles the second phase of Prabhakaran’s life until Sudumalai declaration in 1987 when Prabhakaran laid out his apprehensions regarding the India – Sri Lanka accord.
Yoagandran says he would approach the censor board for releasing Methagu 2, too. But he is nevertheless buoyed by the prospect of an OTT release and releases across the world, among Tamils especially.
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