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G Babu Jayakumar
The serial blasts that ripped through Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday resonated across Palk Strait in Tamil Nadu, rather quickly, in many ways. First, the Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath (TNTJ), an Islamic organisation, had to disown Sri Lanka’s National Thowheed Jamath, the outfit suspected to be behind the mindless bombing of churches and hotels that left over 250 dead (as per the revised estimates) and 500 injured. And then the revelation that India’s National Investigation Agency had learnt about a possible ISIS attack on the Indian High Commission in Colombo and also on churches in Sri Lanka much earlier raised serious security concerns in Tamil Nadu. The inputs gathered by the NIA during the course of a probe into an ISIS-inspired terror module, operating in South India with a view to killing prominent political leaders, were passed on to Sri Lanka through the diplomatic channel.
With the Sri Lankan security agencies goofing up on the Intelligence input, they have come to haunt the Indian security agencies. It is not that the mindless violence has invoked fear of a similar attack on Indian soil, but it has certainly led to an increased vigil on the high seas. The long Tamil Nadu coast could be used as a landing haven by fleeing terrorists or those associated with the attacks in Sri Lanka. Also, the revelation that Sri Lanka-based Islamic terrorists and those of their ilk in Tamil Nadu have links has increased the fear perception in the state, thus putting the agencies on high alert.
The Easter massacre impelled the Muslim groups in Tamil Nadu to reveal their motives. On the day next to the massacre, TNTJ vice-president P Abdul Rahman told a website, “We have nothing to do with them. We don’t even know who they are.” Incidentally, in November 2015, TNJT founder P Jainulabdeen was invited by Sri Lanka’s Thowheed Jamath for an event but was denied entry into the country by the Sri Lankan government.
At that time, the Sri Lankan outfit was trying to bring out a Sinhala translation of the Koran. The move was opposed by local Muslim organisations that felt there were flaws in the translated version. These organisations have been opposing many other activities of the Jamath, which was accused of receiving Saudi Arabia funding to spread Wahhabism. Quite clearly, the Jamath was not popular among the Muslims in Sri Lanka.
Like the TNJT, various other Islamic organisations in Tamil Nadu — quite a few came to the fore when a controversy erupted over actor Kamal Hassan’s film Vishwaroopam in 2013 — will have to prove their non-violent credentials. As of now, Muslims and their organisations enjoy a pride of place in the secular landscape of Tamil Nadu as partners of those opposed to Right-wing Hindutva politics. As the blasts might provide grist to Hindutva forces to raise the bogey of terror strikes spilling over to Indian shores, it will be incumbent on Islamic groups to dispel such fears. It is a different matter that there has not been a single instance of violence by Muslims since the 1988 Coimbatore bombings. The community has integrated itself well with the mainstream society since then, condemning terrorism always. The scaremongering could get louder if the BJP and its allies bite the dust in the elections in Tamil Nadu or the entire nation. The party has already failed in its bid to take root in the state post the demise of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in December 2017 even after managing to commandeer her government and party.
The blasts have made a deeper impact on the collective psyche of the people mainly because Sri Lanka is contiguous to the state not just geographically but also culturally. The forces that thrive on making political capital out of divisions in society and polarisation of communities may make an attempt to drive a wedge between Christians and Muslims, who otherwise share a cordial relationship. There is already a perception that the blasts were in retaliation to the Christchurch attack in March.
Above all, the biggest casualty in the bomb blasts could be trade and investment that saw a dramatic rise after 2009, so much so that India today is considered Sri Lanka’s largest trade partner globally. For India, too, Sri Lanka is the largest trade partner in South Asia. According to some statistics, Indian investment in Sri Lanka runs into more than a billion US dollars and the country is the fourth biggest investor in the island nation. So the fear is: Would the business links between the two nations come under strain?
Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath explains...
Just because we have the word Thowheed in our name, a media report linked our organisation with the outfit suspected to have carried out the Easter Sunday carnage.
The word Thowheed in Arabic means one god or monotheism. Even people can have it as their name. Ours is a social welfare organisation with about 10 lakh disciplined members.
Over 30,000 of our members helped people of all faiths during the Chennai floods in 2015. Similarly, during the floods in Kerala, our members went there and helped people. We hold a large number of blood donation camps.— Abdul Rahman, TN Thowheed Jamath vice-president
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