Sri Lankan Tamils issue dominated TN polity in 2013

Chennai: Failure by political parties and organisations to force the UPA government to boycott CHOGM on Sri Lankan Tamils issue, acquittal of two Kanchi seers in a murder case, gazetting of Cauvery Tribunal award and end of decade-long alliance between DMK and Congress topped the list of major events in Tamil Nadu during 2013.

It turned out to be a celebratory occasion for the AIADMK government when its Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa snapped up a major victory on the vexed Cauvery water sharing issue when the Centre notified the tribunal order in the Gazette in February, giving the water adjudication award a legal sanctity and paving way for its implementation.

The caste clashes at Marakkanam, murder of Sangh Parivar leaders including BJP General Secretary 'Auditor' V Ramesh and the successful hunt by police of three terror suspects were other highlights of the year.

Despite snapping its long political alliance with Congress, DMK patriarch M Karunandihi brought to fore his political acumen and managed to get his former ally to vote for his daughter Kanimozhi, one of the accused in the 2G spectrum scam, to ensure her a second term in Rajya Sabha.

The successful launch of Mars Orbitor Mission by ISRO erased the strains of disappointment that had struck the scientists following failure of GSLV 5 during the year. The mission catapulted India into a club of select nations engaged in study of the red planet.

The political fissures that broke out between DMK and Congress after the 2G scam reached the door steps of Karunanidhi's daughter, escalated and culminated in calling off its alliance during March. The year also witnessed the emergence of a new world chess champion when Norway's Magnus Carlsen dethroned five time champion Vishwanathan Anand from India in November.

Boasting of a series of pro-Tamil measures since taking over in 2011, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa cancelled the Asian Athletics Championships scheduled to be held here in July, saying Lankan players have no place in the state, scoring a point over her political rivals who have been trying to cash in on the issue.

She had also moved a resolution in the state Assembly during the budget session, asking New Delhi to stop treating Sri Lanka as a friendly nation and push for a UN referendum on separate homeland for Lankan Tamils, the Eelam.

Arrests of Indian fishermen by Sri lankan navy continued in 2013, with Chief Minister Jayalalithaa repeatedly taking up the matter with Centre while slamming its "week-kneed approach".

The detaining of a US firm owned ship MV Seaman Guard Ohio on October 12 off the Tuticorin port for transgressing into Indian territorial waters and illegally carrying arms witnessed a controversy with the owners of the ship contesting Indian coast guard claims initially and later submitting to the laws of the land. Thirty-five crew members of the detained ship have been in judicial custody.

Jayalalithaa, whose government sponsored Rs 26 crore for the conduct of World Chess Championship, also launched "Amma Mineral Water", for the benefit of poor, to enable them to have access to quality drinking water for Rs 10 per bottle, which won appreciation from all quarters.

People of Tamil Nadu celebrated the Centenary of Indian Cinema during September, but it turned out to be a lacklustre event with some big wigs of the tinsel world including actor-politician Vijayakant not showing up. The power starved Tamil Nadu got a minor breather when the first unit of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power plant turned critical and began producing about 400 MWe.

Marakkanam in Villupuram witnessed caste clashes, subsequently resulting in the arrest of PMK leaders including its founder S Ramadoss, prompting a round of stone-pelting incidents targeting government buses.

Political parties and Tamil protagonist organisations campaigned for months pressuring the Centre to "totally boycott" CHOGM hosted by Sri Lanka in November, but their pleas went in vain after India chose to send a ministerial level delegation.

Even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did not attend the summit, his silence on the reason for staying away irked Tamils. In the midst of all these stir on ethnic Tamils issue, the Tamil Nadu Assembly passed two unanimous resolutions calling India to boycott CHOGM.

The nine-year-long ordeal faced by Kanchi Kamakoti mutt pontiff Vijayendra Saraswathi and his junior Jayendra Saraswathi, charged for murdering Varadarajaperumal Temple Manager, A Sankararaman came to an end after a special court in Puducherry acquitted them and 21 others on November 27 for lack of evidence. Religious fundamentalism raised its ugly head after some years of hibernation, with terror suspects allegedly involved in the murder of Sangh Parivar activists including BJP state general secretary Ramesh, who was hacked to death in Salem during July.

The BJP heightened calls for probe and arrest of culprits and the state CB-CID tracked down the two terror suspects hiding at Puttur on the Tamil Nadu-Andhra Pradesh border on October 5 after waging a fierce gun battle. It came as a feather in the cap of police, when they nabbed Police Fakruddin, Panna Ismail and Bilal Malik in October, which helped them to uncover terror plots by them.