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It is difficult to think of a more vivid case of poetic justice than the arrest in Tamil Nadu, under POTA (the Prevention of Terror-    ism Act), of Vaiko, alias V. Gopalaswami, the leader of the MDMK and a valued ally of the BJP in the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA). What underscores the underlying irony of the situation is that Vaiko was among the most vociferous supporters of POTO both in the Lok Sabha and at the joint sitting of the two Houses. The joint meeting became necessary after the Rajya Sabha rejected the Vajpayee government’s bill to enact into a law the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO) promulgated, without any consultation with the Opposition parties during the inter-session period.

Before discussing the intricacies and possible ramifications of the present somewhat explosive situation in the southern State, it would be useful to begin the story from the beginning in respect of both POTO’s metamorphosis into POTA and the complexities of Tamil Nadu politics.

TADA (Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act) was the name of the game during the prolonged Congress rule. No one can dispute that this law, ostensibly meant only to combat terrorism, was extensively misused, especially against the political opponents of the various State governments and, even more particularly, the Muslim community. On one notorious occasion, the Gujarat Government threw into prison under TADA several thousand members of a trade union that had gone on strike! Convictions by special courts set up under TADA were pitifully few. But given the law’s notorious delays in this country, those imprisoned unlawfully languished behind bars for unconscioably long periods.

This ended only in 1996 when, by a remarkable coincidence, TADA expired and the Congress Party, with a clear majority in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha until then, suffered a historic defeat in the elections. The coalition government, headed by V. P. Singh that replaced Rajiv Gandhi’s regime, was short-lived. In less than two years, it yielded place to the government of P. V. Narasimha Rao, the first and so far only Prime Minister not belonging to the Nehru-Gandhi clan to have completed a full, five-year term. After Rao’s defeat, the coalition era returned with a vengeance, notwithstanding the "13-day wonder" that Atal Behari Vajpayee’s first government turned out to be.

With TADA gone and terrorism on the increase, the governments of Deve Gowda, Inder Gujral and of Atalji, for the first three years, failed to devise an anti-terrorism law likely to find general acceptance. After winning their third stint in October 1999, the BJP and its NDA allies decided to ram the anti-terrorist law down the throat of the Opposition. Their strategy was to issue an ordinance and dare the Opposition to reject it on pain of being "exposed" as "anti-national" and "unpatriotic".

No wonder then that the Government’s hectoring style intensified by the time POTO reached the joint sitting of Parliament. No less striking was the arrogance of the official spokespersons, all of whom—most notably L. K. Advani and Arun Jaitley—bragged that while TADA was grossly misused, there was no such danger in the case of POTA because great care had been taken to provide adequate safeguards.

They are now admitting, sheepishly, that they were wrong. There can be no other meaning of their anguished cry that the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, the redoubtable Jayalalitha, has misused the law. They add, for good measure, that her decision to get a non-bailable arrest warrant issued against Vaiko (and his cohorts) is "unwarranted".

It is also pertinent to point out that Jayalalitha’s party, the AIADMK, though not a constituent of the NDA, voted enthusiastically for POTA. Indeed, it has gone practically unnoticed that every single Tamil party represented in Parliament voted for POTA even though there is a high degree of polarisation in Tamil Nadu and the two principal parties, the AIADMK and Karunanidhi’s DMK, are bitterly hostile to each other. And this brings one to the tangled Tamil Nadu politics vis-a-vis the LTTE.

Time was when the LTTE, as the main representative of the long-suffering Tamils of Sri Lanka, enjoyed great sympathy and support in Tamil Nadu. It is no secret that in 1987 the LTTE’s supremo, V. Prabhakaran, before wrecking the India- Sri Lanka accord, had met the then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, the legendary MGR, and reportedly received a large sum of money from him. Karunanidhi, though the arch rival of MGR and Jayalalitha, as Chief Minister in 1990, went to the extent of insulting the Indian Peacekeeping Force (IPKF) when it returned home.

However, things have changed radically since then. The nefarious activities of the LTTE, in Sri Lanka as well as in this country, culminating in Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, to say nothing of brutal murders of moderate Lankan Tamil leaders residing in Chennai, have alienated the vast majority of the Tamil people. Some Tamil Nadu politicians and political groups, however, find it expedient to sing hosannas to the LTTE thugs, as Vaiko did. The main motive here is not compassion for the Lankan Tamils, as often claimed, but the generous dollops of cash doled out by the LTTE which is flush with money and needs a network in Tamil Nadu.

Let it not be forgotten that many, besides the dismissed Naval Chief, Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, have alleged that the country’s Defence Minister and convenor of the NDA, George Fernandes, had prevented the Indian Navy from intercepting LTTE vessels carrying weapons and other contraband.

It is in this context that Jayalalitha deserves credit for standing four square against the LTTE. She loves playing politics and keeping her political opponents at bay, no doubt. But on ending the depredations of the LTTE, she has been commendably uncompromising. During her first tenure as Chief Minister that began in 1991, shortly after Rajiv’s assassination, she cracked down heavily on the LTTE and its local sympathisers.

In the present case of Vaiko and others, she hasn’t done anything that she didn’t say she would. As soon as POTO was passed, she had warned that she would use this law against anyone supportive of the LTTE which is a banned terrorist organisation not only in this country but also in many others.

Before ordering Vaiko’s arrest, she fired off a letter to L. K. Advani, backed by video evidence of Vaiko’s speech offering full support to the LTTE, now or in the future. In any case, it is for the States to implement this law, and the Centre has no jurisdiction to intervene. In fact, an exquisite quirk of irony is that when the Congress-governed States had declared that they would not use POTO, New Delhi had reminded them, quite appropriately, that it was mandatory on all States to enforce all laws made by Parliament.

Now that Tamil Nadu is scrupulously implementing the law, the BJP leaders, fearful of the reaction of their ally, Vaiko, and yet anxious not to annoy Jayalalitha who, too. wants to befriend the saffron party, find themselves in a bind. They are indeed caught between the devil and the deep sea. So, while the Vajpayee government is silent on the subject, the party organisation, in the persons of its new president, Venkaiah Naidu, and its new general secretary and chief spokesman, Arun Jaitley, is critical of the Tamil Nadu Government’s action.

Unfortunately, Jaitley’s main argument that a single speech in favour of the LTTE, unquestionably a terrorist outfit, is "not actionable" is utterly fatuous. He should read again POTA’s clause that Jayalalitha has invoked. According to it, a person "commits an offence if he addresses a meeting for the purpose of encouraging support for a terrorist organisation or to further its activities". Vaiko’s speech fits the bill perfectly.

Even more puerile is the BJP’s pretence that Vaiko has "clarified" the "context" in which he had made the offending speech "in his personal capacity", whatever that might mean. Quite apart from the sheer absurdity of this argument, the fact remains that a very large number of individuals in U. P. have been incarcerated under POTA because of speeches made by them in support of SIMI, a body of Muslim students, that, like the LTTE, is banned.