The Tamil Nadu chief minister, Vijay, made a brief reference to Eelam Tamils during a speech in the state legislative assembly on Tuesday, recalling his participation in a 2008 hunger strike in support of Tamils during the final stages of the armed conflict, in remarks that looked back to his own activism rather than to the realities facing Tamils in the North-East today.
"Back in 2008, we undertook a hunger strike in support of Eelam Tamils. We demanded that the war come to an end and that Eelam Tamils should be able to live peacefully," he said.
The speech affirmed the Tamil Nadu government's commitment to upholding the Tamil language, but made no mention of the state-sponsored demographic change under way across the North-East, the continuing military occupation of civilian land, or the use of Sri Lanka's Prevention of Terrorism Act against Tamils. Nor did it touch on self-determination, accountability for the genocide, or the call for a referendum to allow Eelam Tamils to express their political aspirations, a demand consistently raised by the Tamil polity, and one given fresh prominence this year as Tamils mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Vaddukoddai Resolution.
The retrospective tone sat awkwardly with the expectations Vijay himself has raised.
He invoked the Eelam cause repeatedly during his rise to power, in November 2008, amid the Mullivaikkal genocide, he led a hunger strike in Chennai at which he declared "let freedom dawn for Eelam Tamils", and during the election campaign his Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam passed founding resolutions calling for a referendum on Tamil Eelam independence and demanding that Tamil Nadu be consulted on New Delhi's foreign policy towards Sri Lanka. He described the LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran as having shown Tamils "motherly love" and cast solidarity with Eelam as a duty, a more direct articulation of the cause than the rival Dravidian parties had offered in years.
Since taking office in May, however, that language has given way to caution. On his first Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day as chief minister, Vijay posted a message pledging to "always stand in support of the rights of our Tamil relatives living across the seas", but did not attend any commemorative gathering, declined to formally recognise 18 May as Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day, and has announced no policy position on accountability, justice or the political aspirations of Eelam Tamils.