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        Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has done well to say that there would be no room for the banned terrorist outfit LTTE in Tamilnadu. But as ever, the patriarch of Dravidian politics has, however, in the same breath, confused the picture by saying that the LTTE has no job here. 'It is not involved in any activity here. Their aims and purposes are different.' This amounts to being the spokesperson of the Tigers outfit. How can Karunanidhi speak with so much authority and conviction about the LTTE, who cold-bloodedly killed the former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in Tamilnadu?

        In fact by talking about the motives of the LTTE, is the Chief Minister not belying a natural sympathy for them? There are many implicit meanings in what Karunanidhi said on the floor of the Tamilnadu Assembly yesterday. And those know his track record and that of the LTTE's will find some disturbing ideas in them. When he says there is nothing left for the LTTE to do in Tamilnadu, you have but to read between the lines and ask: 'Have they finished already whatever they had to'. The Chief Minister also has taken exception to a Congress MLAs' branding of the Tigers as terrorists. Yet, we have to take comfort from his larger message that LTTE won't get any space in Tamilnadu.

        But the LTTE getting space in air - its air force might - should worry both India as well as Sri Lanka. After a strike near the Colombo airport a few weeks ago and a strike at the Palaly air base a couple of days ago, the Tigers seem to be at it again. Last night, the entire Lankan military command went into a tizzy after reports of sighting a 'suspicious' aircraft. This is being deemed as an attempted attack on the Katunayake air base, which is situated near the Banadarnaike International airport, 35 kilometres away from Colombo. All these frenzy of activity seem a pointer to the LTTE being back in full fettle. It seems to have fully utilised the ceasefire that was in place between it and the Lankan forces not long ago.

        The government agencies in Lanka now claim that they have video evidence of the LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran urging his troops to re-group during the ceasefire period. This gives lie to the claim that the Tigers are serious about lasting peace in the troubled island. It is, however, more than certain that the Lankan government is stretched to the limit and the internecine war is proving to be a hell for its and the nation's citizens. There is a desperate pressure on the Lankan government to bring things on an even keel. But it is reluctant to talk shop with an 'unreliable enemy'. In the meanwhile, Tamilnadu and others in India should realise that even though LTTE may not be an enemy to them, it is still unreliable.