Veerasingham Anandasangaree

Anandasangaree worked as a teacher and lawyer before taking to politics. He became the president of the TULF in 2002. He was the only TULF Member of Parliment who refused to join the Tamil National Alliance, a coalition of Tamil parties allied with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), for the 2004 elections. He is an outspoken critic of the LTTE and advocate of a federal solution to the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict.

In 2006 Anandasangaree was named as the winner of the 2006 UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non-Violence. The UNESCO statement said ‘As an indefatigable advocate of democracy and peaceful conflict resolution, he has contributed to raising awareness of the Tamil cause in a spirit of dialogue, while seeking to promote non-violent solutions to Sri Lanka and opposing terrorism’

(Courtesy: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veerasingham_Anandasangaree

He was also the acting president of the TULF from September 1998 to December 2001 in the absence of former party president Murugesu Sivasithamparam who was away in India due to illness and returned only last December. After Sivasithamparam’s demise, Anandasangaree became acting President again on June 5 and held the post until being formally elected last Sunday.

Born in Point Pedro in June 1933, Anandasangaree grew up in Atchuvely as his father was a school principal at Sri Somaskanda College in neighbouring Puthur. Sangaree himself studied at Sri Somaskanda, Christian College Atchuvely, Hartley College, Point Pedro and also Zahira College, Colombo. Before taking up law, Sangaree was a pedagogue teaching at Hindu College Jaffna, Poonakari MMV, Kotelawela GTM School, Ratmalana and Christ King College Ja-Ela. He passed out as a lawyer in 1967 and began practicing until 1983 when the TULF leaders refused to take oaths under the 6th amendment to the constitution. He has not worn the black coat ever since.

Baptism of five:

Like many political leaders on both sides of the ethnic divide, Sangaree too began his politics as an ardent Trotskyite. He was an active member of the Lanka Sama Samaaja Party (LSSP) Youth League from 1955 to 1965. His first experience in running for electoral office was in 1959 when he contested the Colombo Municipal Council on the LSSP ticket. His opponent was none other than the uncrowned king of Colombo municipal politics V. A. Sugathadasa who was also mayor then. It was a baptimism of fire in Colombo for the 25 year old Jaffna youth.

The March 1960 elections saw the LSSP under Dr. N. M. Perera make a determined bid for political power through electoral politics. The party contested 101 seats in all parts of the island and NM himself was projected as the future prime minister of the country. NM asked Sangaree to contest the newly carved rural constituency of Kilinochchi as a LSSP candidate. Anandasangaree having no links to Kilinochchi was reluctant.

NM encouraged him to plunge in saying that even if the ‘unknown’ Sangaree lost then he would win the seat in 10 years time. NM’s words in 1960 were prophetic and in 1970 Anandasangaree was elected for the first time to parliament from Kilinochchi. Only he was no longer a Trotskyite having embraced Tamil nationalism but, as a Tamil Congress candidate. The LSSP however fared poorly winning only 10 seats.

Sangaree contested the March 1960, July 1960 and March 1965 elections in Kilinochchi under the key symbol of the LSSP. He got 1114, 2011 and 1804 votes respectively. He lost both times in 1960 to S. Sivasundaram and in 1965 to K. P. Ratnam who were of the Federal Party (FP). In 1966, the LSSP now aligned with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) adopted the communal ‘Dudleyge bade masala vadai’ line and opposed the reasonable use of Tamil as an official language in 1966. Sangaree like many Tamil LSSP’ers quit the party.

He joined the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) led by G. G. Ponnambalam Snr. in May 1966. Earlier, he contested and won the Kilinochchi town ward in the Karaichi Village Council. He became its chairman from 1965 to 1968. In 1968, it was elevated to Town Council status. Sangaree contested, won and became the first Kilinochchi TC chairman. He functioned in that capacity till the end of 1969.

January 1970 saw Sangaree become Youth Front President of the Tamil Congress. In May 1970, he won Kilinochchi on the cycle symbol of the ACTC and defeated Alalasundaram of the FP by 657 votes. The ACTC got 9049 to the FP’s 8392. The seventies saw the main Tamil parties sink their differences and forging unity.

The Tamil United Front (TUF) was formed in May 1972. This became the TULF in May 1976. This period saw Anandasangaree’s stock rising in Tamil politics. The Tamil Congress had three MPs in 1970. They were Arulampalam of Nallur, Thiyagarajah of Vaddukkoddai and Anandasangaree of Kilinochchi. Congress stalwarts like G. G. Ponnambalam, M. Sivasithamparam, T. Sivasithamparam, V. Kumaraswamy, N. Nadarajah, T. Sivagnanam, S. Sivanesan, etc. had lost. It was left to the newly elected trio to don the mantle of parliamentary leadership.

Refused to cross:

Arulampalam and Thiyagarajah opted to join the United Front government. Sangaree despite his left leanings and respect for NM refused to cross-over and remained in the ranks of the Tamil nationalists. His stature increased greatly because of this. In 1977, the TULF swept the elections riding the crest of a Tamil Eelam wave. Sangaree contested Kilinochchi again and polled 15,607 votes obtaining a majority of 11,601.

The sprawling electorate of Kilinochchi was primarily agrarian and relatively undeveloped. It was part of the Jaffna administrative district. Thus, a Tamil farmer from the rural backwoods of Kilinochchi had to travel a very long distance to attend to matters at the Jaffna kachcheri. So, Sangaree began advocating the redemarcation of Kilinochchi as a separate administrative district. This incurred the wrath of fellow TULF MPs from Jaffna and Sangaree became quite unpopular. In 1983 in the aftermath of the July violence the UNP government utilised the absence of TULF MPs in parliament and created the Kilinochchi District.

The 1983 violence saw the TULF out in the political wilderness. Sangaree like many other TULF figures relocated to Madras but kept shuttling between India and Sri Lanka. In 1989, the TULF re-entered the political mainstream. Sangaree contested the Jaffna electoral district in 1989 and the Wanni District in 1994 on behalf of the TULF and lost both.

In 2000, Anandasangaree was the chief candidate on the TULF ticket again in Jaffna. The TULF got three seats and Sangaree got the highest amount of preferences. In 2001, the TULF contested as part of the TNA under the party symbol of rising sun. Again Sangaree topped the list gaining over 36,000 preferences.

Sangaree has served in several capacities for the TULF, being its propaganda secretary from 1976 to 1983 and a politburo member from 1983 to 1993. He has attended several international conferences as a parliamentarian in Britain, Zambia, Austria, Norway and Switzerland.

Anandasangaree was elected senior vice president of the TULF in 1993 and proved to be a tower of strength to the party when it was at the receiving end of systematic violence by the Tigers. He was instrumental in reviving flagging fortunes of the TULF in Jaffna by taking over the Jaffna Municipal Council election campaign in 1998.

Thereafter, when two TULF Jaffna mayors Sarojini Yogeswaran and Pon Sivapalan along with a mayoral aspirant Mathimugarajah were successively assassinated by the LTTE, Anandasangaree took up permanent residence in Jaffna and rallied the demoralised TULF. He also spearheaded its parliamentary election campaign in Jaffna during 2000 and 2001.

Prominent role:

Anandasangaree also received wide media coverage in Tamil Nadu when he accompanied and assisted his former leader and top notch international lawyer G. G. Ponnambalam (Senior) at the Sarkaria Commission sittings. The commission had been appointed to inquire into corruption allegations of the erstwhile DMK regime. Ponnambalam led the team of lawyers representing former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Muttuvel Karunanidhi of the Dravida Munnetra Kazghagham. Anandasangaree played a prominent role in this legal arrangement.

Recently, hostile reaction to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha Jeyaram began emanating in Sri Lankan Tamil circles after she pushed through a resolution in the Tamil Nadu legislature seeking extradition of LTTE leader Pirapaharan. Several persons including TULF personalities began uttering bombastic and provocative threats against Jayalalitha in an ill advised move to curry favour with the LTTE.

Anandasangaree however issued a very responsible public statement condemning that trend and urging that no offensive comments be made against any Indian leader including the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister. When pro-LTTE elements began distorting what Sangaree actually said in the statement, the TULF leader took a direct Tamil translation to Kilinochchi showed it to Thamilchelvam and cleared the air.

Anandasangaree takes over the TULF reins at a critical phase in the island’s politics. His party itself has accepted the overall dominance of the LTTE . Given Sangaree’s fiery independent streak it is very likely that the TULF while backing the LTTE politically would also try and retain some functional autonomy. That however depends on the extent to which his party colleagues will cooperate with him. If such enlightened unity and support is not rendered the ex-Trotskyite may very well be presiding over the Swansong of the TULF.

Courtesy: D. B. S. Jeyaraj ; The Sunday Leader – June 30, 2002