COLOMBO: The Tamil Tiger political wing chief S. P. Thamilchelvam, who was killed by the air force early this month, could win more sympathy for the rebel cause dead than alive especially where neighbouring Tamil Nadu in India is concerned, analysts say.

On Monday TamilNadu Police arrested Pazha Nedumaaran, the leader of Tamil Nationalist Movement (TMM) and Vaiko, the leader of Marumalardchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhakam (MDMK) as they led a demonstration march condemning the Sri Lanka Government for the killing of Tamilchelvam.

The two Tamil Nadu politicians were arrested for defying a ban imposed by the Tamil Nadu Government on the rally.

Although the killing of Thamilchelvam is considered a major victory for the Sri Lankan government, it could prove to be a bane in the coming months, if the pro LTTE sentiment, now becoming increasingly evident in Tamil Nadu is stirred up to a higher level, analysts say. “The LTTE may soon find that it’s slain and martyred political cum military leader could be of equal if not more worth dead than alive and the Tigers would not hesitate to exploit this to the best of their advantage”, one observer quipped.

The Tamil Tiger rebels view the situation in neighbouring Tamil Nadu in India as changing in their favour after the killing of Thamilchelvam, a source close to the guerillas said.

Except for the AIADMK and the Congress, other Tamil Nadu political parties had openly condoled the death of Tamilchelvam while Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi went as far as composing a poem describing Thamilchelvam as ‘a general’ who had a ‘heart that would render the opposition to ashes’.

The poem was released through the government Information Department thereby making it an official statement.

“The way New Delhi responds to the Sri Lankan saga of war and peace is always influenced by how Tamil Nadu reacts to the LTTE’s battle for a separate state which Tamil Nadu generally sees as a freedom struggle,” a diplomatic source said. Meanwhile India has once again reiterated its call for the resumption of peace negotiations stating that Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tiger rebels must forego violence and return to the negotiating table.

India’s visiting finance minister, P Chidambaram said here on Sunday that while New Delhi backed

Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and territorial integrity it believed military action would not bring an end to the rebels’ drive for a separate state for Tamils.

“Neither side can finally prevail over the other through conflict. Peace must be forged at the negotiating table,” he said in a lecture to honour slain Sri Lankan foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, killed in his home by LTTE gunmen two years ago.

Meanwhile the Hindustan Times Colombo based correspondent P. K. Balachandran in a report published Saturday quoted a pro LTTE Tamil parliamentarian in Sri Lanka as saying that P Nadesan, the Tamil Tigers’ new political commissar, ‘wants to reach out to India and mend fences with it’.

“Nadesan has always been of the view that the Sri Lankan Tamil movement led by the LTTE should have the support of India. He reiterated this position when we met him after the funeral of Tamilselvan,” Suresh Premachandran, a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) had told the newspaper.

“Apart from Nadesan other senior political leaders of the LTTE like Balakumar also told us how important it was to cultivate India,” Premachandran was further quoted in the Hindustan Times as saying.

TNA MPs are hoping that the leaders of Tamil Nadu, though badly divided on other issues, will come together to speak with one voice on the Sri Lankan issue, as they did in the 1980s.

“They have spoken up for us individually and separately, but they will be effective only if they come together on one platform,” Suresh Premachandran said.

Other Tamil parliamentarians in Sri Lanka too say India is the best bet to push the island into talks with LTTE at a time when peace negotiations seem an impossibility following heightened fighting after the killing of Thamilchevam.

“India is capable of influencing the LTTE as well as the government and it should do so now before further bloodshed,” Tamil parliamentarian Mano Ganesan said.