V. Yogeswaran - Political Career

Political Career

Yogeswaran was a strong supporter of the Tamil United Liberation Front. He was a member of the TULF's Action Committee and in charge of youth affairs. He was the TULF's candidate for Jaffna at the 1977 parliamentary election. He won the election and entered Parliament.

Yogeswaran's house in Jaffna was burnt down on the night of 31 May 1981 by a mob of Sinhalese policemen and paramilitaries. Yogeswaran and his wife managed to escape by jumping over their back walls. This incident and the Burning of Jaffna library were part of an orgy of violence orchestrated by the Sri Lankan government against Tamil targets.

Yogeswaran and all other TULF MPs boycotted Parliament from the middle of 1983 for a number of reasons: they were under pressure from Sri Lankan Tamil militants not to stay in Parliament beyond their normal six-year term; the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka required them to swear an oath unconditionally renouncing support for a separate state; and the Black July riots in which up to 3,000 Tamils were murdered by Sinhalese mobs. After three months of absence, Yogeswaran forfeited his seat in Parliament on 22 October 1983.

Yogeswaran and his family, like many families of leading Tamil politicians, fled to Madras (now Chennai), Tamil Nadu. Yogeswaran later returned to Jaffna despite the threats made against the TULF by the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The Tamil Tigers kept him under house arrest until the arrival of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in July 1987. In early 1988 Yogeswaran and his wife moved into a house in Bullers Road (Baudhaloka Mawatha) in the Cinnamon Gardens area of Colombo. The house was shared with other leading TULF politicians (A. Amirthalingam, M. Sivasithamparam and Mavai Senathirajah) and their families.