A section of students at Jawaharlal Nehru University, mostly from Tamil Nadu, are reviving the debate on the Tamil liberation struggle by way of poems. Posters depicting the slain leader as a “martyr” dot the varsity campus.

“I was surprised to find so many posters. They are all over the campus — in the hostels, school buildings and corridors,” said an M Phil student from the Centre of Arts and Aesthetics.

The posters, conceptualised by M Phil student Kalaiarasan, condole Thamilselvan’s death in strong terms and assert his influence on the Tamil liberation struggle through a tagline —’Martyrs are not born, they are sown’.

Thamilselvan, who headed the political wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and was considered close to its chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, was killed when the Sri Lankan Air Force bombed a rebel base in Kilinochchi in Sri Lanka last week.

The posters put up on Monday night, supporting the cause of LTTE’s struggle for Tamil liberation in Sri Lanka, have taken the university by storm.

“LTTE is a worldwide banned terrorist organisation fighting against the sovereignty of Sri Lanka and India. The organisation is responsible for the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and cannot be praised like this publicly. We have asked the JNU administration to take them off,” NSUI spokesperson Anand Pandey said.

Students associated with the pro-Thamilselvan campaign say the posters are just a symbolic way of expressing their support. “Selva has been supporting the cause of Tamil Eelam. Our brothers in Sri Lanka are fighting for their right of self-determination. Support to freedom struggles has always been relevant to the culture of JNU and we are only carrying the tradition forward,” said Ramsubramanian Rakkappan, a PhD student at the School of International Studies.