| Honourable V. Dharmalingam MP |
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| Member of the Ceylonese Parliament for Uduvil / Manipay |
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| In office 1960–1983 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born | 5 February 1918 |
| Died | 2 September 1985 (aged 67) Thavady, Sri Lanka |
| Nationality | Sri Lankan |
| Political party | Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi |
| Other political affiliations |
Tamil United Liberation Front |
| Children | D. Siddhartan |
| Alma mater | Skandavarodaya College St. Patrick's College |
| Ethnicity | Sri Lankan Tamil |
Visvanathan Dharmalingam (also spelt Tharmalingam) was a Sri Lankan Tamil politician and Member of Parliament.
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Dharmalingam was born on 5 February 1918. He was educated at Skandavarodaya College, Chunnakam, and St. Patrick's College, Jaffna. He later entered Ceylon Law College but gave up his legal studies to enter politics.
Dharmalingam's son Siddhartan is the leader of the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam, pro-government paramilitary group and political party.
Dharmalingam was elected to Uduvil Village Council in 1944, later becoming its chairman. Although a leftist he joined the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (Federal Party). He was ITAK's candidate for Uduvil at the March 1960 parliamentary election. He won the election and entered Parliament.[1] He was re-elected at the July 1960, March 1965 and May 1970 parliamentary elections.[2][3][4]
In 1972 the ITAK, All Ceylon Tamil Congress and others formed the Tamil United Front (later renamed Tamil United Liberation Front). Dharmalingam was the TULF's candidate in Manipay (the new name of the Uduvil electoral district) at the 1977 parliamentary election which he won.[5] Dharmalingam 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, Dharmalingam forfeited his seat in Parliament on 8 October 1983.[6]
On the night of 2/3 September 1985 two men went to the house of Murugesu Alalasundaram, MP for Kopay, at Kalliyankadu, Nallur and kidnapped him at gun point. They took Alalasundaram in a car and drove to Uduvil where Dharmalingam was attending a wedding. The men then kidnapped Dharmalingam as well. The next day Alalasundaram's body was found in a scrub jungle near his home at Kalliyankadu with bullet wounds in the chest and arm. Dharmalingam's body was found at a cemetery in Thavady, Manipay, with a bullet wound in the forehead.
No one claimed responsibility for the murders. Dharmalingam's son Siddhartan, who is a member of the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam militant group, blamed one of the members of Eelam National Liberation Front for the murders (PLOTE wasn't a member of ENLF). The Sri Lankan government blamed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam for the murders. It is now widely believed that the murders were carried out by Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization, an Indian backed militant group, on the orders of the Research and Analysis Wing, the Indian intelligence agency.
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