Jain commission and DMK

The Rediff Special/Cho Ramaswamy

'The Jain Commission's finding that the DMK helped the LTTE acquire arms to fight the IPKF smacks of treason'

The Jain Commission has said the encouragement given by the DMK, while it was in power, to the LTTE, ultimately enabled the LTTE to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi. I have been saying this for a long time. I had demanded the dismissal of the DMK government when V P Singh was in power, and again reiterated my demand when Chandra Shekhar came to power. I was perhaps the only journalist in Tamil Nadu who welcomed the dismissal of the DMK government. So I agree with the Commission's findings.

Having said this, I would say that the DMK has already been punished enough, by being turned out of office, by being dismissed. It is nobody’s case, not even Jain’s findings, that they had any hand or role to play in the assassination. Their support, and their help, given to the LTTE, at a particular stage, helped the latter to assassinate Rajiv. That is all. For that they have been punished.

But there are certain other things in the findings which require an investigation by an agency like the CBI. I refer to the findings that the DMK government helped the LTTE acquire arms and weapons to fight the IPKF. That they passed on to the LTTE whatever messages they received from the central government. That Karunanidhi told an LTTE delegation that Varadaraja Perumal should be done away with.

These are very serious matters. They smack of treason, so they must be investigated.

The Sri Lankan Tamil militants no doubt grew here from the very inception. Indira Gandhi had supported them; then Rajiv Gandhi supported them; MGR supported them. It all started from 1983 onwards. Gradually, the entire press in Tamil Nadu, but for my journal, and almost all the journalists in Tamil Nadu except me, supported the LTTE. Everyone thought they were freedom fighters. But I saw them as maniacal killers. There was a difference in perception.

There was overwhelming support, from all walks of life in Tamil Nadu, for the LTTE. Not only Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and MGR, but every political party, every shade of public opinion was in favour of the LTTE. This support was provoked by two things: one was the genocide practised by the then Sri Lankan government on the Tamils in Sri Lanka, the other was the idea that the LTTE could restore the rights of the Tamils there. It is a different matter that all this belief was misplaced.

All this support for the LTTE existed before the Indo-Sri Lankan accord and before the IPKF went to Jaffna. Till then it was central government policy to support the LTTE. It was a wrong policy. It was a foolish policy that ought not to have been practised by them. Indira Gandhi had certain ideas about how to handle neighbours. I was in total disagreement with them. The state government also followed the same policy. Of course, everybody may have been influenced by the thought that the Tamil people were all with the LTTE.

After the Indo-Sri Lankan accord, the central government took a different line. They mended their ways. They started seeing the Sri Lankan Tamils’s problems in the right perspective. Help to the LTTE was stopped. Not only that, the LTTE presence in Tamil Nadu was totally eliminated. This was during MGR’s period. After the IPKF went to Sri Lanka, the LTTE became an anti-India outfit. Even earlier they had shown signs of it, but after the Accord, they openly started fighting the Indian army. They were anti-Indian, totally.

At this stage, Karunanidhi came to power in Tamil Nadu. It was his party which started helping the LTTE and resurrecting them in Tamil Nadu. The presence here grew again because of the encouragement given by Karunanidhi. He went against the policy of the central government, which was to contain the LTTE. The Jain Commission has said he even helped them acquire arms to fight the Indian army. This is a very serious allegation. It has got to be enquired into, because it is anti-national.

One cannot forget the fact that the Commission arrived at its conclusion after going through several records, after examining witnesses, allowing cross examination of witnesses. It is a quasi-judicial finding, not the judgment of a court. So there must be an investigation by an agency like the CBI into the allegation whether the DMK actually helped the LTTE acquire arms to fight the IPKF.

That the Jain Commission has dubbed the entire Tamil community as having helped the LTTE? This is a totally diversionary tactic and I am surprised that the newspapers seem to be siding with the DMK on this. The Jain Commission has said that Rajiv’s assassination would not have been possible without the nexus developed between the LTTE and the Tamil people, the support given to the LTTE by the state authorities, and the support given to the LTTE by the law enforcement agencies. So they have not blamed the Tamil people alone. They have not said that the Tamil people helped the assassins; they have not said that the Tamil people relished the assassination. They have only said that the misplaced help also helped the LTTE.

The DMK's supporters and the media are crying for Jain’s blood because he said the entire Tamil people were supporting the LTTE. But earlier, that was the proud claim made by the DMK, that the entire state was with the LTTE. This was the claim made by the DMK, by every supporter of the LTTE, by various chauvinist outfits here. This was claimed by the LTTE also. They thought it was the pride of Tamils to support the LTTE.

Now when Jain says so, they are all very angry! Jain is, after all, repeating what was said earlier in Tamil Nadu by all leaders of public opinion. I never shared this view. The fact is that at a particular point in time, the overwhelming majority of Tamilians supported the LTTE. But they were misled into it by leaders of public opinion like political leaders and journalists. I don’t think the people are going to buy this story of Karunanidhi’s that the Jain Commission has condemned the people of Tamil Nadu as a whole. It may be written about and spoken about for some time, but it will not be the issue.

The press today is totally against the Congress. They never had any great respect for Rajiv Gandhi as a politician or as a man. Perhaps they think that one should forget his death. But I don’t see it that way. He was the prime minister of this country. His life was taken away by foreign terrorists on our soil. We have to find out the guilty, we have to punish them. We have to see who encouraged them, and punish them. We have to see who behaved in an anti-national fashion then, and punish them.

I am least bothered whether this is going to help the Congress or not. Let it help anybody. If the truth is going to help somebody to win an election, I don’t mind. But the fact is, the Congress is not going to reap any benefit out of this. The death of a cadre, a humble worker, has been used by almost every political party for fetching votes. Is not the Congress entitled to do it? Why should I blame the Congress alone? But I think this cannot be an electoral issue. The calculation of the Congress is wrong. It has given them a talking point, that’s all. They did not have even that earlier. If at all it benefits anybody, it may benefit Jayalalitha here in Tamil Nadu.

I don’t think the Commission’s work has been a waste of time. I would say this: at one stage of the enquiry, all sorts of allegations were freely made before the Commission. Almost everybody, Narasimha Rao, Chandra Shekhar, all were dubbed as the assassins of Rajiv Gandhi. That kind of sensationalism should not have been allowed by the Commission.

As told to Shobha Warrier

http://www.rediff.com/news/dec/03cho.htm