COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

DMK chief unfazed by 'dubious' report

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi is unfazed by reports that the Jain Commission has indicted his Dravida Munnetra Kazagham in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

Expressing confidence that the Commission report would not affect the Inder Kumar Gujral government and the DMK, he said, ''There might be some quarters who long for such a development, like those who planted the report in the media, but they will be disappointed.''

Dismissing the revelations as ''old wine in new bottle'', the chief minister on Sunday said he had nothing to fear as the findings were based on ''questionable'' depositions.

In this context, he recounted how then Tamil Nadu home secretary R Nagarajan gave an anti-Karunanidhi testimony at former chief minister Jayalalitha Jayaram's behest. Nagarajan had submitted to the Commission that Karunanidhi directed the police to allow a smooth passage for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam killer squad which mowed down a rival militant group, the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front.

Karunanidhi read out a copy of the official's letter to Jayalalitha. ''I have done my duty... I have acted according to your instructions... I have now unburdened myself... I will never again go back on my statements,'' Nagarajan had written, after his turnaround implicating Karunanidhi in the EPRLF massacre.

He said the fact that his party received a massive mandate in 1996 indicates that the people were unwilling to buy the ''allegations''.

Revealing that he had refuted allegations of the DMK's links with the LTTE several times with facts and figures, the chief minister noted that Justice Milap Chand Jain himself had faulted the working of the intelligence agencies.

During the 1991 general election, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham-Congress alliance's posters tried to create an impression that former prime minister V P Singh and the then Andhra Pradesh chief minister N T Rama Rao were behind the Rajiv assassination.

Karunanidhi said almost all the political parties in Tamil Nadu had championed the LTTE cause in the eighties. Then prime minister Indira Gandhi opened camps to train the militants, he added.

As for Jayalalitha, the AIADMK chief had made several statements favouring the LTTE. ''If the LTTE is wiped out, the Tamil race in Sri Lanka will perish,'' she had said.

ALSO SEE:
Why the LTTE turned against Rajiv Gandhi

EARLIER REPORTS:
Jain panel interim report indicts Karunanidhi, V P Singh, Chandra Shekhar
Panel to study Jain commission report on Rajiv killing
Jain Commission report may upset UF applecart
Jain Commission interim report silent on conspiracy angle
Chidambaram, DMK on a collision course

Tell us what you think of this report