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Maran borrows from Jain report to bounce Congress charges

Had intelligence agencies bothered to decode two crucial messages they intercepted on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam wireless, Rajiv Gandhi's assassination could have been averted.

So spoke Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Murasoli Maran on Wednesday. Naturally, he was quoting the Jain Commission report.

Borrowing profusely from Justice Milap Chand Jain, Maran informed the media that the first message was sent from Madras to Jaffna two months before the assassination, when Tamil Nadu was under President's rule.

The second message, he said, was much more specific. It said, ''Should the attempt be in Madras or the capital? If in capital, it requires strenuous efforts and sufficient time.''

Major General Yashwant Dave, the army's communication expert while deposing before the Commission, had contended that if surveillance had been mounted on the wireless network, bases located and intercepts decoded, the assassination could, perhaps, have been averted.

Referring to the Congress contention that the DMK had a hand in the assassination, Maran said the whole world knew it was beyond the capacity of 'Tamils in Tamil Nadu' and the DMK to make the LTTE a monstrous fighting machine.

''We all know who trained, financed and armed them'' he said.

He had a few questions for the Congress which, he pointed out, had ruled the country for five years after Rajiv's death:

Were those messages decoded in time or not?

Were those decoded messages ignored deliberately to permit the assassination?

If they were not decoded in time, what was the reason?

Was it not a dereliction of duty?

Who were responsible (for the lapse) and what action has been taken during the five years of Congress rule?

Unfortunately, no Congress leader was available to answer Maran -- they were addressing bigger questions at the Congress headquarters.

UNI

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