Attempts to split the congress

In April 1996 the Congress asked the UF to change its leadership since it had built up firm evidence that the agencies of the government were being used blatantly to subvert the Congress. Day in and day out, the Congress was subject to abuse from some constituents of the UF. The Congress kept quiet. Sadly, there was no effort made by the UF to institutionalise cooperation and consultation with the Congress even though Congress support was crucial to the UF's existence.

Rajiv Gandhi's Assassination and The Jain Commission

The Jain commission was set up in 1991 with two terms of reference. The first was to inquire into the circumstances and events leading to the assassination of Shri Rajiv Gandhi. The second was to inquire into the conspiracy by persons and its wider ramifications. The Jain Commission's report on the first term of reference was submitted on August 28th , 1997. It was then placed on the table of both the Houses of Parliament on November 20, 1997.

The report has exhaustively dealt with the role of a section of DMK party, and of the then Tamil Nadu government headed by Shri Karunanidhi in aiding and abetting the LTTE organisation. The report has conclusively demonstrated that such support was extended even after the LTTE took a hostile anti - India and anti - Rajiv Gandhi attitude following the signing of the Indo - Shri Lanka Agreement in 1987.

The Congress was aware of the understanding between a section of the DMK party and the LTTE. The Congress was also aware of the way the LTTE exploited to its advantage the sentiment of support it enjoyed within a section of the DMK. All these facts were commonly known but it is for the first time they have been brought on record, on the basis of oral and documentary evidence, in the report of a Commission of Enquiry.

There may be differences in regard to the legal interpretation of the extent of involvement but it is beyond doubt that the LTTE killed Shri Rajiv Gandhi in May, 1991. LTEE could not have killed Shri Rajiv Gandhi without the support and assistance it received from the DMK - led government and a section of the DMK leadership. The basic question that any Congress worker has to grapple with is clear. How could the Congress continue to support the United Front government, a constituent of which is held by a Commission of Enquiry to be the abettor of an agency that killed the Congress President, a former Congress Prime Minister and a future Congress Prime Minister?

The attitude of Shri Inder Kumar Gujral's government was ambivalent, to say the least. CONGRESS I 5 On the one hand the Prime Minister Shri Inder Kumar Gujral, both through letters and orally, continued to give expression to the sentiments that all the circumstances leading to the assassination and the conspiracy angle and the conspiracy angle would be inquired into and the culprits exposed. But, in fact, the government headed by him failed to place before the Commission vital documents needed for the Commission to complete its inquiry into the conspiracy aspect.

By withdrawing support from a government of which the DMK was a part, all that the Congress was doing was to voice its deep concern shared by no less an individual than the Prime Minister and the head of the government himself. How else was the Congress Party expected to show its respect to a leader who sacrificed his life while campaigning for the Party? With what moral authority could the Congress claim to seek the support of the people and pledge to work for them if it did not take the next logical step arising out of the conclusions of the Commission of Enquiry reached after six years of painstaking investigation? The Jain Commission is not just a judicial issue. It is much more than that. It is a moral issue. It is an emotional issue. It is an issue that just cannot be ignored and wished away.

It affects the Congress to its very core. The Congress does not believe that the LTTE was harbored and supported by all Tamils. All that it says is that the Commission of Enquiry has found a section of DMK - managed administration and a section of the DMK party leadership guilty of supporting the LTTE even at a time when it was clear that the LTTE had become anti - Indian. It is the support in the period after 1987 that is in question. Tamil personalities rendered yeoman service during the freedom movement. Who can fall to get inspired by Subramania Bharati and the nationalist feelings he arousal over the country? Who can forget Rajaji, described Gandhiji as his conscience keeper?

How can any Congress worker forget Satyamurthy? How can the Congress not remember with pride Kamaraj, one of its most distinguished Presidents? And who can forget Periyar, who ignited a social reform movement that is a beacon to the rest of the country? The DMK itself initially preachednsecession. But Annaduraj ultimately became a fervent champion of national integration and unity. CONGRESS I 6 Right through the 1950s and till date, successive Congress governments took up the cause of Sri Lankan Tamils. Pandit Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi entered into various agreements to protect the basic human rights of our Tamil brethren in Sri Lanka.

Rajiv Gandhi also felt deeply for the Sri Lankan Tamils. But he was clear that any solution to the Tamil problem in Sri Lanka had to be found within the constitutional framework of Sri Lanka and in such a manner that unity and integrity of Sri Lanka was protected and preserved. India's support to the LTTE ceased in 1987 when it became clear that the LTTE's objective was to break - up Sri Lanka. This is the background against which the Congress demanded that one of the representatives of a 13 - party Coalition be dropped from the government. The Congress made a simple request to the UF: drop the three DMK ministers from the Council of Ministers. The UF refused. Informally, the Congress evensuggested temporary exclusion of the three DMK ministers from the government pending an independent evaluation of the findings of the Jain Commission's Report on the role of the DMK. The UF once again refused.

The Congress wants to tell the nation that under no circumstances it is prepared to compromise on the issue of the assassination of its leader Rajiv Gandhi. The Congress considers it its dharma to pursue vigorously the inquiry into the conspiracy which resulted in this dastardly act. The Congress will spare no effort to see that the conspirators are exposed and dealt with according to law. When the UF and the Congress were negotiating a way out, what was the BJP doing? The BJP was making brazen and shameless efforts to buy MPs from different parties to create an artificial Majority. Appeals for defection were made by senior leaders of BJP. Their blind lust for power made BJP leaders reckless adventurers devoid of minimum scruples. They offered money to MPs. They offered ministerial berths. What they did in UP was sought to be repeated in Delhi. They coined new phrases. Defection became realignment of forces. Criminalisation of politics was given respectability in the name of a Janadesh. But the BJP failed miserably. The stubbornness of the UF and the adventurism of the BJP forced this mid - term poll on the country. In a representative democracy, elections are the only way of establishing the will of the people. .

Never before has the choice been so clear. Never before has the choice been so stark and simple.