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MDMA may prove to be a blessing in disguise for Karunanidhi

Is the multi-disciplinary monitoring agency under the Jain Commission Action Taken Report as politically-motivated as alleged by the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu, or is it a mechanism that will help clear party leader and Chief Minister M Karunanidhi of all suspicion in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination?

"Though the DMK alleges political vendetta by the Vajpayee government on behalf of its AIADMK constituent, there is nothing on record to prove the charge," says an informed source. "If anything, given the `meagre material', if any, provided in the final report of the Jain Commission, the MDMA may clear Karunanidhi of whatever unsubstantiated doubts lingering in Jain's mind."

According to these sources, the Vajpayee government had little option but to comply with the final report of the Jain Commission. "Obviously, the government did not want to be seen as being selective, and whoever was named by the Commission as deserving further probe, it has included them in the ATR."

In this context, the sources also pooh-pooh the DMK charge that the BJP leadership was under pressure from the AIADMK and other alliance partners in Tamil Nadu. They also dismiss the charge of the AIADMK front ministers fighting for including Karunanidhi's name.

Say the sources: "Even without pressure from the Tamil Nadu constituents, the government had only two options: accept the final report in toto, or reject it in toto. Going beyond the AIADMK and given the broader political realities, it could not have included some in the ATR, and left out others."

As these sources point out, even the Jain Commission had not drawn up any yardstick for deciding on the who's who for future probes. "Though there may be some truth in the DMK claim that the bureaucratic exercise on the ATR draft had left out Karunanidhi's name, no political party in the BJP's place could have accepted it without attracting political retribution from friends and foes alike."

"But the ATR is one thing, the action taken thereunder by the MDMA is another," say these sources, realistically. "Though the Jain report says Karunanidhi's `interrogation (by the CBI-SIT) was relevant on many matters', it has not mentioned even one such `matter' worthy of follow-up."

Adds the sources: "Neither the Jain report, nor the SIT investigation into the Rajiv Gandhi assassination, has found anything incriminating against Karunanidhi. With the result, even the MDMA will have little logical legal option to clear him in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination, whatever be the links the DMK has had earlier with the LTTE."

They also refer to AIADMK chief Jayalalitha's reference to the Jain Commission's interim report indicting the Karunanidhi government of 1989-91: "True, some of the `Padmanabha killers' later participated in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination, and they also escaped when Karunanidhi was in power. But to use that as the only argument to link Karunaidhi to the Rajiv Gandhi assassination conspiracy is utterly illogical."

Add the sources in this context: "Jayalalitha now says the Jain Commission has indicted the Karunanidhi leadership for creating an atmosphere conducive to Rajiv Gandhi's assassination. She has also pointed out that six of the accused were common to the Rajiv Gandhi assassination and the earlier killing of anti-LTTE Sri Lankan Tamil leader Padhmanabha and 14 others in Madras in June 1990."

Ask the sources: "Leave alone the fact that a TADA court in Madras has since acquitted then state home secretary R Nagarajan of complicity in the Padmanabha murder case, but even the Jayalalitha government that reopened the murder probe and filed the chargesheet did not mention Karunanidhi as an accused. All the facts made known to the Jain Commission on the Padmanabha killing was known to the state police investigating the reopened case, after all."

The allegation is that Karunanidhi had used Nagarajan to tell the police to let go off Padmanabha's killers without apprehending them. "Either the Padmanabha case should be reopened, or the charge against Karunanidhi should be laid to rest. Even then, there is no Karunanidhi angle to the Rajiv Gandhi assassination conspiracy."

These sources also caution that any investigation or interrogation of Karunanidhi should be done with utmost sensitivity and seriousness. "You are investigating a chief minister and senior statesman. You cannot allow it to be politicised, or let its proceedings be selectively leaked to the press, as was the case with the Jain reports."

The sources have a point: "The very idea of a possible investigation, leave alone interrogation, is a political embarrassment. It should not be made into a political harassment," they add, referring to Karunanidhi's veiled threat "not to stir the hornest's nest".

For all this, however, the sources do not share the DMK plank that the party was not a favourite of the LTTE leadership. "True, the LTTE favoured AIADMK to the DMK when M G Ramachandran was chief minister. But with MGR's departure and the DMK coming to power in 1989, old ties seemed to have been revived. After all, the LTTE wanted to be in the good books of whoever was ruling the state, for obvious reasons, and all proof of the Tigers' anti-DMK stand pertains to the MGR era."

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