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Advani promises to bring out the truth behind Rajiv's killing

Home Minister L K Advani told the Lok Sabha today that the government is keen to bring out the truth about the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and promised to set up a multi- disciplinary monitoring agency with statutory powers to follow up the report of the Jain Commission that went into the conspiracy angle of the killing.

In his introductory remarks before the House took up the debate on the Jain Commission report, he said the government would carry out further investigations to unravel the conspiracy behind assassination from both the domestic and external angles.

The home minister pointed out that Rajiv Gandhi was a tall personality of Indian politics and his killing should not be allowed to go clueless. He added that the assassination was a dark chapter in Indian history .

He noted that the judicial court had awarded an unprecedented punishment of death sentence to 26 persons among the accused. He added that the conspiracy angle of such a case should not go unravelled.

Referring to the various suggestions for follow-up action on the reports of the Jain Commission that looked into the conspiracy angle and the Verma Commission that examined the lapses that led to the murder, the home minister said he would prefer an executive investigation. In this context, he proposed setting up of the MDMA.

The home minister said the government would not like to entrust the follow-up of the Jain Commission report to another judicial commission as it would prolong the process and dilute the very purpose.

Initiating the debate, P Shiv Shankar (Congress) said his party did not want any witch-hunting over the killing, but was interested in getting at the truth.

He alleged that the governments at the Centre after 1991 did not want the Jain Commission to find out the truth and put hurdles in its smooth functioning.

The Congress member blamed the politicians and bureaucrats that tendered evidences before the commission for hiding facts rather than revealing them. Those in power failed to evaluate the evidences, he added.

Shiv Shankar said the government had to take into account the significant aspects of the reports of the Jain and Verma commissions.

He alleged that "certain forces" had been against Rajiv Gandhi since the day the latter became prime minister and wanted to replace him.

Shiv Shankar felt that Justice Jain had done a commendable job by narrowing down on sources of conspiracy. However, he added, that he did not approve of the certain extravagant observations in the report.

Shiv Shankar said the blue book meant for the security of most threatened persons was never pressed into service and only the yellow book was used.

He said it was an enigma to him that the action taken report did not recommend any action against any bureaucrat and said the ATR was nothing but a coverup action on part of the bureaucracy.

Shiv Shankar said the Congress party had accepted the report but had rejected the ATR because it was a political document through which the government had tried to strengthen its ranks and divide the opposition.

He underlined that the Congress party only wanted to arrive at the truth but the ATR did not lead it anywhere as only general observations had been made in it.

Shiv Shankar said his party was interested only in the truth and not in any political mileage. Action should be taken against all those found responsible by the Jain Commission and none among them should be spared, he said when All India Anna DMK members insisted on some particular name.

He said the ATR was a total eyewash. The role of the 19 people out of the 21 identified by the commission was not investigated further, though there was complete evidence against them in the report, he said.

He wanted to know why no effort was made to decode the LTTE messages regarding this assassination. One message on June 18, 1988, even said the LTTE was making garlands of bullets for Rajiv Gandhi. Consistent messages were decoded only before the commission and not earlier, he said.

Shiv Shankar said the CBI has not probed the role of any bureaucrat or bureaucratic institutions in this case. The involvement of any foreign hand or the real conspiracies were also left out, he said.

He said the file regarding the winding up of the Jain Commission should be gone into. Several key points identified by the commission to help locate the conspirators were left unattended according to the ATR, he said.

Though the government had instructed that three personal security officers should accompany Rajiv Gandhi, at the time of assassination only one PSO was with him, Shiv Shankar said.

Former cabinet secretary Zafar Saifullah's revelations about intercepting of naval messages and the links of tantrik Chandra Swami with the CIA and Mossad have not been probed, he said.

Indrajit Gupta (CPI) said it was a matter of great anguish that two prime ministers of the country were assassinated but the investigating agencies failed to unearth the truth.

He said when the Thakkar Commission delayed its report on the investigation into the Indira Gandhi assassination, the ruling party at that time did not express enough impatience. The actual killer was in doubt and the motive behind the killing was not proved. What remained unanswered was whether other people were involved in the conspiracy. He said the Thakkar Commission had failed to unravel the conspiracy in the case.

Gupta said inquiries conducted in this fashion would leave a scope for repetition of such events in future.

Gupta said Justice Jain had approached him when he was the home minister and had complained that he was not getting certain documents, including the ones relating to PLO leader Yasser Arafat's warning to Rajiv Gandhi that there was a conspiracy to eliminate him and there was a danger to his life.

Gupta said he had informed Jain that the conversation between the two leaders could not be made public.

He said Jain also wanted the minutes on the proceedings of a cabinet meeting which could not be made public and hence were not provided to him.

He described Rajiv Gandhi's action of sending the Indian Peace Keeping Force to Sri Lanka as a blunder which antagonised LTTE and provoked the outfit to conspire against him.

Gupta said the people who had lined up to garland Gandhi at the Sriperumbadur meeting were not checked which was the negligence of duty on the part of securitymen. He said the Jain Commission had not gone deep into this aspect.

Gupta demanded that the involvement of foreign agencies in the assassination of Gandhi be thoroughly probed.

UNI

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