Govt Accepts Cong View On Jain Atr

The government yesterday agreed to concede the Congress demands on probing the leads provided in the final report of the Jain Commission which inquired into the conspiracy behind the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Union home minister L K Advani and Urban Affairs Minister Ram Jethmalani promised the Congress all support in getting to the truth, even while Congress rejected the Action Taken Report as a "white wash".

Jethmalani, was raising every issue mentioned earlier by Congress speaker P Shiv Shanker, point-wise, then seeking the views on them from the Congress benches before promising to concede their demands. He was often seen exchanging glances with Union Home Minister L K Advani sitting next to him before assuring the Congress benches of how the government would do everything to get to the truth.

 

For example, he mentioned how the evidence before the Commission by the then Union home minister, the Union home secretary and the Prime Minister (he was referring to P V Narasimha Rao's government) were contradictory and if pursued would make at least two of them liable for perjury and destroying of evidence.

After that he would come up with some sentences like "we have no intention in getting back upon those persons" and "once we have decided, can we look into the aspects that Shiv Shanker wants us to ... let us think of the future and not the past". But soon he would lapse into "we are prepared if you wish ...." followed by shouts of "yes, yes" from the Congress benches and followed by a prompt promise from Jethmalani to cooperate.

For some reason, Jethmalani spoke at some length to stress how the ATR was the collective view of the government, though individuals in the Union Cabinet might have held different views.

During his speech, Jethmalani touched upon a sensitive issue_the method of appointment of CBI director. Responding to the Congress demand that the instead of the multi-disciplinary agency the job of pursuing, the leads should be entrusted to an independent agency, Jethmalani said that the government had accepted the Supreme Court directive for setting up a mechanism for appointment of CBI director.

"We have suggested to the Law Commission to find out how a mechanism can work." He said that when the government talks about the CBI it talks of "CBI purified by the Supreme Court".

Shiv Shanker, in his 100 minute speech made a veiled criticism of Narasimha Rao by saying governments since 1991 had acted in a manner to deny the commission material to ascertain real facts behind Rajiv Gandhi's killing on May 21, 1991 in Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu by a human bomb.

Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy accused the government of carrying out a `'political vendetta'' against him by including his name in the ATR for a further probe saying the final report had not made such a recommendation.

Swamy charged the government with using the ATR to settle political scores with him as he was carrying out a campaign to topple it. He alleged that the RSS was trying to politically isolate him.

Swamy said the commission had clearly noted that just because he had sympathy for the Tamil Tigers it could not be concluded that he was part of the conspiracy and alleged that two ministers in the Vajpayee government had links with the LTTE.