HIDDEN MASTERMINDS
WITHIN CONGRESS:
RAJIV GANDHI MURDER
MYSTERY
The
spokesperson of the Congress party in charge of Tamilnadu affairs had sought
Srilanka to hand over LTTE supremo Mr.Velupillai Prabakaran which is the top
story in Deccan Chronicle on 4th January 2009.So the cat is out of
the bag. All these days the United Progressive Alliance government headed by
Mr.Manmohan Singh had been pretending to be heeding to the unanimous resolution
passed by the Tamilnadu assembly to stop the genocidal war and also making
false promises to depute the Minister of External Affairs Mr.Pranab Mukherjee
to advice Srilankan government to halt the war. Its real motive is revenge, and
nothing else. It wants millions of Tamils to be annihilated to avenge the death
of a Former Indian Prime Minister. It has neither humanitarian concern to
intervene to stop the genocide nor it has geo-political interests to uphold
Indian interests in the region. China which has no access to Indian Ocean, has
got that access with the help of Srilanka by firmly entrenching its foot in
Hampanthotta harbor it builds in Southern tip of Srilanka to watch the sea
routes of the Indian Ocean. Actually by building harbors for Mynmar, Bangladesh,
Maldives and Pakistan, China had encircled India. China has foothold in Bay of
Bengal, thanks to the red carpet welcome of Bangladesh and Myanmar. Srilanka
had tied its fate to Chinese designs by offering on platter Hampanthotta to
have total control of the sea lanes of the Indian Ocean. Maldives and Pakistan
had provided a foothold for China in Arabian Sea. China arms the Srilankan
government in its genocidal war. India too strangely is an accomplice of China
and Pakistan in the war theatre of the killing fields of Tamil Eelam. The
hatred towards LTTE had even blinded India about the harm it inflicts on its
own geo-political interests.
The Rajiv Gandhi murder mystery needs to be
solved, if at all for present government or any future government in India to
come out of a phobia and to arrive at a balanced mind. It is high time to
recall that in the aftermath of Mrs.Indira Gandhi’s murder by misguided Sikhs,
Congress leaders and cadres went on for teaching Sikhs a lesson, and that ended
the lives of few thousand Sikhs. The needle of suspicion pointed out leading
Congress leaders as responsible for those killings. Sikhs did not demand that
Congress party as an organization is guilty of those revenge killings. Neither
the Congress condemned Sikhs as criminal race as it treats Tamils in Eelam.
Congress in fact has its government headed by a Sikh. The reasonable logic that
is applied with regard to Sikhs goes on missing eaten by some sudden invasion
of hate virus in the minds of the Congressmen that looses its mental
equilibrium on handling Tamil affairs. Hence a national debate on Mr.Rajiv
Gandhi’s murder becomes necessary. It is not a new wine but in fact an old wine
served in new bottle. Yes, the national debate of past is brought out again.
OUTLOOK, India’s News magazine in its 24th November 1997 issue has
the wrapper story titled : THE MISSING FILES, on crucial files concerning the
Rajiv Gandhi assassination case have either been lost or suppressed. Outlook
investigated that mystery. In the lengthy story within the magazine the title
is :THE DEADLY DUO.
It
would be historically important to tell who the Deadly Duo are ? They are not
in LTTE, the banned organization but they belong to the Congress, which had not
been banned nor initiated action even posthumously on the key beneficiary of
the Rajiv Gandhi assassination. We reproduce the Outlook story here, as it
appeared. We urge the world community to carefully read in between the lines
the role of the real murderers of Rajiv Gandhi. We urge for the awakening of
the conscience among the Congressmen, and if that hate virus infected Congress
brains have to be formatted before installing the Anti-Tamil virus programme,
let it be done. The curse India casts on all Tamils as criminal race and need
to be done to death by genocidal Sinhalese army, is a historical blunder. The
Nazi Hitler was taught a befitting lesson by USA,USSR,GB and other democratic
forces of the world, but the Neo-Nazi Hitler Rajapakhshe thrives on the support
of extreme opposite poles in geo-politics, namely India and Pakistan, India and
China. Also the man who invaded Iraq in search of Chemical weapons, which were
not found till date, but only shoes are found at the fag end of his time,
Mr.George Bush is forcing India to repeat his Iraqi mistake in Srilanka, at
least in the limited context of blaming LTTE and TAMILS for Rajiv Gandhi
murder, to use it as reason to turn blind eye to genocide.
N.Nandhivarman,
General Secretary, Dravida Peravai.
OUT LOOK
STORY :
THE
DEADLY DUO
Crucial
evidence linking Chandraswami to the Rajiv case went missing from Rao’s PMO,
OUTLOOK investigates.
·
File No:8-1-WR/JSS/90/Vol III
– containing notings of bureaucrats regarding security arrangements for Rajiv
Gandhi from November 1989 was lost from the Prime Ministers Office in 1991.
Later, it was doctored and re-constructed by the Narasimha Rao Government
before it was submitted to Jain Commission.
·
File No: 1/12014/5/91-IAS/DIII
reported missing since 1995.It pertained to the terms of reference of the Verma
and Jain Commissions of Inquiry.
·
File containing intercepted
messages from foreign intelligence agencies, said to be addressed to
Chandraswami and Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy, destroyed by senior
officials in the PMO.
·
File on IB’s assessment of the
role played by Zail Singh and Chandraswami in 1987 to topple Rajiv Gandhi missing.
·
File with records of official
briefings by intelligence agencies on the assassination to Rao’s Home Minister
S.B.Chavan missing. The former Minister confirms he was briefed orally.
·
The April 20, 1991 wireless
intercept with the leading question, should Rajiv be killed in Delhi or Madras missing
·
File relating to the Rao
governments attempt to wind up the Jain commission is still withheld from the
panel.
Do
these files/messages and other sensitive information-categorised as untraceable
, missing, destroyed or cannot be revealed due to security reasons- hold the
key to the mystery that shrouds Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination ? The Jain
Commission thinks so. The AICC[ All India Congress Committee] has been pressing
for these files and documents. And intelligence officials admit in private that
vital evidence seems to have been suppressed to ensure that the largest
conspiracy behind the May 21, 1991 assassination does not come to light .
It is
these missing files, documents and intercepts that have kept alive the basic
question – Who killed Rajiv Gandhi ? Who participated, plotted or silently
abetted in the act? Right through his 5 year term, Narasimha Rao fuelled the
intrigue by losing, misplacing, reconstructing, denying the existence and even
allegedly destroying key files. His government did everything it could do to
place stumbling blocks and even allegedly tried to wind up the Jain Commission
inquiring into the conspiracy.
After
interviewing serving and retired IB ,RAW, CBI and Home Ministry officials Outlook
has learned that the Rao’s government’s extreme reluctance to part with crucial
files and wireless intercepts seems to have been aimed at protecting god-man
Chandraswami, whose links with international arms traders is an open secret.
Whenever the trial led to him, every effort was made by the government not to
cooperate with the Jain Commission. Accordingly, the file on Chandraswami’s
links with the LTTE prior to the assassination was never made available to the
commission. Says AICC appointed lawyer R.N.Mittal, closely associated with the
Jain Commission’s proceedings “ At every stage, we have been denied documents.
Our investigations have been like a personal effort against all odds.”
Political
circles are well aware of the reason why Chandraswami was being protected. The
god-man has close links with Rao-the two have been friends for 25 years. It’s
common knowledge that the tantrik was treated as a VIP when Rao was Prime
Minister and had special access to Rao’s official residence, 7, Race Course
Road.
Reliable
sources say, when the Commission, in face of resistance from the Government,
insisted that it be provided with certain documents, Rao ordered a sorting
operation. A top Cabinet Secretariat official was asked to divide the documents
into three categories :innocuous ones which could be passed on to the
commission ,documents on which privilege could be claimed before handing them
over, and highly sensitive intelligence reports, wireless intercepts and other
documents which could not be given to the commission at any cost.
The
crucial third category, says sources, contained wireless intercepts of messages
between foreign intelligence agencies to Chandraswami and Subramaniam Swamy.
They were passed on by the RAW to the Cabinet Secretariat. A RAW official
confirmed to the Jain Commission that the transcripts had indeed been passed on
by the intelligence agency.
What
did some of these missing files have ? Intelligence sources say one file
contained intercepted messages as well as details of the movements of
Subramaniam swamy and Chandra swami on assassination day. It also contains a
crucial intercept from Jaffna to LTTE operatives saying that funds have been
provided for carrying out the assassination. It refers to god-man having made
the payment.
Interestingly
the fact that the Rao government had actually doctored a file came to light
when Vinod Pande , who was the Cabinet Secretary in V.P.Singh’s government,
deposed before the Jain Commission that file No.8-1-WR/JSS/90/Vol III in which
he had made notings on Rajiv Gandhi’s security – had been tampered with. “ The
file which has been placed in my hands does not contain an official copy of my
note dated January 30,1990.The first few paras of the draft are not mine.”
Pande told the commission.
Hard
pressed, the Rao government had to give an explanation. It told the commission
that the file had been missing since 1991.It had been sent to the PMO on July
27, 1991 and had since disappeared. P.Chidambaram, the Minister in charge of
the assassination investigation and the probes, told the commission that
despite “ going over a toothcomb” in the PMO, Home Ministry as well as Prime
Minister’s residence, the file had not been located and therefore had to be
reconstructed. Strangely, it took the government 4 years time to own it up that
it had submitted a file which was not the original.
Clearly,
had the Jain Commission not demanded these files and documents, it would have been given a free run by Rao to
continue with its slow, meandering enquiry. Indeed , with the Special
Investigation Team of the CBI restricted to inquiring into the actual killing
and the larger conspiracy left to the Jain Commission, nothing much was
expected to emerge. But it was Jain’s insistence that the commission be given
access to the suppressed files that made Rao panic and provoked the subsequent
cover-up operation.
Details
available with Outlook suggest there were enough intercepts with Indian
intelligence agencies that a hit on Rajiv was imminent. On April 20,1991 RAW
intercepted a message from Jaffna with the leading question, should Rajiv be
killed in Delhi or Madras ? Four days before Rajiv was killed, the same
intelligence agency intercepted what is regarded as the LTTE’s final okay to
its team led by Sivarasan or the one-eyed Jack. The message came in an eight
line Tamil doggerel identifying the place and timing of the assault. The
message was conveyed to the IB head quarters in Delhi, but unfortunately for
Rajiv, it was a week end and the doggerel was decoded much after the damage was
done.
But
there had been enough warnings that there was a larger plot to kill Rajiv.
Yasser Arafat , chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization had warned
Rajiv of an international plot to assassinate him. He had conveyed this
information to then Prime Minister Chandrasekar. But no follow up investigation
was ever carried out.
According
to PLO spokesperson contacted by Outlook, Arafat had concrete information about
the plot. His source “people in Lebanon and Europe “ Arafat, through his
Ambassador in Delhi, Khalid El Sheikh told me that LTTE and Sikh organizations
are planning to kill Rajiv Gandhi during his election campaign on May. Sheikh
had met Rajiv on March 13, 1991. A week later he called on the Congress
President with a letter from Arafat. And a fortnight before the assassination,
he called on Rajiv yet again.
Arafat
provided details of the conspiracy to Chandrasekar when he attended Rajiv’s
funeral. The Indian Ambassador to one of the North African countries was asked
to contact Arafat. Then Foreign Secretary Muchkund Dubey, was also sent to see
Arafat separately. In this June 1991 meeting Arafat confirmed the international
conspiracy. Dubey and the Ambassador then filed a report on their meetings with
the PLO Chairman. But again, no action was taken on this lead. When asked about
the files by Justice Jain, Rao feigned ignorance. “I don’t remember about it.
The matter was not brought to my notice.”
Meanwhile
the Report of William Carry, who headed a US Senate Sub-Committee to probe into
the BCCI bank scam, confirms that the bank had accounts of arms dealers Adnan
Khashoggi and Ernie Miller. Both are known disciples of Chandraswam. Crucially,
the Carry report also notes that $ 84 million was transferred to the LTTE from
their accounts. Carry says the money was used for the Rajiv Gandhi
assassination. Senate investigations also revealed that Mossad, CIA and LTTE
had accounts in the BCCI.
Interestingly
in a statement before the Commission R.Velusamy, then President of Tamilnadu
Janata Party contended that Subramanian swamy had checked into Trident Hotel in
Madras while Chandrswami was lodged at Sindoor Hotels owned by Apollo Hospitals
on May 21, the day Rajiv was assassinated. Both left for Bangalore by car
through Sriperumbudur before reaching Delhi on a special flight.
He
told Outlook: “ May I also state that Dr.Swamy went via Sriperumbudur and
stopped at the venue of the meeting, ostensibly to look at the role of
Maragatham Chandrasekar, Congress candidate in the Parliamentary polls, for
whom Rajiv went to campaign in Sriperumbudur- in selecting the site. I declare
that Swamy told me about the role played by one JP Builders in persuading
Maragatham Chandrasekar in selecting the site for Rajiv’s meeting.”
Veluswamy
claims he called Swamy’s residence in Delhi at 10.45 AM on May 21 and Swamy’s
wife told him that he was indeed in Madras. Recalls Veluswamy, “ My efforts to
reach him proved futile. According to senior party colleagues , Dr.Swamy had an
hour long meeting with S.C.Chandrahasan, a Srilankan Tamil ideologue , at Hotel
Trident before he vacated the room and proceeded to meet Chandraswamy at Hotel
Sindoori owned by Chandraswami’s disciple Dr.Pratap Reddy. While I could
confirm that a room was booked for Dr.Swamy on May 21st at Trident,
I could not get any details about Chandraswami’s stay. Sindoori never maintains
any documents to show Chandraswami’s visits and he stays there as a personal
guest of Pratap Reddy.”
Swamy
has been denying that he was in Madras on May 21. But his Tamilnadu unit Chief
has given details of his itinerary. Stated Veluswamy before the Jain
Commission. “ Dr.Swamy admits arriving at Madras on 19.5.1991.He admits
travelling with me by my car and he admits that we had a halt at Kanchipuram
and that I was his translator. He admits that I was with him at Salem at 8.30
PM in the evening on 20.5.1991 and I am his translator in the Salem Town
meeting. He admits that he was to return to Madras on May 22 and then fly to
Madurai via Trichy and that I was to join him at Trichy. He is however silent
on where he stayed in Madras on the morning of May 21 and how long he stayed
there. But in the next paragraph of the affidavit , Swamy does a volte face.”On
21.5.1991, I was not in Madras at all or in Bangalore or indeed in South India
but I was in Delhi”
He
continues “ The issue is, while Swamy contends he gave a statement to the Delhi
PTI on May 21, he is very vague about his time of arrival at Delhi. The facts
are very clear from even available documents. He was with me well past midnight
on the 20th, which is actually the wee hours of the 21st.
It takes 6 hours to reach Madras by road. If he had reached Delhi by any
morning flight, there would be any number of records to show the flight and its
time of departure. I have already given proof that a room was booked in
Dr.Swamy’s name in Trident.”
It’s
is significant that there were several attempts to keep the conspiracy angle
out of the ambit of a probe into the assassination. When the Chandra sekar
regime, in which Swamy was Law Minister, appointed the Verma Commission of
inquiry, its scope was limited to investigating security lapses.
The
more closely one examines the Rajiv assassination case, the curiouser it
becomes. For instance the most significant evidence with the SIT linking the
LTTE to the assassination are photographs clicked by Haribabu, the photographer
who also died in the blast. The first pictures released by the SIT to the media
showed three women-Kokila, a 15year old who went to recite a Hindi poem to
Rajiv, her mother and Dhanu, later identified as human bomb. It was only after
the DMK organ Murasoli reproduced with a caption “ where is the missing man ?’’
– that the SIT reproduced the full frame. The missing man turned out to be
Sivarasan. No explanations were offered as to why the SIT masked part of the
frame.
Even
more intriguing is the role played by SIT, DIG Srikumar, who had gone to London
to collect additional information on the witnesses as well as the background of
some of the accussed. He not only failed to make any progress, but also had his
briefcase snatched. The case contained vital information about LTTE’s arms
procurement and delivery routes, their points-men in Europe and their nexus
with global arms dealers.
When
the SIT arrested key witness Mirasdar Shanmugam on July 17- 1991, it chanced
upon messages and transcripts of some coded messages. Shanmugam, according to
the charge-sheet received Sivarasan and his killer squad on the TN coast on May
1-1991.The coded messages not only spoke about the assassination, but also about
the high level people connected with the plot. Shanmugam escaped from SIT
custody and hung himself from a tree under mysterious circumstances.
K.Mohandass, a former DGP of Tamilnadu, says Shanmugam’s case was clear murder
and the CBI had done a clumsy cover up job. “ Shanmugam was wearing a white
dhothi when he was taken for interrogation. How come when his body was found,
he was wearing a lungi ?” he asks.
The
circumstances leading to the suicide of the main accused Sivarasan or one-eyed
Jack-for whom a high pitched manhunt had been launched across Tamilnadu and
Karnataka on the outskirts of Bangalore are equally mysterious. While the other
accused Shobha, and Sivarasan both reportedly consumed cyanide ,in classic LTTE
manner, Sivarasan also seemed to have shot himself. But according to state
intelligence sources, Sivarasan knew too much and there is a possibility that
the bullet wounds were not self inflicted. The case gets curiouser –Sivarasan’s
body was immediately cremated, while Shobha’s was preserved as an exhibit.
It
becomes clear from this sequence of events that most of the key players in
actual plotting and execution of the killing have died under mysterious
circumstances. And with the main accused LTTE chief Prabakaran still ensconced
in LTTE strongholds in northern Lanka, the SIT has none of the crucial players
in the case in custody.
Adding
to this mess is the cover up orchestrated
by Rao’s regime. Rao’s persistent amnesia before the Jain Commission on
the question of taking action on the Verma panel’s observation on official
lapses makes interesting reading. “I would not be able to say off hand what all
happened in connection with the steps taken for the implementation of the
action taken report. The job was entrusted to a group of Ministers, I expected
them to do the needful. I do not remember whether there was any timeframe for
the group of ministers. As per reports, there was a stalemate. So the matter
came up before the cabinet. What decision the cabinet took, it is a matter of
record. I do not remember .”
Interestingly,
a PIL was filed in the Delhi High Court by a little known lawyer, Mustaq
Ahamed, demanding the scrapping of the Jain Commission. After this was turned
down, the central government approached the Supreme Court with a Special Leave Petition. When
questioned about this by the commission, Rao said “ The PIL initiated in the Delhi
High Court did not come to my knowledge. The question must have been looked
into by P.Chidambaram and therefore SLP’s were filed. If Chidambaram wanted to
consult me, he could have, but Chidambaram did not consult me. “ However it is
well known that P.Chidambaram who was made Minister in charge of the Rajiv
Gandhi assassination probe, was acting on Rao’s instructions. Ahmed’s PIL,
according to political circles, also had the blessings of the then Prime
Minister.
An
important missing link is the file containing records of the official briefings
to the then Home Minister S.B.Chavan, when he talked about the involvement of
CIA in the assassination. Not surprisingly Chavan’s stand on the subject was in
complete variance with what Rao had to say. Said Chavan in his affidavit before
the Jain Commission :The LTTE was just an instrument in the hands of some
foreign powers.” Then reacting to the charge made by former Congress Minister
K.K.Tiwari, who has been meticulously following the Jain Commission’s
proceedings, Chavan said “ The general impression which K.K.Tiwari gave is not
altogether wrong because there are forces who are trying to create
destabilizing conditions.”
In the
ongoing snafu, the Ministry of External Affairs chose to deny the Home
Minister’s statement that the Americans were involved in the killing. Chavan
told the commission : “ It is correct that the very day the American Ambassador
in India met the Indian Prime Minister, the foreign minister, foreign secretary
and the spokesperson of MEA held a press conference and contradicted the
statement regarding the involvement of a super power. It is abnormal that a
spokesperson of the MEA held the press conference contradicting my statement.”
Then again “ I am still of the view that some foreign power is involved. It is
not the job of LTTE. The general impression is that some other powers may be
involved.”
Whether
the LTTE acted on its own or whether there was an international conspiracy is
still a grey area- Justice Jain had not been able to make any definite
conclusions about this aspect. But the manner in which Rao sought to hold back
information from the Jain Commission, coupled with the shoddy investigation
indicates there was a concerted attempt to protect key players. Evidence is
absent, but join up the blank spaces and a pattern emerges.
Courtesy
:
OUTLOOK magazine dated 24th November 1997.
CONCLUDING THE STORY : BUT LET YOUR CONSCIENCE
AWAKEN
Those who
read the OUTLOOK’s investigative story published a decade ago must be baffled
at the outburst of the spokesperson of Congress party Mr.Veerappa Moily asking
Srilanka to hand over LTTE leader Prabakaran, if caught.
Why is
it Congress wants Prabakaran ? Is it to unearth the mystery behind Rajiv’s
murder ? The role of Chandraswami and Narasimha Rao dubbed as deadly duo by
OUTLOOK has not come to the minds of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and
Chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance Madam Sonia Gandhi. The then
Indian Home Minister S.B.Chavan’s statement before Jain Commission pointing
accusing fingers at foreign powers did not awaken Madam Sonia Gandhi’s
conscience. Mrs.Priyanka Gandhi visited Vellore prison to know the truth.
Recent report in Junior Vikatan states that Bengaluru Ranganath asserts that
the killing squad was blessed in a pooja by Chandraswami. Yet none from
Congress party wants to unearth the truth, to find out if any black sheep
existed in its ranks. It is understandable that the black sheep of those days
want to bury truth. The fate of mysterious dead caught for the crime is to bury
evidences. Now the demand to fix Prabakaran is also to put the blame on his
shoulders and crucify him. There is no real attempt to find truth even under
the Government remote controlled by Rajiv’s widow. It would be left to western
authors to investigate and write books on the Rajiv Gandhi murder mystery .
Even
if some LTTE cadres are involved, in what way it is morally correct to blame
one organization of a crime.
The same OUTLOOK before one general election
brought out a list of 72 Parliament Members involved in crimes, cutting across
party divide.
Is it justifiable to ban those political parties that had
nourished criminals. Organizations banned for the murder of the Father of the
Nation, are freed from bondage, and such bans are only for limited periods.
Lifelong Tamils have to be enslaved, no organization should exist to give
protection to Tamils, and this sadistic resolve of the Government headed by
Manmohan Singh and the political party that props him, is a curse for a noble
land like India. In every metropolis, be it Mumbai or Chennai, kangaroo courts
exist, instant justice is delivered not by the law of the land but by the
unlawful mafia, not even underground but openly paraded by all political
parties shielding that party interests. This is legal but for Tamils facing
genocide if brave youth sacrifice their lives, those martyrs have to be
exterminated.
After Negroes attained liberation from slavery, right before our
eyes Tamils of Eelam are forced to become slaves. If even that could be
forgotten, how about Tamils of Colombo, who are not separatist but subscribe to
one nation concept,are asked to register, as reported by Deccan Chronicle
dated 5th January 2009. Mr.R.Bhagwan Singh, the descendent of the
illustrious Raja Desingh who ruled Gingee writes with tears the woes of Tamils
under Rajapakshe’s regime, in its own capital.
Indian
ruling party will ignore the resolution of the Tamilnadu Assembly, just because
it remains blind to truth in the Rajiv Gandhi’s murder. Indian ruling party
still believes that George Bush will search and find chemical weapons in Iraq
before he steps down this month and prove to the world that USA invaded Iraq on
justifiable grounds. Like Bush, the Rao loyalists, Trojan horses within
Congress, hope after hope that LTTE should be finished and its leader
exterminated, so that posthumously Rao’s ghost or foreign hands in Rajiv
Gandhi’s murder will remain unexposed before world history.
N.Nandhivarman
General Secretary Dravida Peravai 5.1.2009
