Jayalalitha rebuts CM’s claim on AIADMK

(February 02, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) In a strong rebuttal to the statement of Chief Minister M Karunanidhi that AIADMK might have been aware of the conspiracy to kill former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi during his Chennai visit on 21 May 1991, AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa today recalled that Jain Commission report has pointed finger towards DMK for its ‘possible involvement’ in the plot to kill the Congress president.

AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa denied the charge of DMK chief that she was not present at the airport to welcome the Congress president Rajiv Gandhi who was visiting Chennai as part of election campaign.

‘I welcomed Rajiv Gandhi at the airport and also took part in a public meeting along with him at the Marina organised jointly by the Congress and AIADMK, the then alliance partners,’ she recalled.

But the AIADMK was in the dark on a public meeting in Sriperumbudur got up by Congress candidate Maragatham Chandras-ekhar in which Rajiv Gandhi was killed by the LTTE assassin, she said. During the assassination, Jayalalithaa said she was in Bargur as part of her election campaign.

She pointed out the DMK government (1989 - 1991) was dismissed by the Centre following reports of the spread of LTTE network in Tamilnadu and allegations that secret information was being passed on to that banned outfit.

The Jain Commission that investigated the conspiracy behind the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi had pointed a suspicious finger at the DMK for its alleged role in the killing of the former Prime Minister, she recalled.

‘Only based on Jain Commission report, the Congress withdrew support to the Central government in which DMK was a partner then in 1997,’ she pointed out.

On the second point raised by the Chief Minister that the decision to provide modern weapons and training to the Lankan Army was taken without consulting the State government and Union Ministers, Jayalalithaa claimed Karunanidhi whose party was a key partner in the UPA government was ‘very much aware of the decision to provide weapons and military training to the Lankan Army.’

Thirdly, responding to Karunanidhi’s charge that weapons have been provided to Sri Lanka when she was the Chief Minister, AIADMK chief said, ‘modern arms and training have been given only in last one to two years only.

If he says that it was during the period of AIADMK regime of mine then at that time, DMK was part of the Union government and he must have been aware of the military aid to Lanka.’-Sri Lanka Guardian