NEW DELHI: The Jain Commission was Dec. 11th told that senior Congressmen, including the Prime Minister, Mr. P.V, Narasimha Rao, went into a huddle in 1988 to plan Mr. Rajiv Gandhi’s ouster from power even as Justice M.C. Jain asked all concerned to keep politics out and stick to the terms of reference.
Justice Jain’s note of caution came during the deposition of a Bharatiya Janata Party activist, Mr. Ramesh Dalal, who maintained that he was present when the top leaders and god man Chandraswamy met at Mr. Pranab Mukherjee’s house to plan Mr. Gandhi’s ouster.
Mr. Dalal also repeated allegations that the god man had offered Rs 40 crore to the then President, Mr. Zail Singh, to dismiss Mr. Rajiv Gandhi from power.
According to the witness, other prominent politicians who attended the 1986 meeting included the former Karnataka Chief Minister, Mr. Gundo Rao, a former Governor, Mr. Prakash Malhotra, and the former All India Congress Committee (AICC) chief, Mr. S.S. Moharpatra.
The meeting decided that either Mr. P.V. Narasimha Rao or Mr. Pranab Mukherjee should replace Mr, Gandhi as Prime Minister; Mr. Dalal told the one man commission probing the conspiracy aspect of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination. It was decided to leave the final choice between the two to veteran Congress leader, Mr. Kamalapati Tripathi.
Mr. Tripathi is said to have suggested Mr. Rao’s name, saying that a leader from the South should be installed as Prime Ministers.
The meeting also decided that Chandraswami could finance Mr. Rao’s campaign for Prime Minister Ship. Similarly, Mr. Mukherjee would be backed by industrialist, Mr. Dhirubhai Ambani.
Mr. Dalal has also submitted a lengthy affidavit and an audio cassette to the commission. The tape reportedly consists of a clandestinely recorded conversation with Chandraswamy, Mr. Dalal, who was earlier with the Congress party, claims that he was till recently close to the god man.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 15, 1995
