MADRAS: Former Tamil Nadu chief minister Muthuvelu Karunanidhi said Congress1 leader Rajiv Gandhi had during his tenure as premier offered to secure an independent Tamil state if the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam desisted from holding direct talks with the Colombo government.
Releasing a 21page background paper on Malafide imposition of president’s rule in Tamil Nadu he said Gandhi had conveyed this offer through the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam legislator Murasoli Maran in May 1989.
Karunanidhi said he as Tamil Nadu chief minister had told Gandhi when he was traveling through Madras in May 1989 that the delay in pursuing a peace initiative would have the unfortunate consequence of the LTTE getting closer to the island government for direct talks.
Karunanidhi said Gandhi had then requested Maran to meet him in Delhi later and informed him that the LTTE could be told that if they desisted from holding direct talks with Sri Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa the Indian government was even prepared to secure an independent Eelam (state) for them.
However matters had by then got out of hand and the LTTE had already entered into direct negotiations with the Sri Lankan government he stated in the backgrounder.
Gandhi had told him at an earlier meeting in Delhi in March 1989 that an offer could be made to the LTTE giving them majority representation in Sri Lanka’s northeastern provincial council and that if necessary the chief minister (Karunanidhi) or a parliamentary delegation could visit Sri Lanka for this purpose Karunanidhi said.
Karunanidhi said during the AIADMK rule in Tamil Nadu and Gandhi’s tenure at the center 31 training camps had been held for militants in Tamil Nadu and Rs 40 million given to the LTTE by the M G Ramachandran government which had also returned arms to the LTTE after seizing them. Ramachandran had a close and continuing relationship with the LTTE he said.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 1, 1991
