NEW DELHI: Six months before he was killed, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi secretly met the leaders of the Tamil Tiger guerrillas for reconciliation between former enemies, a newsmagazine said this week.
The Tigers are believed to have been behind the suicide bomb that killed Rajiv and 17 others in May 1991, and the report in Outlook gave the killing a new twist.
Rajiv had sought the meeting, which took place near Madras to assure the Tigers that he would not be hostile 10 them if he won the 1991 election and retulmed to power, the magazine said, quoting an unidentified top government official.
A closed-door trial of 26 people accused of conspiracy in the murder is on, Prosecutors claim the motive was vengeance for what the Tamils thought was Rajiv’s betrayal of their cause when he was prime minister from 1984 to 1989.
In 1987, Rajiv had brokered a peace agreement for Sri Lanka and sent a peacekeeping force to disarm the Tamil rebels. Before signing the accord, he had met Velupillai Pirabhakaran, the rebel commander, in New Delhi and asked him to cooperate, Pirabhakaran later backed out. Pirabhakaran is the main suspect in the assassination. The government has asked for his extradition if he Sri Lankan authorities catch him.
The magazine said its source for the story was briefed by Rajiv after he met the Tamil leaders in late 1990.
“I meet them and told them that! have no interest in sending the Indian peacekeeping force to Jaffna or interfering in their affairs,” the official quoted Rajiv as saying.
The story comes a few months before the polls and it’s obvious that Sonia Gandhi and opponents of the Prime Minister, Mr.P.V. Narasimha Rao, have threatened to make the killing a political issue.
Three months ago Sonia Gandhi had publicly criticized what she called the Rao government’s apathy towards the enquiry of her husband’s death.
Her criticism put the Rao government on the defensive. The home minister, Mr.S.B, Chavan, said the government had information which could embarrass the Rajiv Gandhi family.
He didn’t divulge but it seemed to be a reference to Rajiv’s meeting with LTTE leaders.
Sadar blast accused Shot in ValleyArticle extracted from this publication >> January 10, 1996
