NEW DELHI: The former Prime Minister, Mr. Chandra Shekhar, has questioned the credentials of Mahant Seva Dass (of the Akali Dal Pheruman) and contemptuously dismissed the statements he made before the Jain Commission last week.

‘Shekhar said, “Let him make any allegation. I have nothing to say about Seva Dass. First inquire about his credentials and then ask me to comment” However, he later went on to clarify some of the points raised by the Mahant.

Some of the amazing revelations made by the Mahant That several Teading personalities and politicians including Sharad Pawar and Om Prakash Chautala had met representatives of militants outfits which were planning to kill Rajiv Gandhi and given them funds.

That Shekhar, who was then PM, had ignored the Mahant’s warning that Rajiv Gandhi’s life was under threat from not only the LTTE but several other organizations, That if only Shekhar had heeded the Mahant, Rajiv Gandhi would have been alive today. ‘The Mahant claimed that in December 1990 he had gone as Shekhar’s emissary to London to meet leaders of militant organizations seeking the secession of Punjab from India and ask them to put an end to the violence in the state. He said he had learned of their plans and efforts to raise funds when he met members of the LTTE, Babbar Khalsa, Khalistan Commando Force and JKLF at the home of Jagjit Singh Chauhan, the self-styled president of “Khalistan Council.” On his return to India in January 1991, he had given a detailed account of the talks to Shekhar, the Mahant had told the Commission.

“I didn’t send him as my emissary, Theek hai, so many people make so many claims, I didn’t’ task him to go. If somebody comes and says ‘I will do something,’ I said, go and do something. That’s all. Neither did I send him nor did T expect anything very positive from him. He just went and came and I did not pay any attention to what he said,” Shekhar clarified.

Asked if he felt in retrospect that he should have paid attention to what the Mahant said, Shekhar said vehemently, “Not at all. I can’t comment on certain things because unless and until people know Seva Dass they cannot know what he is saying. You find out from your own sources what Seva Dass is all about. Then you will realize how much veracity his claims have. I don’t attach importance to what Seva Dass says.”

“Now the Jain Commission is conducting an inquiry. Let the CBI be asked to go into this. This investigation (into the Rajiv Gandhi assassination) has been going on for so long. Neither the CBI nor IB, nobody has ‘any inkling of these meetings and the association of all these persons that Seva Dass is talking of], for one, have never come to know of this. As long as was PM nobody brought it to my attention” not Seva Dass, nor anyone else.”

Shekhar had earlier told the Jain ‘Commission that he acknowledged moral responsibility for the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, However, he clarified that the possibility of a human bomb being used had never been considered since this had never before been used anywhere in the world. “The only lapse was that we never thought that a human bomb would be used. So if ignorance was the lapse then one should own moral restorability for that, because we could not save Rajiv Gandhi.”

He also pointed out that there was adequate security, that 17 security men had been killed along with Raji Gandhi the largest number of security personnel killed along with any VIP. He defended the security forces, saying that they were a dedicated group and it was unfortunate that they were being blamed.

“If we could not save Rajiy Gandhi, the whole nation cannot take the responsibility, the person who was heading the government should take responsibility and I don’t shirk that. But one should always remember that there are certain eventualities that cannot be envisaged. Nobody knew that there would be a person ready to kill herself to kill him. “Even if the human bombs possibility was not envisaged, would Rajiv Gandhi have been saved if he had been given SPG Cover? Shekhar was typically candid, acknowledging that this might be true.

Article extracted from this publication >>  June 30, 1995