MADRAS, 9 May 2004 — The revelation that the Congress party had submitted a memorandum in August 1998 to Home Minister L.K. Advani demanding the interrogation of DMK President Muthuvel Karunanidhi in connection with the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi has kicked up a political storm as India prepares for the final phase of its parliamentary elections on Monday.

According to a report published in the Madras-based newspaper The New Indian Express, the memorandum submitted by a delegation of senior leaders, including Congress Working Committee members Arjun Singh and Kapil Sibal, had also demanded that the government proceed against Karunanidhi in a “court of law”.

The demand was based on the interim and final reports of the Jain Commission which probed the conspiracy angle of the 1991 assassination of Gandhi by the Sri Lankan rebel group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

But with Congress now in an alliance with the DMK in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the Bharatiya Janata Party says Congress owes an explanation on ‘’the moral validity’’ of this alliance.

In 1998 Congress withdrew support to a minority coalition government headed by Inder Kumar Gujral, in which the DMK was a partner after the Jain Commission in its interim report observed that “there is irrefutable evidence that the DMK and its leaders had given tacit support to the LTTE.”

However, in February this year, when Congress firmed up its alliance with the DMK, Sonia Gandhi, the Congress president and the widow of Rajiv Gandhi, said that though the DMK was named in the interim report, the commission had in its final report absolved the party of any complicity in the assassination.

Campaigning in Trivandrum, Advani said that at that time Congress had accused the BJP-led coalition government of not proceeding against Karunanidhi because the DMK was then a partner in the coalition. Advani also said that the government had at the instance of Congress set up a multi-disciplinary monitoring agency (MDMA) to further investigate points raised by the commission. The MDMA is yet to complete its work.

In Madras, BJP President Venkaiah Naidu said Congress owed an explanation to the people of India for not only bringing down the Gujral government in 1998 but also for claiming now that the Jain Commission had absolved the DMK. The New Indian Express published the report on the day Sonia and Karunanidhi addressed a joint election rally in Madras. In her speech, Sonia attacked the newspaper for publishing such reports and said, “our alliance with the DMK will not disintegrate merely because of reports in some newspapers.”

Congress’ tie-up with the DMK and its allies like the MDMK and Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), who have a pronounced pro-LTTE leanings, has also come under attack from AIADMK chief J. Jayalalitha. “By aligning with the parties which have links with the killers of Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia has betrayed the memory of her husband,” Jayalalitha said.

Karunanidhi has defended his party, pointing out that the final report of the Jain Commission had nothing adverse to say about him or his party.

But the BJP says that it is not interested in Karunanidhi’s explanations and wants Congress to explain. “Why did they bring down the Gujral government? If they really believe that the final report of the Jain Commission had absolved the DMK, why then did they seek action against Karunanidhi ?”