congress-touches-its-nadir-in-opportunism-as-sonia-rahul-celebrate-karunanidhi-s-100th-birth-anniversary

Same Karunanidhi, a ‘friend’ of Prabhakaran, who was the mastermind behind Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination.

 

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has often referred to and questioned Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse’s association with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological fountainhead of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The RSS and the BJP have, however, always distanced themselves from Godse. 

 

There is a strong and strange parallel that applies to Congress in general and Rahul Gandhi in particular. Rahul Gandhi’s father Rajeev Gandhi was assassinated by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), one of the world’s deadliest militant organisations. It was headed by V Prabhakaran.

Prabhakaran was a designated terrorist in India after Rajeev Gandhi’s assassination on May 21, 1991. 

 

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi would proudly claim his friendship with Prabhakaran and even go to the extent of saying that he (Prabhakaran) was not a terrorist.

This was in 2009 when DMK was part of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government headed by Dr Manmohan Singh. The Congress came with a lame defence at that time, saying, “It was Karunanidhi’s personal view” as it always considered Prabhakaran a terrorist. 

 

Today, June 3, 2024, was the 100th birth anniversary of Karunanidhi, which is being celebrated by the DMK at a grand scale.

Every leader, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, praised Karunanidhi’s contribution. He was considered one of the tallest political leaders in the country, never having lost any election and served as the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister for five terms. 

 

Given Karunanidhi’s stature, it was natural for all the political leaders to praise and glorify him.

However, there was something strange about Ms Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi celebrating the 100th birth anniversary of the man, who proudly proclaimed that the “mastermind” of Rajeev Gandhi’s assassination was his “good friend” and that “he was not a terrorist”.

 

Politics is a game of multiple compromises forced by certain exigencies and expediencies. Congress, in desperate thirst to grab power at the centre, has been making so many compromises even ignoring the indignities hurled on it by parties like Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Banerjee.

The Congress also chose to ignore how the Aam Aadmi Party had maligned it with a ruthless campaign accusing it of the worst corruption. The sorry plight the Congress is in now owes much to the India Against Corruption (IAC) campaign led by Arvind Kejriwal in 2012-13. 

 

The Congress party touched its nadir when its leaders Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party and former president Rahul Gandhi joined the celebrations over the hundredth birth anniversary of Karunanidhi. 

 

Compromises in politics, even with your sworn enemies are understandable and acceptable. But there are certain exceptions where compromise is unacceptable. The Congress going along with the DMK, particularly after DMK’s relationship with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) became public was something unimaginable.

Prabhakaran was the LTTE supremo and the mastermind behind the brutal assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, by a suicide bomber, while campaigning for the General Elections in Sriperumbadur in Tamil Nadu. 

 

 

The Narasimha Rao-led Congress government, which took over after the 1991 General Elections, constituted the Justice MC Jain Commission to probe Rajiv’s assassination.

In 1998, the Commission submitted its report to the United Front government, headed by IK Gujral as the Prime Minister. The Jain Commission report indicted Karunanidhi for his direct links and association with the LTTE “The conclusion is irresistible that there was tacit support to the LTTE by M Karunanidhi and his government and law enforcement agencies”, Justice MC Jain concluded in his report. 

 

The Congress was led by Sita Ram Kesri at that time. It was supporting the National Front government headed by IK Gujral from outside.

It stalled the parliament continuously for two weeks demanding that the government drop three DMK ministers from the cabinet and dismiss the Karunanidhi government in Tamil Nadu.

Gujral refused to drop the DMK ministers and dismiss his government in Tamil Nadu and also registered a case against Karunanidhi for his role in Rajeev Gandhi’s assassination. Eventually, the Congress withdrew support and the IK Gujral government fell. 

 

Karunanidhi’s government was dismissed earlier also in January 1991, when Chandrashekhar was the Prime Minister with the outside support of the Congress. The Congress, then led by Rajiv Gandhi had put immense pressure on Chandrashekhar's government to dismiss Karunanidhi’s government for its links with the LTTE. 

 

Chandrashekhar while speaking in the parliament on January 10, 1991, justified the dismissal of the Karunanidhi-led DMK government saying, “I have information that the Chief Minister (Karunanidhi) has gone to the LTTE headquarters, not only in Tamil Nadu, but even in Jaffna. 

 

This is something very serious”.

The dismissal was based on the ground-level assessment of the DMK support to the LTTE by the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB).

 

Rajeev Gandhi was assassinated four months later in Sriperumbadur in Tamil Nadu by a suicide bomber, also belonging to the LTTE.

 

Ironically, non-Gandhi leaders of the Congress refused to compromise on DMK’s alleged links with the LTTE, while Ms Sonia Gandhi accepted an alliance with the DMK, just seven years after her party had taken a principled stand against it (the DMK). 

 

DMK again parted ways with the Congress, when it withdrew its support to the UPA government headed by Dr Manmohan Singh in March 2013. The DMK wanted the government of India to support a resolution in the United Nations condemning the Sri Lankan government for human rights violations of the Tamils.

 

In its firm commitment and resolution to “save the constitution and democracy” the Congress seems to have chosen to overlook, forget and forgive the DMK’s past including its links with the LTTE, the organisation responsible for Rajeev Gandhi’s brutal assassination.