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Congress flays govt over Jain report

The Congress in the Rajya Sabha today severely criticised the government for being insensitive to various recommendations of the Jain Commission report.

Expressing deep concern on the government's casual response to the Commission's findings on nexus of politicans and officials with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam leaders, leading advocate and Congress MP Kapil Sibal said he was deeply disappointed that the government did not order thorough investigation into the Rajiv Gandhi asssassination case.

Intiating discussion on the government's motion on the Commission's final report, Sibal said that Rajiv Gandhi was murdered with the sole purpose of preventing him to become the prime minister again. The conspiracy was also aimed at destabilising the country.

He said the government had never cared to take the Commission's observations seriously. He referred to various intercepted messages of the LTTE, which clearly showed their nexus with politicians, officials and bureaucrats of Tamil Nadu.

Although many senior officials were mentioned in the report for maintaining close liaison with the LTTE cadre in Tamil Nadu, the government never cared to look into this matter with seriousness.

He said the government's decision to set up a special monitoring agency in the Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate the involvement of various politicians will not serve any purpose.

He also made a distinction between the interim and final reports. While the interim report goes into nexus of politicians and officials with the LTTE, the final report deals with circumstances relating to the conspiracy involved in the case.

Sibal said the Congress will not accept the creation of a multi-disciplinary monitoring agency within the CBI.

He said this should be an independent investigating agency and its members selected in consultation with the House.

He expressed confidence that the government, Home Minister Lal Kishinchand Advani and the entire House will help them in this sensitive matter.

The Bharatiya Janata Party's K R Malkani welcomed the government decision to set up an MDMA for further investigation.

He said in Rajiv Gandhi's assassination an attempt was made to cancel the election but they failed in their objective. It is strange why then prime minister P V Narasimha Rao appointed Janata Party president Dr Subramanian Swamy as the chief negotiator for India at the World Trade Organisation. Even then labour minister Purno A Sangma has said it was done without his knowledge. It is strange that secret papers were shown to Dr Swamy, but not to the home minister.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist's Ramachandran Pillai dubbed both the Jain Commission's report and the action report as political documents to suit political purposes. He demanded the setting up of a proper agency with the consent of all political parties which could impartially go into all the important aspects in depth.

UNI

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