A flip-flop on DMK

The public should be forgiven for thinking the initials in Justice M. C. Jain's name stand for Most Controversial. Whatever else the Commiss...

The public should be forgiven for thinking the initials in Justice M. C. Jain’s name stand for Most Controversial. Whatever else the Commission headed by him lacked, it did not lack the capacity to stir up political controversy. Even before anyone had had time to study the 17-volume interim report, a government had fallen and elections were called.

The fallout from the final report is unlikely to be so dramatic but Justice Jain’s second thoughts about the DMK are bound to be unsettling on both sides of the political divide in Parliament. According to advance information obtained by this newspaper, a key conclusion

in the report, which is still to be tabled in the House, is that there is no evidence to establish the involvement of the DMK as a whole in the conspiracy to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi.

It says categorically there is no substance in J. Jayalalitha’s allegations that M. Karunanidhi had prior knowledge of the plot. After this about-turn, Justice Jain owes the country an explanation. Why was he soeager to tar the whole DMK in his interim report? Had he had the wisdom to choose his words more carefully, the country might have been spared all the political uncertainty and financial cost of the last four months.

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The Congress is left without a leg to stand on. Sitaram Kesri and those who urged him on like Arjun Singh and Sonia Gandhi also need to explain why they picked up the flimsy evidence in the Jain interim report so enthusiastically and ran with it all the way to Rashtrapati Bhavan to bring down the Gujral government and plunge the country into a crisis. Now that Justice Jain has himself torn away the fig-leaf of justification for the Congress’ drastic action, it is thoroughly exposed.

Its outrage over the Jain findings was a cynical ploy that failed. Not only did the leadership completely misjudge its importance as an election issue, the party has had to pay a heavy price for betraying its friends. One hopes the lesson has gone home to the Congress and any other party inclined to misusecommissions of inquiry to further their political agendas.

For the DMK there will be a sense of relief but not for long. It is on notice that Jayalalitha is building a dossier on the performance of the Karunanidhi government preparatory to getting it dismissed. However, the AIADMK boss will not be able to rely on innuendo in the Jain reports to do some of the work of persuading the central government the DMK is a bad egg.

Her tendency to toss allegations about without sufficient proof weakens her credibility as an interlocutor of the DMK. In the interests of a healthy administration, Jayalalitha will be well advised to be more circumspect about the charges she makes. Vigilance is necessary but is quite different from political competitiveness on law and order issues. The recent series of terrorist incidents has deeply disturbed people in Tamil Nadu and elsewhere. What they would like to see is the combined efforts of all political parties to combat the elements behind those ghastly acts. Making politicalcapital out of terrorism is not the way to defeat it. That is the message of the Jain saga, one of the shabbiest of recent times.