"Rajiv had asked me to open dialogue with Prabhakaran"

In an interview to The Indian Express today, Maran, however, clarified that if he did not speak before the Jain Commission and authenticate V.P. Singh’s recollection of his conversation with Rajiv Gandhi, it was because he was not asked to do so. “I did not receive any summons from the Jain Commission,” he clarified.

Maran says that Rajiv had asked him to open up a dialogue with Prabhakaran through Karunanidhi because he was concerned about the growing understanding between Sri Lankan Prime Minister Premadasa and Prabhakaran, who had found a common goal in demanding the withdrawal of the Indian Army from Sri Lanka.“Rajiv was upset that Premadasa and Prabhakaran were getting closer and he felt India’s honour is involved,” Maran recollects. “ He asked me to urge Karunanidhi to speak to Prabhakaran and offer something more to satisfy him,” says Maran.

Maran pointed out to Rajiv that short of dejure sovereignty, by this stage the LTTE already had practically everything else. They collected taxes, they had their own courts and imposed punishments including capital punishment.

Maran felt that short of Eelam, nothing would satisfy the LTTE. He cited the example of Cyprus where the Turkish army had had been sent by the government to guard the Turkish majority portion of Cyprus. He even joked with Rajiv that if he became the father of Tamil Eelam it would be hara-kiri for the DMK. “The whole idea was very acceptable to Rajiv,” Maran says.

The move code-named `DMK Initiative’ eventually came to naught because MEA officials — when they learnt of Rajiv’s nod to the plan — hastily scuttled the proposal. In fact, an official who was asked by Rajiv to discuss the move with Maran described Maran as “a very dangerous man” on his face because he had convinced Rajiv.

Another reason the plan fell through was that DMK MP V. Gopalaswamy jumped the gun and went off to meet Prabhakaran in Jaffna on his own, not knowing that Rajiv and the DMK had a secret understanding that a three-member DMK delegation including Gopalaswamy would visit Jaffna to talk to Prabhakaran and other Sri Lankan Tamil leaders.“Had that not happened, perhaps history would have been different,” Maran says, blaming Gopalaswamy for the break-down of the plan.

Giving the sequence of events to his conversation with Rajiv, Maran recalls that it all started when Karunanidhi was sworn in as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu in January 1989 and immediately afterwards he came to Delhi to pay a courtesy call on Rajiv.

Maran says,“We thought it would be a brief meeting, but it was a long discussion on why the North East Council settlement in Sri Lanka was not working out.” During the talks, Karunanidhi gave some suggestions and Rajiv made the amazing disclosure that former Chief Minister of the North East Council Vardaraja Perumal was now in Delhi and he said he would send him to meet Karunanidhi at Tamil Nadu House. Minister of State for External Affairs Natwar Singh and a joint secretary also met Karunanidhi the very next day.

Perumal said that he would abide by the DMK leader’s wishes and was amenable to Karunanidhi’s suggestion that the LTTE be included in any settlement. Maran says he believes that some government officials later castigated Perumal for his easy compliance. Maran points out that in any case even Perumal, who was clearly the Indian Government’s protege, had raised the flag of Eelam.

Rajiv, according to Maran, was very enthusiastic, when Karunanidhi told him a solution was possible in Sri Lanka but cautioned him against sending wrong signals, since the various departments of the Government of India, such as the Ministry of Defence, RAW, the High Commission in Sri Lanka, the PMO and the MEA seemed to be working at cross purposes.

Since Karunanidhi could not go to Sri Lanka, it was agreed that Maran would head a three-member DMK delegation and Rajiv named it “DMK Initiative.” The modalities of the secret mission were discussed only with a handful of key officials, Karunanidhi even talked of the composition of the team. Maran was to be leader, Gopalasamy and the late ex-MP Kandappan were to be the other members of the team. RAW and IB were supposed to provide safe passage to Sri Lanka for the team.

Nothing happened for quite a while. Then Rajiv met the DMK leaders at Madras airport on his way back from Tirupati and he brought up the subject again with the Chief Minister. Maran flew to Delhi the next day to discuss the matter further.

This, according to Maran was when the crucial two-hour meeting took place and Rajiv made it clear that he was willing even to concede Eelam if necessary to Prabhakaran. Maran says he learnt to his surprise during his talks with Rajiv that Prabhakaran was quite friendly with Rajiv and he even once gifted Prabhakaran his bullet-proof vest.