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Rajiv killing not a poll issue in Tamil Nadu

N Sathiya Moorthy in Madras

It's a nice excuse to bring down a government; but no one, least of all the voter, thinks the Rajiv Gandhi assassination is a crucial issue in the upcoming election.

Of course, it was an apt lever to topple the United Front government after the Jain Commission alleged the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu had something to do with it. But once it had served its purpose, it was discarded. Even the death sentence issued to 26 accused in the case by the court at Poonamallee has not a difference.

"The voter doesn't seem to think the Jain Commission report, the court verdict or even the LTTE's involvement is a central issue during these elections," says one political analyst. "But there are enough indications that anything but the assassination would be dredged up."

If anything, the voter seems to believe the DMK was implicated in the Jain report controversy only to help the Congress settle other political scores.

"Around the time it happened, there was increasing sympathy for the DMK, though from outside it might have looked otherwise." It was Sonia Gandhi's charisma, not the loss of her husband or a yearning for the return of the Nehru-Gandhi family, that made some voters switch over to the Congress.

"It was certainly not because she raked up the Rajiv Gandhi assassination issue, or because the voter believes that the DMK needs further punishment for its perceived role in helping the LTTE."

According to him, the voter believes the DMK and its leadership have suffered enough for their links with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam with that drubbing it got in the 1991 election. "The voter also feels the DMK has no more links with the LTTE now." And that the Congress used the Jain report only because its president, Sitaram Kesri, wanted to become prime minister himself.

Though the Jain report will be low on the priority of things to be discussed, the DMK is prepared to defend itself if the situation so demands. Even its poll partner, the Tamil Maanila Congress, would prefer Sonia Gandhi go lightly on the topic since, at present, the TMC has a good equation with the Congress.

"We have a problem," admits a TMC leader. "First, we are sworn loyalists of the Nehru-Gandhi family, whatever be our political compulsions. Moreover, we still bank on the traditional Congress voters, whose feelings we can't hurt by taking a political stand on a sentimental issue."

If push comes to shove, it may even snap ties with the DMK, but that would be only after the election.

"For the present, we are the DMK's electoral allies and we do not want to be pushed into an untenable situation," he says.

Their common enemy, the All-India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam too, is worried about the LTTE links of its political partners, the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Pattali Makkal Katchi. "These parties continue to be identified with the LTTE in the voter's mind," says the political analyst.

Already, Chief Minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi has pointed out MDMK leader V Gopalswamy's behaviour in the court. Law Minister 'Aladi' Aruna pointed out that Gopalswamy had turned a 'hostile witness' even though he was not named in the verdict.

Even the Bharatiya Janata Party, an electoral ally of the AIADMK, stood by the DMK on this matter, describing Justice Milap Chand Jain as "partisan" and as hurting Tamil sentiments.

If the AIADMK rakes up the issue now it will be hard put to explain the BJP's stand on the matter, the DMK leader said.

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