NEW DELHI, NOV 24: Rajiv Gandhi had thanked the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in 1989 for the party's cooperation in finding a solution to the Sri Lankan Tamil problem, the Jain Commission quoted DMK chief M Karunanidhi as saying in its interim report.Rajiv again ``praised the DMK government at a public meeting at Coimbatore for extending the fullest cooperation in the Sri Lankan Tamil issue, but was sore that the DMK joined hands with opposition parties,'' Karunanidhi had told the Jain panel. The panel reproduced extracts of Karunanidhi's deposition to support its conclusion that Rajiv never promised ``Eelam'' (independent state) to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Justice Jain said in his interim report, ``No credence can be attached to the view that Rajiv had at any stage ensured the securing of Eelam to Prabhakaran.''However, former prime minister V P singh had deposed before the Jain Commission that Rajiv had a dual policy on the Sri Lankan Tamil issue - on one hand he had said that Tamils should be given greater autonomy in Sri Lanka, on the other he had promised Eelam to LTTE.Singh had deposed before the commission that, ``In the middle of 1989, Rajiv told Murasoli Maran that he should convey a message to Prabhakaran that he (Prabhakaran) should distance himself from Sri Lankan President Premadasa and that he would even secure Eelam for Prabhakaran.''Singh added that the official stand, however, was that India stood for the integrity of Sri Lanka and not for Eelam. ``It was this dual handling that caused much damage to our relationship with Sri Lanka and perhaps ultimately also to greater animus by the LTTE,'' Singh lamented during his deposition before the commission.However, then external affairs minister P V Narasimha Rao, had told the commission that ``there was no dual policy towards Sri Lanka to my knowledge." The commission had also questioned LTTE activist Kasi Anandan on this issue. Anandan had deposed that during his one-to-one meeting with Rajiv, the latter refused to support a separate Eelam. Meanwhile, Congress president Sitaram Kesri today accused the DMK of misusing a phrase of the Jain Commission report to portray it as anti-Tamil. In a statement, Kesri noted the ``unfortunate phrasing'' of a sentence by the Jain Commission suggesting deep nexus of LTTE operatives with Tamils.Jain's nod soughtA senior advocate, who is himself a party before the Jain Commission, sought the permission of the one-man panel on Monday to sue former premier V P Singh in the Delhi High Court for his reported remarks against the commission.In a letter to panel chairman justice M C Jain, advocate B L Wadehra said Singh had ``clearly intended'' that his statements, which ``could not be termed as fair comments'', would be widely carried by the media.
