DISCUSSION #3

RAJIV GANDHI ASSASSINATION

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 CONTENT

THE ASSASSINATION OF RAJIV GANDHI 3

ASSASSINATION 3
VICTIMS 4
SECURITY LAPSE 4
JOURNALIST RAM BAHADUR RAI WROTE 5
JUDGEMENT BY SUPREME COURT 6

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 RAJIV GANDHI ASSASINATION

Rajiv Gandhi (20 August 1944 - 21 May 1991) was an Indian Politician who
served as the SIXTH PRIME MINISTER of INDIA from 1984 to 1989. He took
of ce after the 1984 assassination of his mother, then Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi, to become the youngest INDIAN PRIME MINISTER at the age of 40.

THE ASSASSINATION OF RAJIV GANDHI

The assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India, occurred as a

result of a suicide bombing in SRIPERUMBUDUR in TAMIL NADE, INDIA on MAY
21, 1991. At least 14 others, in addition to Rajiv Gandhi were killed. It was
carried out by Thenmozhi Rajaratnam, a member of SRI LANKAN TAMIL
separatist organization LIBERATION TIGERS of TAMIL EELAM (LTTE).

At the time, India had just ended its involvement, through the Indian Peace
Keeping Force, in the SRI LANKAN CIVIL WAR. Subsequent accusations of
conspiracy have been addressed by the two commissions of inquiry and have
brought down at least one national government.

ASSASSINATION

Rajiv Gandhi was busy campaigning for the upcoming elections along with G.K.
Moopanar in southern state of India. On 21 May, after campaigning in
Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, his next stop was Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu.
About two hours after arriving in Madras (now Chennai), Gandhi was driven by
motorcade in a white Ambassador car to Sriperumbudur, stopping along the way
at a few other election campaigning venues. When Rajiv reached a campaign rally
in Sriperumbudur, he left his car and began walking towards the dais where he
was to deliver a speech. Along the way, he was garlanded by many well-wishers,
Indian National Congress workers and school children. The assassin, Dhanu
(Thenmozhi Rajaratnam), approached and greeted him. She then bent down to
touch his feet and detonated an RDX explosive-laden belt tucked below her dress
at exactly 10:10 PM. Gandhi, his assassin and 14 others were killed in the
explosion that followed, along with 43 others who were grievously injured. The
assassination was caught on lm by a local photographer, Haribabu, whose
camera and lm was found intact at the site despite him also dying in the blast.

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 VICTIMS

Apart from the suicide bomber Thenmozhi Rajaratnam, several people were
killed in the blast on May 21,1991.

• Rajiv Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India

• Dharman, police constable
• Santhani Begum, Mahila Congress Leader
• Rajguru, police inspector
• Chandra, police constable
• Edward Joseph, police inspector
• K.S Mohammed Iqbal, police superintendent
• Latha Kannan, Mahila Congress worker, who was with her
daughter Kokilavani)
• Kokilavani, ten-year-old daughter of Latha Kannan, who sang a
poem to Gandhi immediately prior to the blast
• Darryl Jude Peters, attendee and observer
• Munuswamy, former member of the Tamil Nadu Legislative
Council
• Saroja Devi, seventeen-year-old college student
• Pradeep K Gupta, personal security of cer of Rajiv Gandhi
• Ethiraju
• Murugan, police constable
• Ravichandran, Black Cat commando

Around forty-three bystanders including police sub-inspector

Anushiya Daisy were also injured in the explosion.

SECURITY LAPSE

The Supreme Court of India held that the decision to eliminate

Gandhi was precipitated by his interview to SUNDAY Magazine
(21-28 August 1990), where he stated that he would send the Indian
Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to disarm the LTTE if he returned to
power.

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 Gandhi also defended the signing of the Indo - Sri Lanka accord in the
same interview. The LTTE decision to kill him was perhaps aimed at
preventing him from coming to power again. Thereafter, the Justice
J.S. Verma Commission was formed to look into the security lapses
that contributed to the killing.
The nal report, submitted in June 1992, concluded that the security
arrangements for the former PM were adequate but the local
Congress Party leaders disrupted and broke these arrangements.
The Narasimha Rao government initially rejected Verma's ndings
but later accepted it under pressure. However, no action was taken on
the recommendations of the commission.
Despite no action, the ndings raised vital questions that have
previously been consistently raised by political analysts. Sources
have indicated that Gandhi was repeatedly informed that there was a
threat to his life and that he should not travel to Tamil Nadu. In fact,
the then governor of Tamil Nadu Bhishma Narain Singh, broke of cial
protocol and twice warned Gandhi about the threat to his life if he
visited the state.
Subramanian Swamy said in his book, Sri Lanka in Crisis: India's
Options (2007), that an LTTE delegation had met Rajiv Gandhi on 5
March 1991. Another delegation met him around 14 March 1991 in
New Delhi.

JOURNALIST RAM BAHADUR RAI WROTE

The message conveyed to Rajiv Gandhi by both these delegations was

that there was no threat to his life and that he can travel to Tamil
Nadu without fearing for his life. I did a series of articles after his
assassination that pointed out how, after these meetings, Rajiv
became complacent about his security and broke security rules in
more than 40 rallies.

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JUDGEMENT BY SUPREME COURT

As per the Supreme Court of India judgement, by Judge K.T. Thomas,

the killing was carried out due to personal animosity of the LTTE
Chief Prabhakaran towards Rajiv Gandhi arising from his sending the
Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to Sri Lanka and the alleged IPKF
atrocities against Sri Lankan Tamils. Additionally, the Rajiv Gandhi
administration had antagonized other Tamil militant organizations
like People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) for
revering the military coup in Maldives back in 1988.

The judgement was further cited the death of Thileepan in a hunger

strike and the suicide by 12 LTTE cadres in a vessel in October 1987.
While convicting the accused, four of them to death and others to
various jail terms, the judgment stated that the no evidence existed
that any one of the conspirators ever desired the death of any Indian
other than Rajiv Gandhi, though several others were killed. Judge
Wadhwa further stated that there was nothing on record to show that
the intention to kill Rajiv Gandhi was to overawe the government.
Hence it was held that it was not a terrorist act under Terrorist And
Disruptive Activities Act (TADA Act).

Judge Thomas further stated that conspiracy was hatched in stages

commencing from 1987 and that it spanned several years. The
special investigation team of India’s premier special investigation
agency Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was not able to pinpoint
when the decision to kill Rajiv Gandhi was taken.

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