An Abiding Mystery

A citizen using his right to information asked if Priyanka Vadra last month had visited Nalini Sriharan,one of the conspirators in her father Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, in Vellore jail in Tamil Nadu. Nalini is serving a life sentence. The day this story broke in the media, Priyanka confirmed that she had indeed made the visit. She described it as a personal visit to help her come to terms with the tragedy that struck her family. Her personal meeting was arranged by an intelligence official who accompanied her to prison but was absent during the actual meeting. However Nalini extensively briefed her two lawyers about what transpired during the one hour long meeting. One of the lawyers disclosed some details to the media.

One question Priyanka pointedly asked Nalini was if she knew who the mastermind was behind Rajiv’s assassination. She also sought the motive behind the crime. Reportedly Nalini had no explanations. This strengthened suspicion about the conspiracy--assassination squad members seldom know who directs them. The question is was Priyanka seeking the truth behind an assassination about which the official explanation had failed to satisfy her? If such is the case she would be joining a very large number of people who entertain similar doubts.

A woman suicide bomber, Dhanu, killed herself and Rajiv Gandhi in a public gathering in Sriperumbudur, Chennai. The Special Investigative Team (SIT) nailed the LTTE for the murder. The SIT chief, former CBI Director Kaarthikeyan, wrote a book to describe his triumph. But subsequently Major Ravi, the officer leading the commando team to capture the leader of the LTTE killer squad, Sivarasan, claimed that for one whole week he was prevented from apprehending the killer. According to him, the CBI chief disallowed action and the delay enabled Sivarasan to commit suicide and bury the truth about the conspiracy.

It has never been satisfactorily explained how Dhanu, Rajiv’s suicide bomber, became a tenant of a senior Congress leader. Nor what explanation that senior Congress leader’s daughter gave for accompanying Dhanu when she went to kill Rajiv Gandhi. Later that Congress leader’s daughter became a Congress MLA. The SIT probe never explained satisfactorily how the killer squad succeeded in penetrating the Congress party’s leadership circle.

If Priyanka Vadra is indeed seeking answers it is welcome. The public still awaits a satisfactory explanation about who wanted Rajiv Gandhi dead and why.