Credit must be given where credit is due. The true author of the Jain Commission report is Palaniappan Chidambaram, none other.For Justice M.C. Jain has done no more than paraphrase Chidambaram's celebrated speech in the Lok Sabha on February 25, 1991. At the heart of the Jain Commission's findings are Chidambaram's inferences and Chidambaram's conclusions.Of course, Rajiv Gandhi died three months after Chidambaram's speech. But thanks to the assiduous endeavours of Dinamalar, the Tamil newspaper, of November 12, 1996, the Jain Commission was also afforded access to a compendium of all statements made by Chidambaram between May 22, 1991 (the morning after Rajiv) and June 13, 1991 (the last day of the election campaign in Tamil Nadu) through which Chidambaram, none other, linked the assassination of Padmanabha to the assassination of Rajiv. By marrying Chidambaram's speech in Parliament to his statements outside, Jain merely had to add Chidambaram part I to Chidambaram part II and, hey presto, his report was ready. No wonder the good justice did such a quick job of it.Therefore, Chidambaram will be entirely justified in claiming royalties for his unacknowledged contribution to the commission's labours. Instead, Chidambaram, in his latest avatar as a member of India Today's stable of columnists - see his maiden effort in the previous issue - says that as he "adhered to the contents of his speech" in his evidence before the commission "that should be the end of the matter".That, I am afraid, is not the end of the matter. It is the beginning. For if Chidambaram "adheres" still to the charges he laid at the door of the DMK - "grave charges", as he described them, made "with a sense of responsibility" - how does he account for having allied himself with a leader and a party he had accused, and continues to accuse, of abetment to murder and treachery to the nation? The question is important because it stands to reason that if the DMK is to pay a political price for its indictment by the Jain Commission, then can the TMC, which brought the DMK back to power, be exculpated of its responsibility? Chidambaram stands vindicated for what he said as a Congressman - and indicted for what he and his Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) colleagues did in clasping the blood-stained hands of the DMK.The mere expulsion of the DMK from the United Front (UF) cannot meet the ends of political justice. If, after expelling the DMK, the UF Government continues to contest the findings of the Jain Commission, then the Congress' struggle against the denigration of Justice Jain's findings must continue. That denigration has started with Chidambaram. He will have to write many more columns if he is to answer all the sins of omission and commission with which Jain has indicted him. Anything he writes or says is as a member of the TMC and as a spokesman of the UF.It is not possible for the Congress to be hard on the DMK and soft on the UF or any of its constituents unless the UF and its constituents - including the TMC - follow up the expulsion of the DMK by acceptance of the essential validity of Jain's report.There is little prospect of that happening. The Congress will have to demand the exclusion from any government it supports of all those indicted by Justice Jain. That means, at a minimum, the finance minister's head. Will G.K. Moopanar sacrifice his self-proclaimed right hand man in the interests of keeping the UF in government?To go by the pragmatism that is the hallmark of Moopanar's politics, Chidambaram may well be a goat worth sacrificing for Moopanar to prove the sincerity of his purpose and the purity of his intent to 24 Akbar Road and 10 Janpath.Moopanar will, of course, prefer the alternative of continuing to be kingmaker while avenging himself on M. Karunanidhi for the DMK having ditched him in his attempt to become prime minister. That will be called eating your idli and having it too.The problem is if Moopanar distances himself from the DMK, he and the TMC will be trounced at the next elections as happened in January 1989, when Moopanar misguided Rajiv into going it alone against the DMK and both AIADMKs. There are now two DMKs (V. Gopalasamy's and Karunanidhi's) and one AIADMK. That apart, nothing has changed. The TMC on its own will come a cropper. So Moopanar's best bet will be to bid farewell to the DMK and say his goodbyes to Chidambaram, thus saving the UF Government while ingratiating himself with the Congress.Otherwise, there will be an election. It is an election in which the Congress in Tamil Nadu can hardly join hands with the DMK. It is an election in which the Congress must either go it alone or in conjunction with the resurgent Jayalalitha. For a Congress without Moopanar, to even think of going it alone will be political suicide. On the other hand, a Congress in cohorts with the TMC will be unacceptable to the lady. So if the Congress does not have the stomach to go it alone in Tamil Nadu (and it really does not), there is no alternative to keeping the lady in good humour. This means keeping one's distance from the TMC as a party and her bete noire, Chidambaram, as a person.I am, therefore, glad Chidambaram has opened his innings as a columnist. It is the fate of failed politicians.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Dec 1, 1997 00:00 IST--- ENDS ---
