Rajiv Gandhi, Indo-Lanka Accord, and Sriperumbhudur assassination

FORMER Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated 34 years ago by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on 21 May 1991. The date of Rajiv Gandhi's death has poignant significance for me personally. 21 May is the date of my birth. Rajiv’s death occurred 37 years after I was born. My birth and his death are intertwined in my consciousness. Rajiv’s memory looms large as each birthday approaches. It is against this backdrop that I re-visit Rajiv Gandhi's assassination with the aid of my earlier writings.

- By D.B.S. Jeyaraj

Rajiv Ratna Gandhi who was India’s Prime Minister from 31 October 1984 to 2 December 1989 was not serving as premier at the time of his demise. An election campaign was underway then to elect a new Lok Sabha or Parliament. The Congress led by Rajiv was the front runner in that race then.

Rajiv as he was generally known was at a place called Sriperumbudur in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu to address a propaganda meeting in support of Congress party candidate Maragatham Chandrasekhar. The 47-year-old Indian ex-premier was then immersed in a hectic political campaign to win the Indian Parliamentary elections.

It was then that a Sri Lankan Tamil girl known by the name of “Dhanu” got close to Rajiv Gandhi and gave him a sandalwood garland. The be-spectacled girl in an orange and green churidar then bent down respectfully to touch Rajiv’s feet. She set off a concealed explosive device that was strapped to her body. Rajiv Gandhi, the assailant Dhanu and at least 18 others were killed in the blast instantly. 42 were seriously injured.

A few of the injured also succumbed to their wounds in hospital later on. The “human bomb” assassination that was soon to become a hallmark of the Tiger organisation rocked India and shocked the world.

The politico-military chutzpah of the LTTE in deploying an assassination squad across the seas to eliminate a former and potential future prime minister of the regional super power on his home turf, raised many an eyebrow after Rajiv Gandhi was murdered. The Rajiv Gandhi assassination committed on Indian soil was an act of international terrorism that placed the LTTE on the index of global terrorists.

Many security affairs analysts have in the past evinced great interest in how this assassination was executed. The decision to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi was taken by LTTE leader Veluppillai Prabhakaran and Tiger intelligence chief Shanmugalingam Sivashankar alias “Pottu Ammaan”.

One-eyed Sivarasan