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The Rediff Interview/K Mohandas

'India first created the LTTE monster, then maintained it, and now seeks to destroy it'

So, MGR was scared.

I didn’t say that. Just because he gave money, you cannot say that he was sympathetic. I am giving you options.

You said MGR did whatever the Centre asked him to. What was the attitude of the DMK and other state parties to the Tamil militants?

Since Prabhakaran was with MGR, the other fellows were with the other political parties.

Do you think the attitude of politicians in Tamil Nadu changed later on, that is after MGR died? Karunanidhi has been blamed by the Jain Commission for supporting the LTTE.

First, the LTTE was with MGR and after his death, it was with the DMK. As far as 1989 is concerned, I was not in the picture, so it is not fair on my part to comment about the DMK. I can only say from what I have heard. See, once an intelligence officer, always an intelligence officer! Rajiv Gandhi thought Karunanidhi was trying to get close to the LTTE. So, he wanted to talk to them through the DMK. He was also scared because Premadasa, who had by then become president of Sri Lanka, and the Tamil militants were getting closer, which he wanted to avoid. Premadasa was against the (Indo-Sri Lanka) accord.

Those were the two reasons why Rajiv Gandhi wanted to use Karunanidhi and (Industry Minister Murasoli) Maran to talk to the LTTE. But Prabhakaran did not want anything or anyone to come between him and absolute power.

Yes, there appeared to be some help from the government to put down (EPRLF leader) Padmanabha. Right in T Nagar, 15 people were shot dead and none of the accused was arrested.

You were summoned by the Jain Commission. What is your opinion about such commissions?

These commissions usually do not get us anywhere. There is a joke in the central secretariat that if you cannot decide find anything, refer it to a commission. The fruits of the Jain Commission appears to be highly politicised. A commission does not conduct a regular trial. I wonder why Mr Jain made a mess of the whole thing as if he was conducting a regular trial.The alleged leakage of the report made things worse. There is already a case under trial in which the judgment is slated to be delivered on January 28, 1998. It is for legal pundits to discern as to what extent the Jain report would affect or overlap the trial in the special court.

In fact, the conspiracy aspect and security lapses aspect would have formed part of the whole case. The present difficulty has risen out of the fact that the conspiracy aspect and security aspect were taken away from the main case of trial of the accused. Worse will follow if the findings of the three judges clash with each other.

What was the atmosphere in the state like when the Tamil militants were around?

Very bad. There were so many militant groups and there was rivalry among them. The first sign of the fall-out among them was a shoot out between Prabhakaran and Uma Maheshwaran. Immediately they were arrested. But this shootout brought to surface the shocking fact that the militant groups had chosen Tamil Nadu not only as a sanctuary for their political fight against the Sri Lankan government but also as an arena to settle scores among themselves. That also covers the murder of Padmanabha.

Let me tell you one thing. I have the gratification of having arrested Prabhakaran twice and know something of his psychology! The arrest of Prabhakaran and Shivakumar of LTTE, and Maheshwaran and Jyotheeswaran of PLOTE put a momentary stop to their mutual rivalry. After the incident, we came to know that they were well trained in handling firearms.

Was the police when the shootout started?

We were there soon. See, though the central government was not giving us much intelligence reports, (they seem to be working at cross purposes), we had our own intelligence apparatus.

Was MGR aware of the law and order situation in the state?

I had a hotline to him and I used to inform him immediately. I was not aware whether MGR was politically informed about these activities because whenever I conveyed the news to him he only told me, inform New Delhi, I told him it was too serious a matter to be handled at my level. But MGR continued his sphinx-like posture.

I did write to the directors of IB and RAW but there was no proper response from them. As far as Tamil Nadu was concerned, each training camp was a mini-Union territory completely controlled by central agencies to which the state intelligence or the state police had no access.

It was almost a takeover of chunks of Tamil Nadu territory by the Centre. But MGR was unmoved.The news of the training camps hit the headlines all over the world and photographs of the camps with the addresses were published in periodicals. All the while the Government of India went on denying the existence of these camps. Refugees, yes. But militants and training camps, no, was the government's persistent comment.

You arrested Prabhakaran after the first shootout in T Nagar. What conclusions did you come to after questioning him?

That he is more terrorist than patriot.

How did the second arrest come about?

November 1, 1986. Deepavali day at Choolaimedu, right in the heart of Madras city. Broad daylight. Stunned and shocked state. Following a petty dispute of hiring an autorickshaw, a member of the EPRLF sprayed 60 bullets at unarmed citizens of Madras, killing a young dalit lawyer and injuring many others. The perpetrators of the crime, though armed with sophisticated weapons, were quickly disarmed and taken into custody by the commissioner of police, Walter Dawaram.

I immediately conveyed the news to MGR and repeated my concern about the activities of the militants of all hues and the effect it was having on the law and order situation in the state.

I told him it was high time that a fully coordinated and firm action was taken to keep them under control. I also telephoned Mr M K Narayan, additional director, IB, at New Delhi and repeated what I had told MGR. I added it was a serious matter and needed to be brought to the prime minister's notice.

Was MGR unmoved?

He said once again, inform Delhi.

Was he not worried at all?

Looking at an actor’s face, you will not be able to say whether he was worried or not. First of all, it is difficult to deal with a chief minister in the normal course of things itself. More so, if he is a film actor. They have these ‘expressions’ or ‘no expressions’. Mostly, it is ‘no expressions’.

How could he remain unmoved when such violence was affecting the state?

I should tell you frankly. Whether it is Clinton or Indira Gandhi or Rajiv Gandhi or MGR, the feeling uppermost in their minds is for their own safety and their wellbeing. All the rest come only later. This is my personal feeling, which I gathered from experience.

'These people thought like Indian politicians, Prabhakaran also could be lured by the offer of a chief ministership!'