Daughter's quest

Priyanka Gandhi's journey to Vellore Jail was not an attempt to come to terms with the tragedy of Rajiv Gandhi's assassination. It was the first step to get to the truth

Sanjay Kapoor Delhi

When Priyanka Gandhi left domesticity to mysteriously show up at the high security Vellore Jail in Tamil Nadu to meet Nalini, one of the accused in the assassination of her father, Rajiv Gandhi, and to ask her about the identity of those who killed her father, she had taken the first firm step to join the rough and tumble of politics.

Her visit obviously happened after much deliberation. Surely, Priyanka was aware as to how it would have been perceived if the fact about this trip gets leaked to the media. Although it was to be a secret — till it was revealed by the lawyer of the accused — the questions that Priyanka asked her make it amply clear that she is not convinced with the official explanation about who killed her father.

Priyanka's visit to Vellore is fraught with major implications. Besides treading the same path that her mother took before she entered politics full time— Sonia criticised the PV Narasimha Rao government for not doing enough to track the conspirators behind her husband's death - the young lady made it clear that she was not willing to give up on her search for those who conspired to get her father assassinated. In a subtle, nuanced way, it also expresses a firm no-confidence in the way the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has gone about giving meaning to the unfinished work of a multi-disciplinary monitoring agency (MDMA) perfunctorily constituted to investigate the findings of the Justice MC Jain Commission, which was mandated to look into the wider conspiracy behind Rajiv Gandhi's assassination.

It must be galling to the sensitive daughter of Rajiv and Sonia that the MDMA has been relegated to a meaningless acronym after the UPA government took over in 2004. In comparison, the MDMA delivered better results when the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government was in power.

And there is a reason: Many of those who manned the political and security establishment at the time when Rajiv was assassinated in 1991 are still calling the shots now. “How can we expect to get to the truth in Rajiv's assassination, when we have couple of key players occupying important places in the government?” informed a source who claims proximity to the family.

Furthermore, the forces that benefited from Rajiv's death are now stronger than they were in 1991. His death contributed in some ways in changing the course of history, a fact that finds corroboration in a recent paper titled, Hit or Miss? The Effect of Assassination on Institution and War, written by Benjamin F Jones and Benjamin A Olken.