Where Rajiv Gandhi died: An impressive memorial, but a crumbling party

SRIPERUMBUDUR: A grand memorial to Rajiv Gandhi stands amid lush green lawns. A set of towers and a plaque mark the spot where an LTTE suicide bomber assassinated the former PM on May 21, 1991.

Some kilometers away in Sriperumbudur town, parties are in campaign mode. The Congress hopes to make a comeback here but its candidate K Selvaperunthagai is ironically accused of being pro-LTTE, he's accused even of justifying Rajiv's killing.

"Baseless allegations," counters Selvaperunthagai, "Sriperumbudur mourns Rajiv's killing. Why should I be considered pro-LTTE because I was once in the VCK (A Dalit party with known LTTE leanings)? I am an Ambedkar follower."

Residents recall the fear they felt on May 21, 1991. "We couldn't believe it when we heard the news," recalls Chinayan, an eatery owner, "ours is a peaceful town. I was at home when it happened." Says Selvam, a retired bank employee: "There was sympathy for the Congress after the assassination. The late Margatham Chandrashekhar (3term Congress MP) won here. But there isn't much traction for the Congress now." Youngsters have no time for memories. "We go to the memorial for Sunday outings," says Janakiraman a student. "Not many in my generation remember what happened here."

Young residents may have forgotten the assassination but Jayanthi Natarajan, former Union minister and TN Congress veteran, who's since quit the party, remembers vividly. She was then an RS MP and closest to Rajiv when he died. "I remember receiving him at the airport," Natarajan recalls. "At the press conference I noticed he was wearing Lotto shoes. I remember thinking how unfair it was that people accused him of wearing Gucci. The same day I identified his dead body by those shoes."

On May 21, the doomed Sriperumbudur rally was poor ly lit and the welcoming fireworks made Rajiv's aide Suman Dubey uneasy. Rajiv walked down meeting people as Nata rajan translated for him. At one point she walked away briefly to attend to two foreign journalists.

In those fateful seconds Natarajan heard a deep, intense bang. She turned.

Where Rajiv stood there was a tall flame. Ignoring cries of "amma run, they may attack again," she rushed towards Rajiv as he lay face down.

When she tried to turn him over, there was nothing left of him for her to grip.

She and party veteran G K Moo panar bundled what was left of Rajiv into a bag and took it to hospital. How dare you tell me this is Rajiv, Natarajan recalls the duty doctor shouting at her, a 6-foot tall man just this bundle of flesh in a bag?

A sympathy wave after the tragedy enabled the AIADMK-Congress alliance to win big in 1991. But Congress fortunes have steadily declined.

"It's pathetic to see Sonia Gandhi on stage," says Ayappan, a local. "She lacks energy. All the big leaders have gone. Vasan, Jayanthi, M Arunchalam -no one's left. Only Khushboo is there. The great Kamaraj's party is now Khushboo's."

Khushboo insists the leadership must be credited for the alliance with the DMK. "Congress and DMK have always stood for a commitment to public welfare," she says. "We don't believe in freebies like gold and scooties, we are promising educational loans and MNREGA. We are confident of winning."

The Congress hasn't just been politically defeated but ideologically as well in TN, feels analyst R Radhakrishnan.

"Once the Dravida parties began to define nationalism as the Tamil language, the Congress got no space," he says. "It couldn't recover after its 1967 defeat to DMK. The Congress never produced leaders to match MGR or Karunanidhi."

Back at Rajiv's memorial, a group of youngsters enjoy a break from studies. Do they know anything about Rajiv Gandhi? "No," they shake their heads. "We are Vijaykanth fans."