History & Me
Twenty-one summers have been added to my age since that night on this day (May 21) way back in 1991. The incident, which re-wrote the history of India, however, remains firmly etched in memory. That was the first time I saw him live and dead together! As a young correspondent of Business Standard, then a part of the Ananda Bazar Group, I was searching for `news fodder' that day. As the search was getting me nothing and leading me to nowhere, I was aimlessly moving around at the spacious Bazar Office at Pattulas Road in Chennai (now occupied by the Mahindras). Suddenly, fellow-journalists from sister publications (the always-young Bhagwan Singh and ever-enterprising G.C. Sekhar) pulled me into their `election sojourn'. Since you don't have any work, why don't you also join us? they said. They were going to Sriperumbudur to cover the election rally of Rajiv Gandhi. Since I was `jobless' that day, I felt it wasn’t a bad idea to see Rajiv Gandhi in `flesh and blood' since I had not seen him at all in my life time. When I informed my visiting Deputy Editor Rajagopalan (who is no more), who had come from Calcutta to cover the election scene in the South, of my decision, he said in a nonchalant way, ``Why not sir. He (Rajiv Gandhi) will blabber something. And, we can make nice analysis out of it!'' That was how I happened to be in the car along with Arun, Bugs and GC. As usual, lazy Vinay Kamath excused himself. Even today, he regrets for not being a part of our team that fateful evening!
Ahead of time
We were ahead of time as we reached the birth place of Ramanujar. The Congress leader had not arrived for the rally. Indications were that it would take a longer time for him to reach the venue. So, we all headed for a nondescript hotel near the bus stand and had light refreshments. As we returned to the site, Bugs saw R.K. Raghavan, who was supervising the security arrangement for the rally that evening. Since Bugs and GC knew him well (as they are the political writers), they engaged him in a little chat. As a co-passenger, I could clearly pick up what they were discussing. I heard Raghavan telling them that Tamil Nadu ``is not Andhra Pradesh.'' ``Fortunately, we don't have Naxal problems here,'' he quipped.
Kurta man
As we moved around, photographer Haribabu, known to both Bugs and GC, introduced to them a `kurta man' as his friend. After a cursory exchange, GC moved ahead and I followed innocently. We headed to the press enclosure, which was on the right side of the dais. We waited a while.
A loud thud
All of a sudden, the excitement level had reached a crescendo. We were all looking at one direction - from where the Rajiv Gandhi convoy was coming (toward the dais). Shouts rented the air, as the crowd greeted their leader with slogans. Like the television camera chasing the ball which is heading for a sure four in a cricketing game, all eyes panned to the direction from where Rajiv Gandhi was coming. All of a sudden, we heard a loud `dubb' (noise). Split moment later, everyone was running helter-skelter and towards the dais. GC ran. So did Arun. I, too, raced with them. As we ran behind the dais and reached the left side of the dais, GC saw Vazapadi Ramamurthi, the then Congress leader of Tamil Nadu. ``What happened sir,'' GC asked Ramamurthy. ``Our leader himself gone,'' a wailing Ramamurthy blurted out in Tamil. Oh my God! I was looking all over. Suddenly, we saw a mangled body on ground. Blood was all over. The give-away was the Lotto shoes. And, Rajiv Gandhi was the man. It took us a few minutes to gather ourselves. Bugs took charge and directed us to rush back to the car. We ran towards our car. We couldn't find Arun. So, we left him behind at the venue. We were, perhaps, the first ones to leave the venue and head back to file our copies. At Bug's house in K.K. Nagar, we, one by one, used the lone telephone at his residence to dictate our stories to our news desk in Calcutta. When I realized that the `kurta man’ was later identified as Rajiv Gandhi killer, my whole body shook. Till this day, I couldn't forget the election rally that was never held! Events of that evening are etched permanently in my memory. More than two decades had gone by in the meanwhile. That image, however, still disturbs me.
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1 comment:
KT, there is a small correction to your copy--while GC and you moved on after saying hello to haribabu, i had stayed back to chat up haribabu, who introduced the kurta man to me as partner of a new photo studio started by a common friend ravishankar. i enquired with haribabu about his father's health and then joined you guys at the press enclosure. and the rest of the disaster you have written about. as we rushed out after the blast, i noticed moopanar and jayanthi natarajan bending over rajiv's body, which was lying face down. they turned the body to confirm it was him, to see his face, and there was no face, as a good part of the front was blown off. later, i ended up being the prosecution witness to identify the kurta man, who turned out to be the one-eyed sivarasan, the assassin.
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