NEW DELHI, NOV 11: The Congress Party continued to use the Jain Commission report, on the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, to hold the United Front government to ransom. Senior partymen today turned the heat on the UF, encouraged by Union Home Minister Indrajit Gupta's statement seeking actual evidence from Justice Jain. Casting aspersions on the Home Minister's intentions, the Congress warned that the United Front should not take their support for granted on this matter.

Party vice-president Jitendra Prasada, CWC member Arjun Singh, former Union Ministers K Karunakaran and KK Tewary all echoed the same sentiment in varying styles. They threatened drastic action if the report is not laid on the floor of Parliament. In private, however, Congress sources admitted that Sonia Gandhi would hold the key to how far the party will push the UF on the controversial issue.

Sonia Gandhi is expected to return from abroad tomorrow and is likely to have talks with representatives of the AICC. Congress president Sitaram Kesri and CWC member Pranab Mukherjee, who were in Calcutta today, are also slated to be here tomorrow following which more activity will unfurl.

Today, at least three leaders held separate meetings with media persons and a fourth released his own statement, castigating Gupta for his statement yesterday. Gupta said the Jain Commission did not present evidence to back its findings and that it might be difficult to table the inquiry report in Parliament, as promised earlier, on the first day of the winter session.

Prasada held a briefing at his residence at 3.30 pm, Karunakaran was doing likewise at the same time in his house and Singh held his briefing at the AICC headquarters at 4 pm. Tewary issued a statement on his own. The conclusion: the Congress might well do some serious thinking on continued support to the UF if the report is not tabled in Parliament.

But the contradictions of the Congress were evident in the way the feelings were expressed today. Even on this issue, which the party says is absolutely sensitive, the leaders were not willing to be seen together. Prasada claimed he had clearance from Kesri before going public while Singh said he was speaking for the party.

Tewary was severe on party colleagues. ``Nothing is sacrosanct for the likes of Jitendra Prasada as long as it helps their self-promotion and factional political interests. Some of his replies to my questions (while Tewary was cross-examining Prasada in the Commission hearings) had to be kept off the record because he virtually blamed Rajiv Gandhi for his so-called non-compliance of security norms.

``If Prasada, as political security to Narasimha Rao, had counselled him properly the Jain Commission would have completed its job long ago and conspirators and assassins of Rajiv Gandhi would be in jail by now,'' Tewary said. Singh dismissed Karunakaran, in much lesser terms, saying the Kerala leader was entitled to his opinion.

Harsh words were, however, used for Gupta by all. ``The Home Minister is behaving in an irresponsible manner and the Prime Minister must think seriously whether such a person should continue in the Cabinet. He (Gupta) has cast aspersions on the Jain Commission. How do we know whether the minister is not partisan,'' fumed Prasada.

Prasada practically called for Gupta's ouster from the UF ministry. Singh, who takes his letter-writing seriously, sent a three-page letter to Prime Minister IK Gujral saying Gupta's utterances amounted to an attempt to wriggle out of the commitment to place the report in Parliament.

``The Congress takes serious objections to the observations of the Home Minister yesterday. It is inconceivable that the findings of the Commission have no bearing on the evidence tendered before it. To raise such an issue less than 10 days before the report is to be placed in Parliament, as per his own commitment, appears a little strange. The Congress cannot rescind from its stand in the CWC resolution adopted on September 27,'' Singh wrote.On his part, Prasada added the Congress would show the UF what drastic action it could take when insulted.

This is the second time Gupta has ruffled the Congress' feathers in such a manner, the first being in 1996 when he said people would slap Congressmen if the party withdrew support to the UF.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.