In reply to DMK Parliamentary Party leader Murasoli Maran's letter objecting to the ``outrageous'' inclusion, Advani has stated: ``The error was inadvertent and we have requested the secretary generals of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha to make the necessary corrections.''

Maran, who distributed copies of the Home Minister's (strangely undated) letter to the media here today, said that on August 7 he had written to Advani contending that Karunanidhi's name figured only in Chapter IX, Volume V of the Jain Commission's final report under the caption `Stand of the SIT on the theories beyond LTTE'.

However, the BJP-led Government's ATR included Karunanidhi's name under the heading `Role of suspects'.THE ATR has said the government would let the proposed Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA) to decide how to proceed on an observation in the report that Karunanidhi should be interrogated. Maran described it as ``grave injustice and outrageous.''

Maran said that he had stated in his letter that a necessary correction should be carried out ``if it is not intentional and political''.

In response to Maran's letter, the Union Home Ministry on August 19 wrote to the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha secretary generals to make the necessary correction in the House records in this regard. Asked if the Government's admission of the error amounted to giving a clean chit to the DMK chief in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case and whether the proposed multi-disciplinary monitoring agency would drop the proposed inquiry into Karunanidhi's role, Maran said: ``The Home Ministry has given a correction. That's all.'' He thanked Advani for correcting the ``error''.

With the relationship between the Bharatiya JanataParty and the AIADMK souring on various issues, this discovery of an ``error' could further widen the rift between BJP and Jayalalitha. This may also be the beginning of change in the political equations at the Centre and the state. The BJP-led Government had recently ignored Jayalalitha on Cauvery issue and went ahead with new interim award agreement.

Soon after ATR was laid in Parliament, AIADMK had demanded arrest and prosecuton of Karunanidhi.

On Jayalaltiha's charge that he had struck a deal with BJP and was keeping secret links with the BJP leaders, Maran, the nephew of Karunanidhi, said he knew many leaders in BJP for long. Maran also denied media reports that he was negotiating with the BJP for a possible alliance. ``The BJP has not sent any feelers,'' he stated. Asked if the DMK proposed to initiate legal action against the BJP-led Government for having ``sullied'' Karunanidhi's image, Maran said: ``We have already registered our protest.'' To another query, Maran said there was no change in theDMK's stand that the ATR was a ``fraud''. In no mood to fault the Congress for demanding probe into Karunanidhi's role in the assassination, Maran attributed the demand to ``internal squabbles'' in the Congress.

On legally contesting the Jain Commission's final report which had listed former DMK minister Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan's name along with the 21 suspects, Maran said the ``party will decide later''.

But Jaya calls it a fraud by Maran

CHENNAI: Joining issue with Murasoli Maran, AIADMK chief Jayalalitha alleged that he had sought to perpetrate a ``Himalayan fraud'' by claiming that Karunanidhi's name had been deleted from the Memorandum of Action Taken (MOAT).

Releasing what are purported to be excerpts of the letters of Advani and Vinay Kumar, joint secretary, Union Home Ministry, in this regard, she contended that it was clear from the letters the only change that would be made in the MOAT was by way of insertion of the title ``Stand of the SIT on theories beyond LTTE'' at serial number12 on page 43 of the MOAT.

Jayalalitha said what was inadvertently omitted was the title and it was being inserted now in the MOAT. She claimed that the letter had further stated that the conclusions and recommendations of the commission as well as the remarks of the Government on Karunanidhi following this new title were not being deleted.