18 December 1999 :

On December 18, General Secretary Vaiko of the MDMK, a partner in the ruling BJP-led coalition, said he and Tamils National Movement leader P. Nedumaran had requested the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to take steps to abolish the death penalty and also to consider granting clemency to the four convicts facing execution in the Rajiv Gandhi case. Vaiko said he had always favored abolition of the death penalty and had even introduced a Private Member's Bill in Parliament for this purpose, in the 1980's.