Even if the MDMA in its proposed form is only a second best solution, the Congress should cooperate with it, instead of trying to extract some last shreds of political mileage from it. For, a close reading of the Jain Commission's main conclusions shows that apart from a looseness of language and lack of caution in ascribing blame, which has allowed readers to draw erroneous conclusions from it, the Commission has done valuable work in pinpointing the lapses in the interpretation of intelligence and in the action taken on their basis, which contributed to Rajiv's assassination. Perhaps its most important contribution is to point out that the threat to a former prime minister does not decline when he steps out of office, but is very likely to increase. This happens because while he may be a less important person when out of office, he becomes a much softer target. A terrorist organisation has to balance the added publicity and political mileage to be gained from killing a prime minister, against the greater ease and certainty of being able to kill a former prime minister. In the case of Rajiv Gandhi, the son and grandson of prime ministers and the initiator of the assault on the LTTE, the balance came down heavily in favour of going for him, rather than for the charismatic but much less well-known Chandra Shekhar.