Me & Priyanka have “completely forgiven” the killers of My father Rajiv Gandhi: Rahul
SINGAPORE: Nearly 27 years after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi said he and his sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, have “completely forgiven” their father’s killers.
Speaking to a large audience of IIM alumni at an interactive session in Singapore on Saturday, the Gandhi scion said, “We have forgiven our father’s murderers. Whatever may be the reason, I don’t like any violence of any kind.”
Rahul went on to admit that the siblings knew their father would be killed someday. “We knew that my father was going to die. We knew that my grandmother was going to die. In politics, when you mess with the wrong forces, and if you stand for something, you will die. That`s pretty clear.
“My grandmother told me she was going to die and my father…I told him he was going to die.” “In politics, we deal with forces, big forces, which are normally not visible. You are dealing with structures that are powerful. Those are not visible but they can hurt you,” he said.
“We were very upset and hurt and for many years. We were quite angry. But, somehow, completely…in fact, completely (forgiven),” said Rahul. Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a woman suicide bomber of LTTE, the terrorist group in Sri Lanka led by Prabhakaran, on May 21, 1991 at an election rally in Tamil Nadu.
oooo Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said that he and his sister Priyanka Gandhi have “completely forgiven” the killers of their father Rajiv Gandhi.
During his interaction with IIM alumni in Singapore, Mr. Gandhi, when asked if he and his sister Priyanka had forgiven his father’s killers, said: “We were very upset and hurt and for many years we were quite angry. But, somehow, completely…in fact, completely (forgiven).”
“There is a history that when one realises that when these events take place, it’s collision of ideas, forces, confusion. That’s where you get caught. I remember when I saw Mr. Prabhakaran on TV lying dead, I got two feelings – one was why they are humiliating this man in this way.
“And second was I felt really bad for him and for his kids and I did that because I understood deeply what it meant to be on the other side of that thing. So to me when I see violence regardless of who it is,
I know that there is a human being behind that, there is a family behind that, a kid crying behind that. I have been through a lot of pain to get this and it is something I consider very valuable. I find it difficult to hate people, even my sister does,” he said.
Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a woman suicide bomber of LTTE, the terrorist group in Sri Lanka led by Prabhakaran, on May 21, 1991 at an election rally in Tamil Nadu.
Mr. Gandhi, who is on a five-day trip to the Southeast Asian countries, also said: “We knew that my father was going to die. We knew that my grandmother was going to die. In politics, when you mess with the wrong forces, and if you stand for something, you will die. That’s pretty clear.”
Asked if he thinks he had a privileged life being the son and grandson of former prime ministers, he said, “It depends which side of the coin you are…of course there are a number of privileges where I sit, but I would not say that I haven’t been through a rough ride.”
“I was 14 when my grandmother was assassinated. I used to play badminton with those who killed my grandmother. After that my father was killed. So you live in a particular environment…surrounded by 15 guys from morning noon and night, I don’t thinks that’s a privilege. I think that’s quite a hard thing to deal with,” he said in a video shared by the Congress party on its Twitter handle. (With Agency Inputs).
