“Don’t Agree With Sonia Gandhi”: Congress On Rajiv Gandhi Killers’ Release

The Congress today seethed at the Supreme Court decision to free Nalini Sriharan and five other convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case and said it “disagreed with Sonia Gandhi”, who had pleaded for their release from prison.

The Congress said it would seek legal remedy. “Sonia Gandhi, above all, is entitled to her personal views. But with greatest respect, party doesn’t agree and has made our view clear. In this case, the Congress’ views are the same as that of the central government.

The party does not agree with Sonia Gandhi’s view, has never agreed with that view, and has made this view clear for years,” said Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi. “Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination was not like any other crime. This is a national issue, not a local murder.”

Nalini Sriharan approached the Supreme Court when in May, it used special powers to free one of the convicts, AG Perarivalan. All seven convicts in the case have spent more than 30 years in prison.

Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991, at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu, by a woman suicide bomber of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) group.

Seven convicts were sentenced to death for their role in the killing.

In 2000, Nalini Sriharan’s sentence was reduced to a life term on the intervention of Sonia Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi’s wife and former Congress president. Sonia Gandhi had filed a clemency petition that pointed out that Nalini was pregnant when she was arrested.

The sentence of six more convicts was also commuted in 2014. The same year, then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha initiated moves to free them.

In 2008, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the daughter of Rajiv Gandhi, met with Nalini in a prison in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore. “The big learning from that meeting was that I was still… Though I was not angry anymore, I did not hate her… and I wanted to meet her, I was still thinking that I was somebody who could forgive her for something she had done. And then I met her, and I realized, what am I talking about…?” Priyanka Gandh.

“We are consistent about our stand. This is an institutional matter. The sovereignty, integrity and the identity of a nation is involved in the assassination of a former Prime Minister,” said Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

“That is why the central government has also never agreed with releasing the convicts. Either the previous government (Congress) or this (BJP),” the Congress leader added.

Asked whether the party also disagreed with its ally DMK, which rules Tamil Nadu, Mr Singhvi shot back. “They are our allies. We don’t agree with even Sonia Gandhi.” Mr Singhvi questioned why the Supreme Court would invoke special powers “that it doesn’t have” to free convicted assassins of a former Prime Minister.

“Has the larger issue of sovereignty and integrity of a nation been taken into account? It was an attack on India’s integrity,” he said.

Earlier, another Congress leader, Jairam Ramesh, had said: “The decision of the Supreme Court to free the remaining killers of former PM Rajiv Gandhi is totally unacceptable and completely erroneous. The Congress party criticises it clearly and finds it wholly untenable.”

He added: “It is most unfortunate that the Supreme Court has not acted in consonance with the spirit of India on this issue.”