India can't forgive Prabhakaran for Rajiv killing: Priyanka

Congress star campaigner Priyanka Gandhi said India as a nation cannot forgive LTTE chief V Prabhakaran for the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi though personally she and her family harbour no "hatred or anger" against the killers of her father.

Congress star campaigner Priyanka Gandhi on Tuesday said India as a nation cannot forgive LTTE chief V Prabhakaran for the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi though personally she and her family harbour no "hatred or anger" against the killers of her father.

HT Image

Priyanka also downplayed the controversial comments of DMK chief M Karunanidhi that Prabhakaran is not a terrorist, saying she would have no "personal grief" even if anybody "praises" the LTTE chief.

"This issue is both political and personal for me. I fully understand politically the former Prime Minister of India was assassinated and they (LTTE) cannot be pardoned by India as a nation," she said when asked what treatment she would like to be meted out to Prabhakaran if he is handed over to India by Sri Lanka.

She, however, hastened to add "from the point of view of humanity, I have nothing against them (killers) in my heart...neither anger nor hatred."

Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by LTTE in a suicide bomb attack in Tamil Nadu on May 21, 1991.

Priyanka, in interviews to media here while campaigning for brother Rahul Gandhi, referred to her meeting with Nalini, one of the convicts in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, and described it as a learning experience.

Asked whether she has forgiven Nalini, Priyanka responded, "I am like Nalini. I am a human being. One human being cannot forgive another human being."

On Karunanidhi's comment that Prabhakaran is not a terrorist and the LTTE chief was his good friend, Priyanka said, "If somebody says things about them (LTTE) or praises them, it does not cause us personal grief. Politics is quite separate to us from our personal grief,"

At the same time, she noted, "he (Karunanidhi) has retracted his statement."

She also declined to comment on AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa's remark that Sonia Gandhi should tell the nation what she feels about the DMK chief's remark. "These are political things. I won't like to comment on that," Priyanka said.

Asked to comment on Rahul's remark that the family was yet to get justice for the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, Priyanka said she and her brother perhaps react differently on this issue. She, however, maintained that Rahul has no anger in his heart and he was only referring to the long period that justice system takes.