‘Release of Rajiv killers unfair to 15 others who died’
Jun 14, 2018, 04.14 AM IST
By- Americai V Narayanan
The recent intelligence information on an assassination plot on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a "Rajiv Gandhi assassination style" has coincidentally come in a week when political voices in Tamil Nadu have renewed their demands for the release of Rajiv’s killers. The state government has said that it will wait for the Centre to take a decision on the issue for which the Supreme Court has given the Centre three months’ time.
PMK leader S Ramadoss recently appealed for their release under Article 161 of the Constitution that gives state governments the power to suspend, remit or commute sentences in certain cases. Other leaders from the state like MDMK’s Vaiko are known to be close to the LTTE. Whether the state government has the power to release convicts who have been sentenced by the Supreme Court (they were originally on death row which was commuted to life sentence due to the delay in execution) is a legal question. But there is a deeper ethical question that persists.
Several grounds are being cited for the release of the convicts, the primary of which is that "Rajiv Gandhi’s own children — Rahul and Priyanka have forgiven the killers". The death sentence of Nalini, one of the convicts, was commuted to a life term on humanitarian grounds as she was pregnant. Priyanka Gandhi had also met Nalini at Vellore jail in 2008. However a line has to be drawn between a family making peace with their violent past, and bringing justice to the loss the country has faced both in terms of security and leadership — not to mention that 15 other people were killed in that blast along with the former Prime Minister.
While as a Congressman, I admire the magnanimity shown by Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi in pardoning the convicted, this is unfortunately being perceived as a weakness. The call for release of the assassins as a political tool has become a regular occurrence in Tamil Nadu politics that is making a mockery of law and justice. One wonders if the parties and Tamil fringe elements would make a similar demand for release of perpetrators if one of their own party leaders faced a similar fate. J Jayalalithaa (who herself rode on the sympathy wave of Rajiv’s assassination in 1991 to come to power) passed a resolution to release the killers in 2011 in the Tamil Nadu assembly. The case is still sub judice – families of the victims of 1991 had moved the Supreme Court in 2014 against the release of the killers.
The unanimous support on this issue is a rare moment of bipartisanship among Dravidian parties, each trying to outdo the other to gain political mileage by appeasing people who support elements that have allegedly espoused "the Tamil cause". These parties conveniently ignore that the brutal assassination at Sriperumbudur was essentially a wholesale import of terrorism to the soil of Tamil Nadu that was largely peaceful earlier — not to mention it was the first instance of a human bomb being used in India. If these parties truly advocate the welfare of Tamils, they would stand in solidarity with the families of the 15 other Tamil Indians who had been killed in the bomb blast with Rajiv Gandhi.
Political parties in Tamil Nadu need to stop flogging a dead horse and realise that the people of the state have moved on and have more pressing needs. We as a nation need to act with conviction against those who have threatened our sovereignty. It will set a terrible precedent if we were to allow the release of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassins on the basis of whims and fancies of politics.
Jun 14, 2018, 04.14 AM IST
By- Americai V Narayanan
The recent intelligence information on an assassination plot on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a "Rajiv Gandhi assassination style" has coincidentally come in a week when political voices in Tamil Nadu have renewed their demands for the release of Rajiv’s killers. The state government has said that it will wait for the Centre to take a decision on the issue for which the Supreme Court has given the Centre three months’ time.
PMK leader S Ramadoss recently appealed for their release under Article 161 of the Constitution that gives state governments the power to suspend, remit or commute sentences in certain cases. Other leaders from the state like MDMK’s Vaiko are known to be close to the LTTE. Whether the state government has the power to release convicts who have been sentenced by the Supreme Court (they were originally on death row which was commuted to life sentence due to the delay in execution) is a legal question. But there is a deeper ethical question that persists.
Several grounds are being cited for the release of the convicts, the primary of which is that "Rajiv Gandhi’s own children — Rahul and Priyanka have forgiven the killers". The death sentence of Nalini, one of the convicts, was commuted to a life term on humanitarian grounds as she was pregnant. Priyanka Gandhi had also met Nalini at Vellore jail in 2008. However a line has to be drawn between a family making peace with their violent past, and bringing justice to the loss the country has faced both in terms of security and leadership — not to mention that 15 other people were killed in that blast along with the former Prime Minister.
While as a Congressman, I admire the magnanimity shown by Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi in pardoning the convicted, this is unfortunately being perceived as a weakness. The call for release of the assassins as a political tool has become a regular occurrence in Tamil Nadu politics that is making a mockery of law and justice. One wonders if the parties and Tamil fringe elements would make a similar demand for release of perpetrators if one of their own party leaders faced a similar fate. J Jayalalithaa (who herself rode on the sympathy wave of Rajiv’s assassination in 1991 to come to power) passed a resolution to release the killers in 2011 in the Tamil Nadu assembly. The case is still sub judice – families of the victims of 1991 had moved the Supreme Court in 2014 against the release of the killers.
The unanimous support on this issue is a rare moment of bipartisanship among Dravidian parties, each trying to outdo the other to gain political mileage by appeasing people who support elements that have allegedly espoused "the Tamil cause". These parties conveniently ignore that the brutal assassination at Sriperumbudur was essentially a wholesale import of terrorism to the soil of Tamil Nadu that was largely peaceful earlier — not to mention it was the first instance of a human bomb being used in India. If these parties truly advocate the welfare of Tamils, they would stand in solidarity with the families of the 15 other Tamil Indians who had been killed in the bomb blast with Rajiv Gandhi.
Political parties in Tamil Nadu need to stop flogging a dead horse and realise that the people of the state have moved on and have more pressing needs. We as a nation need to act with conviction against those who have threatened our sovereignty. It will set a terrible precedent if we were to allow the release of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassins on the basis of whims and fancies of politics.
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