Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday displayed a humane side when he said that while the assassination of his father and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by suicide bombers of the LTTE still hurt, he forgave the perpetrators.
“I don’t have anger towards anybody. Of course, I lost my father and for me it was a very difficult time. It is like someone has cut your heart out. I felt tremendous pain. But I don’t feel angry. I don’t feel any hatred. I forgive,” Mr. Gandhi said at an hour-long interaction with students at the Bharathidasan Government College for Women in Puducherry.
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi interacts with students of Bharathidasan Government College for Women in Puducherry on February 17, 2021. Photo: Twitter/@RahulGandhi
Responding to a student’s question on his feelings towards the LTTE members who assassinated his father in a suicide bombing in 1991, Mr. Gandhi spoke from his own life experience to underscore his message about the meaningless nature of violence.
Mr. Gandhi’s remarks come at a time when there is a demand for the release of the seven life convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. To another question related to his political career despite losing his father and grandmother, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, in assassinations, Mr. Gandhi said: “Understand something ... violence cannot take away anything from you. It doesn’t have that power. You can give up something, but violence cannot take anything from you. A lot of things you have heard today, they came to me from my father. So my father is talking through me. So, it’s not as if that my father is not here today.”
