Rahul Gandhi, president of the Indian National Congress on Saturday said his sister Priyanka Gandhi and he have “completely forgiven” their father’s assassins. “We were very upset and hurt and for many years we were quite angry,” Rahul said during an interaction in Singapore. “But, somehow, completely…in fact, completely [forgiven].”
Gandhi, who is on a five-day trip to southeast Asian nations, said the family “knew that my father was going to die”. “We knew that my grandmother was going to die,” he added. “In politics, when you mess with the wrong forces, and if you stand for something, you will die. That’s pretty clear.”
Gandhi added that he remembered feeling bad for the children of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam leader V Prabhakaran after his death. Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in a suicide bombing carried out by the LTTE in Tamil Nadu’s Sriperumbudur in May 1991.
“I remember when I saw Mr Prabhakaran on TV lying dead, I got two feelings – one was why [are] they humiliating this man in this way,” Gandhi said. “And second was, I felt really bad for him and his kids because I understood deeply what it meant to be on the other side of that thing.”
He added that though there were a number of privileges growing up as the children and grandchildren of former prime ministers, “I would not say that I haven’t been through a rough ride”. Observing that he was 14 when his grandmother was assassinated, he said, “I used to play badminton with those who killed my grandmother. After that my father was killed.”
