This Article is From Apr 24, 2009

India can't pardon Prabhakaran for Rajiv killing: Priyanka

India can't pardon Prabhakaran for Rajiv killing: Priyanka

AP image

Amethi:

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

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 humanity point of view, 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 the media in Amethi 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.

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