Priyanka's visit to a Vellore jail to meet Nalini, a prime accused in her father's assassination raises brows as Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy accuses that it was a political stint mastered just before the general elections to attract votes.
IN MEETING Nalini Sriharan, who is serving a life sentence for her involvement in Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is being projected as carrying forward the attempts made by her mother to bridge the emotional and political hiatus that may have contributed in the alienation of certain communities or groups from the Congress.
However, by raising controversy over her visit and being silent on her very purpose of the visit, she is yet to reveal her real intentions. This has given scope for speculation that she is looking for a political role of her own, in the event of her brother Rahul Gandhi failing to make a mark in the national politics.
Though Priyanka is known as to be a more accepted public figure from the Nehru-Gandhi family, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi had chosen her son Rahul Gandhi to carry the torch, keeping Priyanka at home.
Though Rahul is making sincere efforts to build-up his political image, he is yet to deliver results. Both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi failed to prove themselves as vote-catchers. Unlike Indira Gandhi, their presence is merely limits to keep the party together.
At this juncture, ahead of general elections, Congress is looking for alternate electoral strategies. Though Rahul Gandhi has been projected as Prime Ministerial candidate, unofficially, he is yet to catch the image of the ’future prime minister’ in the public’s minds.
As Priyanka’s looks are similar to her grandmother Indira Gandhi, it seems she is exploring the options for a political role. So far she is not showing interest in a political role. Mostly due to her emotional differences with her mother who is said to be keeping her away from power-politics, and just letting her extend emotional support to her brother Rahul.
The real intentions behind Priyanka’s Vellore visit are yet to be clarified in view of several political theories spreading round the corner. Whatever may be her intentions, the visit has exposed several unanswered questions surrounding Rajiv’s murder. The controversy that arose after her visit is also likely to hamper Congress relations with Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamilnadu.
Contending that Priyanka Vadra’s recent visit to a high-security prison in Vellore to meet the killer of her father was a criminal offense, Janata Party president Dr Subramanian Swamy has asked the Tamilnadu government to prosecute her on the charge of trespassing.
’’If the Tamilnadu government fails to do so by May 21, I shall file a private complaint in the court to enforce the police to do its statutory duty,’’ Swamy said in a statement. He said jail officials had confirmed that Vadra visited the ’’highly restricted’’ prison housing death row terrorists without getting the requisite permission, which is a criminal offence.
Priyanka had issued a signed statement that her visit to the jail was absolutely personal, and it should be respected. However,Priyanka had not disclosed the real reasons for the ’’one-to-one meeting’’ with Nalini and has said, ’’All media reports about their dialogue are second hand and third hand versions and pure hearsay.’’
“If she wanted to tell the nation the truth about who contracted the LTTE to kill her father,she can begin by telling the nation about her father’s last phone call from Visakhapatnam’s to her and the details of the conversations that took place,” Swamy said and added ’’She should also investigate who persuaded Rajiv Gandhi to campaign in Seriperumbudur when even the local Congress candidate did not ask for it, and how his travel schedule became known to Sivarasan and to the LTTE even before the local police was informed of his visit.’’
Swamy said Priyanka should also ask her mother Sonia Gandhi why the UPA government had abandoned the demand for extradition of LTTE supremo V Prabhakaran and his lieutenant, Pottu Amman, who are still Accused No 1 and 2 respectively in the trial court charge sheet.
He said the commutation of Nalini’s death sentence to life imprisonment was ’’illegally’’ done in 2000 by the NDA government at the centre and the DMK government in Tamilnadu by asking the governor to proclaim it. Only the president of India can grant such pardon under the Constitution.
’’Hence, if any move is made by Vadra to free Nalini from prison for some quid pro quo, I shall file a PIL against the same...’’ he concluded.
Narendra Ch, 18 April 2008, Friday
Showing posts with label Priyanka Gandhi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Priyanka Gandhi. Show all posts
Friday, April 25, 2008
Misplaced sympathy for Nalini
There were no extenuating circumstances to commute Nalini’s death sentence to life sentence in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, as pointed out by the Supreme Court. In the circumstances, releasing her from jail will set a bad precedent.
NALINI HAS emerged almost overnight as one who is more sinned against than sinning, thanks to the meeting Priyanka Vadra had with her recently at the Vellore jail. If Vadra chose to forget and forgive Nalini as her meeting with the incarcerated Nalini suggests, it shows Vadra’s magnanimity towards someone who definitely had a hand in the assassination of her father. It does not suggest that the incarcerated Nalini is innocent or more sinned against than sinning. But this unfortunately is the impression gaining ground thanks to the way Nalini’s involvement is being portrayed in a section of the vernacular press lately.
It is a fact that she is the mother of a teenaged girl, has been a law-abiding prisoner, has pursued several academic courses and come out with flying colours in them during incarceration. She has also been in touch with the Sonia Gandhi family explaining the various academic activities she has been pursuing ever since she was incarcerated and the progress her daughter has been making in the academic field. In true Catholic spirit, Sonia Gandhi and her children seem to have decided to forget the past and forgive Nalini. But it is precisely this transformation on the part of the Sonia Gandhi family that Nalini was counting on. She had hoped to touch a chord with the Sonia Gandhi family to regain her freedom. In fact, her act of marrying Murugan, her accomplice and junior by several years and becoming pregnant promptly was part of a well-planned strategy on the part of Nalini to escape the hangman’s noose and buy freedom. She tried her best to project herself as a victim of circumstances. Should we succumb to such theatrics and pardon someone who mercilessly killed the prime minister of a country who trusted her and interacted with her? Even if Sonia, her son and her daughter are favourably disposed to pardon Nalini, the government should not succumb.
After all, the highest court of the land, namely, the Supreme Court, found Nalini guilty. In fact, if she is released because she has mothered a kid, it may set a bad precedent. All that a woman has to do to escape the hangman’s noose after murdering an innocent individual is to get married and become pregnant promptly. After sometime, her death sentence will be commuted to life sentence, courtesy, magnanimity on the part of people like Sonia. Eventually, the sympathy factor will see to it that she is released from prison too. In sum, after committing a cold-blooded murder, a woman can get away by using this strategy. The Court went into all these facts before pronouncing the death sentence.
On her part, Nalini has to be true to herself. Her disclosure to Vadra that she was not part of the group that plotted and executed Rajiv’s assassination could not be true. Nalini should not have bluffed to, of all the people, Vadra because it is courtesy Vadra’s mother, that she is alive today. Instead, she should have made a clean breast of it and issued an appeal to other like-minded criminals or prospective criminals to desist from such cowardly acts. 15 others, including a policeman and a kid died during Rajiv’s assassination. Nalini’s counsel argued in the court that she got involved in the conspiracy only to please her lover, Murugan. In the circumstances, Nalini’s disclosure to Vadra that she had no hand in the assassination of Rajiv should be taken with a pinch of salt. The counsel wanted to capitalise on another fact – in India, no woman had been hanged since independence. The Court did its best to be as lenient as possible within the framework of the law. In his verdict, Justice Quadri said, “Indeed the dilemma whether a sentence of death should be pronounced upon a woman has been troubling my mind for a considerable time. But then in this case, the person, Dhanu, who opted to become a human bomb was a woman.”
In the circumstances, sympathy for Nalini is misplaced. In fact, commuting her death sentence to life sentence was a blunder that should have been avoided. Hanging her would have acted as an effective deterrent. It would have sent a clear message to prospective women criminals that if they committed a crime, which attracted death penalty, they would be hanged too.
S Shivakumar, merinews, 20 April 2008, Sunday
NALINI HAS emerged almost overnight as one who is more sinned against than sinning, thanks to the meeting Priyanka Vadra had with her recently at the Vellore jail. If Vadra chose to forget and forgive Nalini as her meeting with the incarcerated Nalini suggests, it shows Vadra’s magnanimity towards someone who definitely had a hand in the assassination of her father. It does not suggest that the incarcerated Nalini is innocent or more sinned against than sinning. But this unfortunately is the impression gaining ground thanks to the way Nalini’s involvement is being portrayed in a section of the vernacular press lately.
It is a fact that she is the mother of a teenaged girl, has been a law-abiding prisoner, has pursued several academic courses and come out with flying colours in them during incarceration. She has also been in touch with the Sonia Gandhi family explaining the various academic activities she has been pursuing ever since she was incarcerated and the progress her daughter has been making in the academic field. In true Catholic spirit, Sonia Gandhi and her children seem to have decided to forget the past and forgive Nalini. But it is precisely this transformation on the part of the Sonia Gandhi family that Nalini was counting on. She had hoped to touch a chord with the Sonia Gandhi family to regain her freedom. In fact, her act of marrying Murugan, her accomplice and junior by several years and becoming pregnant promptly was part of a well-planned strategy on the part of Nalini to escape the hangman’s noose and buy freedom. She tried her best to project herself as a victim of circumstances. Should we succumb to such theatrics and pardon someone who mercilessly killed the prime minister of a country who trusted her and interacted with her? Even if Sonia, her son and her daughter are favourably disposed to pardon Nalini, the government should not succumb.
After all, the highest court of the land, namely, the Supreme Court, found Nalini guilty. In fact, if she is released because she has mothered a kid, it may set a bad precedent. All that a woman has to do to escape the hangman’s noose after murdering an innocent individual is to get married and become pregnant promptly. After sometime, her death sentence will be commuted to life sentence, courtesy, magnanimity on the part of people like Sonia. Eventually, the sympathy factor will see to it that she is released from prison too. In sum, after committing a cold-blooded murder, a woman can get away by using this strategy. The Court went into all these facts before pronouncing the death sentence.
On her part, Nalini has to be true to herself. Her disclosure to Vadra that she was not part of the group that plotted and executed Rajiv’s assassination could not be true. Nalini should not have bluffed to, of all the people, Vadra because it is courtesy Vadra’s mother, that she is alive today. Instead, she should have made a clean breast of it and issued an appeal to other like-minded criminals or prospective criminals to desist from such cowardly acts. 15 others, including a policeman and a kid died during Rajiv’s assassination. Nalini’s counsel argued in the court that she got involved in the conspiracy only to please her lover, Murugan. In the circumstances, Nalini’s disclosure to Vadra that she had no hand in the assassination of Rajiv should be taken with a pinch of salt. The counsel wanted to capitalise on another fact – in India, no woman had been hanged since independence. The Court did its best to be as lenient as possible within the framework of the law. In his verdict, Justice Quadri said, “Indeed the dilemma whether a sentence of death should be pronounced upon a woman has been troubling my mind for a considerable time. But then in this case, the person, Dhanu, who opted to become a human bomb was a woman.”
In the circumstances, sympathy for Nalini is misplaced. In fact, commuting her death sentence to life sentence was a blunder that should have been avoided. Hanging her would have acted as an effective deterrent. It would have sent a clear message to prospective women criminals that if they committed a crime, which attracted death penalty, they would be hanged too.
S Shivakumar, merinews, 20 April 2008, Sunday
Why Priyanka must not pursue Rajiv's murder trial – II
Why Priyanka must not pursue Rajiv's murder trial – II
Rajiv’s death certainly did benefit a lot of people and also generated a sympathy wave, which definitely brings out a purpose for his killing. But the people then, are established cronies today, provoking them would only lead to more dastardly acts.
RAJIV GANDHI was also hated by the kin of Indian peace keeping force (IPKF) soldiers, who were pushed into the obviously suicidal mission against the determined militia. There was no question of winning against a cadre that had nothing more to lose and was ready to bite a cyanide-capsule if caught. The impulsive politician heaped the most humiliating defeat on the mighty Indian military machine, resulting in heavy casualties. Also, there were many in India – including in the faction-ridden Congress, particularly in Tamil Nadu – who stood to benefit from his premature death, and did benefit immensely from the sympathy wave it generated.
It would however be in the best interests of the Vadras as well as the Gandhis that the matter is left where it now stands. By pursuing the conspiracy details, Priyanka may be provoking established cronies in New Delhi, enjoying top posts in the party and government, to commit dastardly acts to harm even the kids. Exhuming the ghost of Rajiv Gandhi is bound to raise such a stink that ordinary citizens of India will be taken aback by its intensity. They would completely lose respect for the entire Indian system, including judiciary, where people can be readily bought. It is better to let them believe that the killing was carried out due to “personal animosity” of the LTTE chief Prabhakaran towards Rajiv Gandhi, keeping their faith in Judge Thomas of Supreme Court.
According to the honourable SC judges, “Absolutely no evidence existed that any one of the conspirators ever desired the death of any Indian other than Rajiv Gandhi, though several people were killed.” However, Judge Wadhwa, famously stated that there was nothing on record to show that the intention to kill Rajiv Gandhi was to overawe the government! Hence, it was held that it was not a terrorist act under terrorists and disruptive activities prevention act (TADA).
But it was under that weird legislation that the Indian ‘verdict’ was based. Under TADA, confessions extracted by police were treated as valid evidence. Unless a person proved charges leveled as false, he/she could be hanged. The legal validity of such hush-hush trials, where only the SC is the option for appeal, cannot stand judicial scrutiny in any civilised society and has rightly been scrapped.
The special investigative team (SIT) headed by ‘specialist’ officer DR Karthikeyan framed charges within a record time of one year. Prabhakaran and his two top aides were arraigned, but obviously they did not care to even acknowledge the farce. Twelve of the accused were conveniently dead by the time the trials began. The SIT had decided at the outset that none other than the 26 accused – mainly Sri Lankan refuges who found themselves caught between the devil and deep sea, Colombo’s atrocities and TADA court – would be prosecuted. The cops did not give even a cursory look at the very obvious connections of political leaders and other big guns, who stood to benefit from the incident. Designated TADA judge Navaneetham obliged by awarding death sentence to all the 26 accused, including a 17-year-old. After dispensing this ‘justice’ and signing the judgement, he symbolically broke the nib of the pen he used!
Ironically, while this feat of ‘solving’ Rajiv’s murder was accomplished in just under six years, not a single person has been found guilty in the 1984 massacre of 20,000 Sikhs in Delhi, which Rajiv had considered “bound to happen.”
Although Sri Lanka refused to ban LTTE (until very recently), the Indian administration went ahead with banning the outfit completely, a move that smacks of a big cover up. The LTTE on its part has only said that it was “great tragedy, a monumental historical tragedy, which we deeply regret.”
A ’judicial’ commission headed by a typical Indian HC judge Milap Chand Jain prepared a 5000-plus page interim report on the ‘conspiracy’. Jain indicted even TN CM Karunanidhi, and every other Tamil for playing a role for the assassination! The Jain document eventually happened to be an intriguing political maneuver to topple the non-Congress Central government. The episode has also managed to silence TN’s Dravidian politicians about any involvement of the state’s Congress politicians in the conspiracy.
Whatever be, Priyanka’s justification, she will have nothing to gain for herself or her children by revisiting the sordid saga of farce, carried out in the name of investigation. As her grandmother Indira had exposed during her emergency rule, India’s governing class is stuffed with creeping crawlies. There can therefore be no justice that goes against their entrenched interests.
Natteri Adigal, 19 April 2008, Saturday
Why Priyanka must not pursue Rajiv's murder trial – I
Rajiv’s death certainly did benefit a lot of people and also generated a sympathy wave, which definitely brings out a purpose for his killing. But the people then, are established cronies today, provoking them would only lead to more dastardly acts.
RAJIV GANDHI was also hated by the kin of Indian peace keeping force (IPKF) soldiers, who were pushed into the obviously suicidal mission against the determined militia. There was no question of winning against a cadre that had nothing more to lose and was ready to bite a cyanide-capsule if caught. The impulsive politician heaped the most humiliating defeat on the mighty Indian military machine, resulting in heavy casualties. Also, there were many in India – including in the faction-ridden Congress, particularly in Tamil Nadu – who stood to benefit from his premature death, and did benefit immensely from the sympathy wave it generated.
It would however be in the best interests of the Vadras as well as the Gandhis that the matter is left where it now stands. By pursuing the conspiracy details, Priyanka may be provoking established cronies in New Delhi, enjoying top posts in the party and government, to commit dastardly acts to harm even the kids. Exhuming the ghost of Rajiv Gandhi is bound to raise such a stink that ordinary citizens of India will be taken aback by its intensity. They would completely lose respect for the entire Indian system, including judiciary, where people can be readily bought. It is better to let them believe that the killing was carried out due to “personal animosity” of the LTTE chief Prabhakaran towards Rajiv Gandhi, keeping their faith in Judge Thomas of Supreme Court.
According to the honourable SC judges, “Absolutely no evidence existed that any one of the conspirators ever desired the death of any Indian other than Rajiv Gandhi, though several people were killed.” However, Judge Wadhwa, famously stated that there was nothing on record to show that the intention to kill Rajiv Gandhi was to overawe the government! Hence, it was held that it was not a terrorist act under terrorists and disruptive activities prevention act (TADA).
But it was under that weird legislation that the Indian ‘verdict’ was based. Under TADA, confessions extracted by police were treated as valid evidence. Unless a person proved charges leveled as false, he/she could be hanged. The legal validity of such hush-hush trials, where only the SC is the option for appeal, cannot stand judicial scrutiny in any civilised society and has rightly been scrapped.
The special investigative team (SIT) headed by ‘specialist’ officer DR Karthikeyan framed charges within a record time of one year. Prabhakaran and his two top aides were arraigned, but obviously they did not care to even acknowledge the farce. Twelve of the accused were conveniently dead by the time the trials began. The SIT had decided at the outset that none other than the 26 accused – mainly Sri Lankan refuges who found themselves caught between the devil and deep sea, Colombo’s atrocities and TADA court – would be prosecuted. The cops did not give even a cursory look at the very obvious connections of political leaders and other big guns, who stood to benefit from the incident. Designated TADA judge Navaneetham obliged by awarding death sentence to all the 26 accused, including a 17-year-old. After dispensing this ‘justice’ and signing the judgement, he symbolically broke the nib of the pen he used!
Ironically, while this feat of ‘solving’ Rajiv’s murder was accomplished in just under six years, not a single person has been found guilty in the 1984 massacre of 20,000 Sikhs in Delhi, which Rajiv had considered “bound to happen.”
Although Sri Lanka refused to ban LTTE (until very recently), the Indian administration went ahead with banning the outfit completely, a move that smacks of a big cover up. The LTTE on its part has only said that it was “great tragedy, a monumental historical tragedy, which we deeply regret.”
A ’judicial’ commission headed by a typical Indian HC judge Milap Chand Jain prepared a 5000-plus page interim report on the ‘conspiracy’. Jain indicted even TN CM Karunanidhi, and every other Tamil for playing a role for the assassination! The Jain document eventually happened to be an intriguing political maneuver to topple the non-Congress Central government. The episode has also managed to silence TN’s Dravidian politicians about any involvement of the state’s Congress politicians in the conspiracy.
Whatever be, Priyanka’s justification, she will have nothing to gain for herself or her children by revisiting the sordid saga of farce, carried out in the name of investigation. As her grandmother Indira had exposed during her emergency rule, India’s governing class is stuffed with creeping crawlies. There can therefore be no justice that goes against their entrenched interests.
Natteri Adigal, 19 April 2008, Saturday
Why Priyanka must not pursue Rajiv's murder trial – I
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Why Priyanka must not pursue Rajiv’s murder trial - I
Standing from a distance and looking at Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, may make us envy her but given a chance would you dare to get into her shoes? As said a rose is not a rose without thorns, living a life with a constant threat of an end does not come easy.
NO DAUGHTER, wife or mother in India, in her senses, would ever wish to have Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s life. Ironically, nobody can find fault with her father, husband or her children. Moreover, Priyanka was born with a silver spoon, in arguably the wealthiest and most powerful family of India. Yet, she deserves all the sympathy from even complete strangers, because of her unenviable fate. It has made her undergo numerous grave tragedies in life.
Her father, Rajiv Gandhi, was the son of Indira Gandhi, who was considered as the most powerful woman of India in her days. Rajiv’s father Feroz was a noted anti-corruption crusader, who had crossed the path of Nehru and his corrupt cronies. He exposed a huge insurance scam that saw the downfall of the then finance minister. Living apart from the power-corrupted Nehrus, he died mysteriously at the age 48, when in Kashmir with his teenage boys Rahul and Sanjay. Rajiv, apparently troubled by his father’s fate, kept himself aloof from all palace intrigues. He preferred to live in peace with his Italian wife Sonia and kids, working as a pilot.
Priyanka’s peace was shattered when she was just eight years old. Her uncle and Rajiv’s younger brother Sanjay died in a mysterious air crash. He was a cunning politician, set to outdo his own mother and grandfather in intrigue. Rajiv was forced to jump into the cesspool to help out his mother because, as he said, “My bereaved mother called to me in her loneliness… I left my love for flying and joined her as a political aide…I had no love for politics. I treasured the privacy of my happy family life…”
Then, when Priyanka was twelve, grandmother Indira fell to bullets fired by her own security guard. The she had earned countless enemies within the establishment and outside due to her autocratic ways. Inexplicably, the ‘assassins’ themselves were assassinated, rendering the whole affair an unsolvable mystery. Rajiv too became a virtual prisoner of an intrigue.
He started earning bitter enemies since the time he commented on the massacre of Sikhs in Delhi in the wake of his mother’s assassination allegedly by her ‘indoctrinated’ Sikh guard, “When a large tree falls, the earth is bound to shake!” Like this tacit approval of the anti-Sikh riots, which claimed the lives of 20,000 innocents, he kept on associating himself with undesirable mafia elements. He became part of the high-stakes New Delhi politics, which is full of intrigue, played by powerful bandicoots. The government of India provided him with high security, spending crores of rupees of public money, but that was more of a harassment to the family.
The family lived in virtual house arrest, every movement being watched by elite guards. Entrenched cronies started directing the personal affairs of Rajiv. Cousin Arun Nehru (now defected to BJP!) even had the audacity to order the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to arrest a private tutor of Priyanka for not paying him due respects. Despite these cronies, Sonia could still be relatively free to provide a semblance of motherhood to the children.
Tragedy struck again, as Rajiv too met with premature death in a suicide bomb attack, when Priyanka was still a teenager. Virtually an army of security people were pressed for the ‘security’ of the survivors, spending more millions from the exchequer. People wonder what sort of marital life she could have with husband Robert Vadra with their every moment under the scanner by ‘well-wishers’ of IB. The dysfunctional outfit, which has a pathetic record of collecting real intelligence, harassed even hospital patients when their children undergo routine consultation, thus alienating everyone from the family.
Given this scale of personal tragedies in life, anybody’s mental peace is bound to be shattered. So, the desperation of Priyanka Vadra, who cannot get rid of the curse of the Nehru dynasty in any way, is quite understandable. She reportedly called on Nalini Sriharan, undergoing commuted death sentence at Vellore prison in Tamil Nadu, in an effort to seek some peace on March 19.
“Yes, I did visit Vellore to meet my father’s assassins”, she told a private television network. She however refused to go into the details, saying, “It’s completely personal, I don’t want to say anything about it. I needed to make peace with all the violence in my life.”
Speaking to reporters in Delhi, Priyanka Vadra’s brother and the heir apparent to the jinxed Congress ‘dynasty’, Rahul Gandhi, admitted knowing about the visit and said, “Both me and my sister don’t believe in violence, and her meeting Nalini was in this context”.
But, if reports in newspapers quoting lawyers involved in defending Nalini are to be believed, Priyanka wanted to elicit as much information as she could from her father’s ‘assassin’ to pursue the murder trail – why a “good man” was killed. Priyanka is reported to have particularly probed about masterminds behind the murder and the involvement of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the conspiracy. Perhaps, she is convinced with the story peddled by Indian agencies, including judiciary, about the culprits responsible for her father’s death. Maybe, like millions of people across the world, with some rational thinking power, she finds gaping holes in the LTTE conspiracy theory and wants to pursue for herself the real truth behind her father’s murder.
LTTE is notoriously punctilious and calculative. The outfit committing its overstretched resources on an assassination unlikely to bring it closer to its goal is rather far fetched. Although the outfit had no love lost for him, there was nothing for it to gain by his elimination. In fact, it was obviously a move that could harm it. It was, however possible, that a group of Sri Lankan Tamil victims of Colombo’s crack down or the atrocities by Indian peace keeping forces (IPKF), may have taken a revenge. And maybe, like most Tamils, they incidentally accepted LTTE’s leadership.
Natteri Adigal, 16 April 2008, Wednesday merinews
Why Priyanka must not pursue Rajiv's murder trial – II
NO DAUGHTER, wife or mother in India, in her senses, would ever wish to have Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s life. Ironically, nobody can find fault with her father, husband or her children. Moreover, Priyanka was born with a silver spoon, in arguably the wealthiest and most powerful family of India. Yet, she deserves all the sympathy from even complete strangers, because of her unenviable fate. It has made her undergo numerous grave tragedies in life.
Her father, Rajiv Gandhi, was the son of Indira Gandhi, who was considered as the most powerful woman of India in her days. Rajiv’s father Feroz was a noted anti-corruption crusader, who had crossed the path of Nehru and his corrupt cronies. He exposed a huge insurance scam that saw the downfall of the then finance minister. Living apart from the power-corrupted Nehrus, he died mysteriously at the age 48, when in Kashmir with his teenage boys Rahul and Sanjay. Rajiv, apparently troubled by his father’s fate, kept himself aloof from all palace intrigues. He preferred to live in peace with his Italian wife Sonia and kids, working as a pilot.
Priyanka’s peace was shattered when she was just eight years old. Her uncle and Rajiv’s younger brother Sanjay died in a mysterious air crash. He was a cunning politician, set to outdo his own mother and grandfather in intrigue. Rajiv was forced to jump into the cesspool to help out his mother because, as he said, “My bereaved mother called to me in her loneliness… I left my love for flying and joined her as a political aide…I had no love for politics. I treasured the privacy of my happy family life…”
Then, when Priyanka was twelve, grandmother Indira fell to bullets fired by her own security guard. The she had earned countless enemies within the establishment and outside due to her autocratic ways. Inexplicably, the ‘assassins’ themselves were assassinated, rendering the whole affair an unsolvable mystery. Rajiv too became a virtual prisoner of an intrigue.
He started earning bitter enemies since the time he commented on the massacre of Sikhs in Delhi in the wake of his mother’s assassination allegedly by her ‘indoctrinated’ Sikh guard, “When a large tree falls, the earth is bound to shake!” Like this tacit approval of the anti-Sikh riots, which claimed the lives of 20,000 innocents, he kept on associating himself with undesirable mafia elements. He became part of the high-stakes New Delhi politics, which is full of intrigue, played by powerful bandicoots. The government of India provided him with high security, spending crores of rupees of public money, but that was more of a harassment to the family.
The family lived in virtual house arrest, every movement being watched by elite guards. Entrenched cronies started directing the personal affairs of Rajiv. Cousin Arun Nehru (now defected to BJP!) even had the audacity to order the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to arrest a private tutor of Priyanka for not paying him due respects. Despite these cronies, Sonia could still be relatively free to provide a semblance of motherhood to the children.
Tragedy struck again, as Rajiv too met with premature death in a suicide bomb attack, when Priyanka was still a teenager. Virtually an army of security people were pressed for the ‘security’ of the survivors, spending more millions from the exchequer. People wonder what sort of marital life she could have with husband Robert Vadra with their every moment under the scanner by ‘well-wishers’ of IB. The dysfunctional outfit, which has a pathetic record of collecting real intelligence, harassed even hospital patients when their children undergo routine consultation, thus alienating everyone from the family.
Given this scale of personal tragedies in life, anybody’s mental peace is bound to be shattered. So, the desperation of Priyanka Vadra, who cannot get rid of the curse of the Nehru dynasty in any way, is quite understandable. She reportedly called on Nalini Sriharan, undergoing commuted death sentence at Vellore prison in Tamil Nadu, in an effort to seek some peace on March 19.
“Yes, I did visit Vellore to meet my father’s assassins”, she told a private television network. She however refused to go into the details, saying, “It’s completely personal, I don’t want to say anything about it. I needed to make peace with all the violence in my life.”
Speaking to reporters in Delhi, Priyanka Vadra’s brother and the heir apparent to the jinxed Congress ‘dynasty’, Rahul Gandhi, admitted knowing about the visit and said, “Both me and my sister don’t believe in violence, and her meeting Nalini was in this context”.
But, if reports in newspapers quoting lawyers involved in defending Nalini are to be believed, Priyanka wanted to elicit as much information as she could from her father’s ‘assassin’ to pursue the murder trail – why a “good man” was killed. Priyanka is reported to have particularly probed about masterminds behind the murder and the involvement of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the conspiracy. Perhaps, she is convinced with the story peddled by Indian agencies, including judiciary, about the culprits responsible for her father’s death. Maybe, like millions of people across the world, with some rational thinking power, she finds gaping holes in the LTTE conspiracy theory and wants to pursue for herself the real truth behind her father’s murder.
LTTE is notoriously punctilious and calculative. The outfit committing its overstretched resources on an assassination unlikely to bring it closer to its goal is rather far fetched. Although the outfit had no love lost for him, there was nothing for it to gain by his elimination. In fact, it was obviously a move that could harm it. It was, however possible, that a group of Sri Lankan Tamil victims of Colombo’s crack down or the atrocities by Indian peace keeping forces (IPKF), may have taken a revenge. And maybe, like most Tamils, they incidentally accepted LTTE’s leadership.
Natteri Adigal, 16 April 2008, Wednesday merinews
Why Priyanka must not pursue Rajiv's murder trial – II
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Sri Lankan MP enthused by Priyanka-Nalini Meeting
Wednesday April 16 2008
P K Balachandran
COLOMBO: The cordial meeting between Priyanka Vadra, daughter of the slain former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, and Nalini Sriharan, one of the convicted conspirators in the assassination case, may help rapprochement between India and the Sri Lankan Tamils, says a pro-Tamil Tiger political leader.
“I am very happy, because the meeting could lead to a closer relationship between India and the Sri Lankan Tamils,” said S. Kajendran of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which is a proxy of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
Indian courts have held the LTTE responsible for assassinating Gandhi, using a female suicide bomber at an election rally in Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu on May 21, 1991.
The meeting between Vadra and Sriharan took place on March 19 in Vellore jail, where Sriharan is serving a life sentence for her role in the assassination of Gandhi.
“India and the Sri Lankan Tamils have of late been coming closer step by step. We expect the gap to be closed before long. The Priyanka-Nalini meeting has occurred at the right time,” Kajendran, an MP from Jaffna district, told this website's News Paper on Wednesday.
“We acknowledge that undesirable events had taken place in the past, but we wish to tell Indian officials that it is time the past was buried and a new relationship built,” he said.
“We wish to point out that while the other communities in Sri Lanka may change their stance on India and become hostile to it, when it suits them, the Sri Lankan Tamils will always stand by India’s national interests,” he added.
Kajendran discounted the possibility that the LTTE had a hand in arranging the meeting between Sriharan and Vadra. His party colleague and fellow MP from Jaffna, Suresh Premachandran, said he saw no political motive behind the meeting or sense a political fallout.
“Priyanka may well be speaking the truth when she said that she just wanted to know who killed her father and also to show that she harboured no anger against the killers,” said Premachandran who, as a leader of the Eelam Peoples’ Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), earlier had close links with India.
“There is no possibility of the meeting representing a rapprochement between India and the LTTE as India’s position on the LTTE is clear,” he added.
Several others drew different conclusions.
Kanamayilnathan, editor of the Jaffna-based Tamil daily “Uthayan,” said the meeting could not have been arranged by the LTTE. “I do not think that they have the ability to go as far up as Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka,” he said.
“Priyanka would have wanted to get the fury out of her system. I also do not see the hand of the LTTE in it,” said Dr. John Gunaratne, an ambassador turned academic.
“Wanting to meet a murderess is appalling, but then women are different!” said K. Godage, former Associate Foreign Secretary.
“The visit could not be that innocent. It might have had a link with the coming elections in India wherein the Congress Party could be angling for the Tamil nationalist vote,” said Prabhath Sahabandu, editor of The Island daily. “But I don’t believe India will ever change its policy on the Tamil question. It is irreversible.”
Newindpress
P K Balachandran
COLOMBO: The cordial meeting between Priyanka Vadra, daughter of the slain former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, and Nalini Sriharan, one of the convicted conspirators in the assassination case, may help rapprochement between India and the Sri Lankan Tamils, says a pro-Tamil Tiger political leader.
“I am very happy, because the meeting could lead to a closer relationship between India and the Sri Lankan Tamils,” said S. Kajendran of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which is a proxy of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
Indian courts have held the LTTE responsible for assassinating Gandhi, using a female suicide bomber at an election rally in Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu on May 21, 1991.
The meeting between Vadra and Sriharan took place on March 19 in Vellore jail, where Sriharan is serving a life sentence for her role in the assassination of Gandhi.
“India and the Sri Lankan Tamils have of late been coming closer step by step. We expect the gap to be closed before long. The Priyanka-Nalini meeting has occurred at the right time,” Kajendran, an MP from Jaffna district, told this website's News Paper on Wednesday.
“We acknowledge that undesirable events had taken place in the past, but we wish to tell Indian officials that it is time the past was buried and a new relationship built,” he said.
“We wish to point out that while the other communities in Sri Lanka may change their stance on India and become hostile to it, when it suits them, the Sri Lankan Tamils will always stand by India’s national interests,” he added.
Kajendran discounted the possibility that the LTTE had a hand in arranging the meeting between Sriharan and Vadra. His party colleague and fellow MP from Jaffna, Suresh Premachandran, said he saw no political motive behind the meeting or sense a political fallout.
“Priyanka may well be speaking the truth when she said that she just wanted to know who killed her father and also to show that she harboured no anger against the killers,” said Premachandran who, as a leader of the Eelam Peoples’ Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), earlier had close links with India.
“There is no possibility of the meeting representing a rapprochement between India and the LTTE as India’s position on the LTTE is clear,” he added.
Several others drew different conclusions.
Kanamayilnathan, editor of the Jaffna-based Tamil daily “Uthayan,” said the meeting could not have been arranged by the LTTE. “I do not think that they have the ability to go as far up as Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka,” he said.
“Priyanka would have wanted to get the fury out of her system. I also do not see the hand of the LTTE in it,” said Dr. John Gunaratne, an ambassador turned academic.
“Wanting to meet a murderess is appalling, but then women are different!” said K. Godage, former Associate Foreign Secretary.
“The visit could not be that innocent. It might have had a link with the coming elections in India wherein the Congress Party could be angling for the Tamil nationalist vote,” said Prabhath Sahabandu, editor of The Island daily. “But I don’t believe India will ever change its policy on the Tamil question. It is irreversible.”
Newindpress
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