| Published on 22-04-2008 In National | | Viewed 1606 times | | Will Priyanka's Gandhian gesture melt LTTE hearts? |
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| Written by
Girish Nikam | 
A few weeks back Rahul Gandhi was in Karnataka and had an informal meeting with some journalists. One of the scribes obviously influenced by the media reports one is used to all these years, asked the young man, about how he felt about his sister Priyanka entering politics. There was also a hint in the question about the much-reported sibling rivalry between the two. Rahul, who was apparently very frank and candid in that off the record session, and won many a heart, told the scribes, about how they had all got the whole thing wrong. "You people have no idea about what we (Priyanka and he) have gone through in our lives". He was obviously referring to the brutal ways in which they had lost their grandmother as well as their father. "We are very close to each other and there is no question of any rivalry between us".
The trauma the two kids of Rajiv Gandhi have gone through and the ways in which the two and their mother, Sonia have reconciled to it, and how all this has brought the three so close together, was what Rahul was talking about. Media of course has by and large been oblivious of this side of the family, and concentrated more on its politics and its quest for power.
So in the background of Rahul's revelations about the family psyche, if one sees the visit of his sister to the Vellore Prison, last month, revealed only last week, one can guess what must have been going through her mind. Actually when Rahul was talking to newsmen in Bangalore, Priyanka had already visited Nalini, one of the group of assassins of her father, Rajiv. Obviously it was in the back of his mind when he spoke, as by then Priyanka had shared her experience during the meeting with him.
It goes to the credit of the family that they never sought to get any publicity out of it, and it was Nalini's lawyer who brought it out, hoping to get some mercy from the courts for his client.
Now what made Priyanka visit the 38 year old Nalini? Much has been written since the meeting about it, and Priyanka herself has come out with a statement, saying she wanted to bury the ghosts. Rahul while not opposing his sister's amazing act has made it clear that he thinks differently on the issue, implying that he is not planning to make any such visit. However both have stated that they would not like to allow any place for "anger, hatred and violence", while Priyanka added she "will not allow it any power over my life". "The meeting with Nalini was my way of coming to peace with the violence and the loss that I have experienced". Sonia has maintained a studied silence so far. Of course Sonia had buried her own ghosts much earlier than her daughter, when she had made that magnanimous gesture of writing to the President to commute the death sentence of Nalini to life, and it was granted.
While all three members of the tragedy-struck family have shown extra-ordinary humanity in approaching the issue, it is sad that some sections of the media, obviously piqued at being beaten to the story by The Times of India, nit-picked about the legality of the visit, instead of appreciating the grand gesture.
In this land of Buddha and Mahatma, violence and hatred has unfortunately struck root. And in such times, when someone walks that extra distance to reconcile with a personal tragedy by meeting the killer and try to bury the ghosts, it is seen with cynicism and suspicion.
Some of the reactions were dreadful, with BJP's being the most shocking. The official spokesman's words that the party "could not comprehend" why Priyanka visited Nalini, said more than it intended. Obviously the party, nurtured by the hate ideology propagated by its mother organisation, the RSS, understandably cannot comprehend any gesture which seeks to end hatred or violence.
It has to be understood here that Priyanka was not trying to make any political statement when she made that decision to visit Nalini. It was a daughter's way of coming to terms with her father's violent death. However, she did make a powerful political statement, unwittingly. That neither her family nor she will allow anyone to play politics with her father's killing. It is entirely ironical that a much naïve Sonia Gandhi had allowed Arjun Singh and his ilk to bring down the I.K.Gujral's United Front Government, on the plea that DMK leaders were suspected to be behind the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. A wiser Sonia later made amends for it, when she struck alliance with DMK, and now seems to enjoy excellent equations with its chief M.Karunanidhi.
Amid all these grand gestures by the mother and her two children however lies an incongruity. That is the way in which the entire family has failed to extend their hand of support to those who had been killed that May night in 1991, along with Rajiv. The recent reports suggests that none of the family members of 15 others who died with Rajiv Gandhi on that fateful night, have either been approached or helped in any way by the Gandhi family. Some of them ordinary Congress workers, whose families went through dire times, have also not been compensated in any manner. It is surprising that Sonia and her two children have overlooked this aspect. Hopefully now they will realize their folly, though it is entirely understandable that their own personal grief may have resulted in this oversight.
Even this folly notwithstanding, Priyanka now and Sonia earlier have shown to the world that nurturing hatred and ill is not the solution to acts of hatred, personal or political. Hopefully the LTTE which had planned and executed this dastardly act, will now be moved by Priyanka's gesture and come out with an apology and accept its role in it. That would be a fitting climax to the festering issue and we as a nation and the Gandhis as a family can move forward, leaving behind us the wounds which we as a people have all carried in some or the other measure. |
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