Rahul upset over decision to release father's killers

Visibly “hurt and anguished” over Tamil Nadu government’s decision to free seven people convicted in the assassination of his father and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said it was sad that in India even a former prime minister did not get justice.

Rahul, who reacted twice within an interval of a few hours, sought to link the move with what he described his “fight to ensure justice for the poor in the country”.

“In India, even the former prime minister does not get justice,” Rahul said in his Lok Sabha constituency of Amethi.

“It is something close to my heart and therefore I am sharing it with you (people)... Rajivji was also close to you....he has worked here (Amethi),” he said to the emotional outbursts from the people among the crowd.

Many in the crowd also decried the Tamil Nadu government decision.

“Someone asked me if I was angry or if I was saddened. I am not angry. My father is not going to come back. I felt that if a prime minister could not get justice what about the common man?” he remarked.

“I am against capital punishment. But it is not something that concerns my father only. It concerns the entire country, not my family only,” the Congress leader said.

“If someone can kill my father and he is released from prison then how can a common man hope to get justice. We have to change India,” he said. The Congress leader also said that the decision had taught him a lesson.

“I pondered over whether I can take something out of it (decision to release the killers). A day will come when every one gets justice. That is what I have been fighting for,” he added.

Tamil Nadu government’s controversial decision comes soon after the Supreme Court commuted their death sentence to life imprisonment.