Opinion: Here's why Rajiv Gandhi's assassins should be freed

On May 22, 1991, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was killed by a LTTE suicide bomber in Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu. The CBI probed the case through much of the 1990s, and at the end of its probe a TADA court gave death punishment to the 26 accused of the conspiracy. However, in May 1999, the Supreme Court freed as many as 19 of the original 26 accused and commuted the death sentence of three to life. However, for the core group of four- Murugan, Santhan, Perarivalan and Nalini- the Supreme Court ruled in favour of death penalty.

In 2000, Sonia Gandhi appealed the Tamil Nadu governor to commute the death sentence of Nalini. The Tamil Nadu government too did the same, and on this basis the state’s governor passed an order to commute the death sentence to life. Fourteen years later, Honourable Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of Murugan, Santhan, and Perarivalan also to life. A few months ago, Congress president Rahul Gandhi too told an audience in Singapore that him and his sister have ‘completely forgiven’ the killers of their father. They too, he said, would support clemency for the accused each of whom has spent more than the twenty four years in solitary confinement inside various jails in Tamil Nadu.

Each time the Gandhi family, starting with Sonia Gandhi, had appealed for some kind of relief for the convicts, many in the country had found it too difficult to believe. ‘How can she ask for commutation of the death sentence for her husband’s killers, how can they forgive their father’s assassins’, was the shocked refrain heard from many quarters across the political spectrum.

On September 9, 2018, the Tamil Nadu government recommended the release of all seven convicts lodged in various jails. The government’s order came after the Supreme Court directed it to take a decision on a writ petition filed by one of the convicts. However, the Congress alleging that politics should not be played over the killers of a Prime Minister has criticised the Tamil Nadu government’s move. The BJP-led central government has distanced itself from the Palaniswamy government ruling Tamil Nadu. The government made its stand clear by saying that releasing the convicts would set a ‘bad precedent and would have international ramifications’. In Tamil Nadu, both the DMK and the TTK Dinakaran faction of the ruling AIADMK have welcomed the move to release the convicts.

Ever since the split in the AIADMK following its supremo J. Jayalalitha’s death last year, the Palaniswamy government has been facing severe criticism of kowtowing to the essentially ‘north-Indian’ BJP by the DMK as well as other Dravidian groups. This criticism has become even more unforgiving in the wake of the ugly controversy and protests that surrounded the burial site of DMK patriarch and former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi. The move to grant clemency to Rajiv’s killers is an effort to undo some of this criticism by projecting that for it interests of Tamils come first and foremost. The DMK has no choice but to support the move.

However, it is the Congress which seems to have been caught in a fix. By opposing the offer of clemency the party has contradicted, at least in principle, the stated position of the Gandhi family itself. Clemency flows from forgiveness. If the Gandhi family can forgive the convicts, there is no reason the Congress party should have opposed it for petty political points. The BJP-led central government too should support the move for clemency as it would reaffirm India’s commitment to principles of reformative justice.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)