DO NOT FORGET THE FAMILIES OF RAJIV GANDHI AND HIS VICTIMS (21 MAY 1991)

On this date, 21 May 1991, the sixth Prime Minster of India, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated as a result of a suicide bombing in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, in Tamil Nadu, India. Twenty years later, the families of those killed in the assassination, demanded that the convicts involved be executed. Let us not forget Rajiv Gandhi and those killed together with him.

Rajiv Gandhi in 1989.

QUOTE 1: Tuesday 6 September 2011 - CHENNAI: Around 500 Youth Congress activists led by state unit president M Yuvaraj courted arrest before the Gandhi statue on the Marina Beach in Chennai on Tuesday demanding withdrawal of the state assembly resolution which has recommended that President Pratibha Patil commute the death sentence of three convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case to life terms.

Among those held were the son and wife of a Congress leader who was killed along with Rajiv Gandhi in the suicidal blast by an LTTE team at Sriperumbudur in Kancheepuram district in May 1991.

More than a thousand Youth Congress activists gathered at the spot to express their condemnation of the assembly resolution passed on August 30 by the House.

"We demand nothing less than death penalty for the convicts Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan as they played roles in the heinous murder of our leader Rajiv Gandhi," Yuvaraj said adding, "the chief minister Jayalalithaa has to answer why her party moved the resolution without considering the traumatic bereavement suffered by 15 families following the blast."

QUOTE 2: Angry over the vociferous campaign in favour of commuting the death penalty awarded to three convicts for their role in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, the family members of those who died along with the former prime minister have decided to go on a similar path of agitation to ensure that the punishment given by the apex court is executed.

On that May 21, 1991, night when a suicide bomber assassinated Rajiv Gandhi, 15 others in the vicinity lost their lives. They have kept silent for years as the case trudged forward, and have been rarely written about.

But now, with the Tamil Nadu Assembly joining the appeals to commute the death sentence to convicts V Sriharan alias Murugan, T Suthentharajan alias Santhan, and A G Perarivelan alias Arivu — a campaign they feel is politically motivated — they have decided to come forward.

The son of one of the victims and some Congress workers undertook a march in Chennai on Tuesday demanding that the men be hanged, while on Friday, a one-day fast will be held in which many more leaders and relatives of at least seven affected families are expected to take part.

“The politicians who are campaigning for their freedom say these three are Tamils. But so were the ones who were killed along with Rajiv. Justice is absolute, there is no space for regionalism or nationalism,” says Javid Iqbal, son of T K S Mohammed Iqbal, the superintendent of police who was killed in the blast. 

The stone plaque at the assassination site of Rajiv Gandhi.

QUOTE 3: Javid had just completed his Class X exams when his father died. “We received a call a little past 10 pm informing us that an explosion had occurred but were assured that my father had sustained only injuries, only to find his lifeless body at the Government Hospital in Sriperumbudur. From then on, life changed drastically; it became miserable for all of us, particularly my mother who is yet to come out of the trauma of losing him all of a sudden,” Javid says. 

The stone mosaic that stands at the location where Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in Sriperumbudur.

QUOTE 4: Like him, Balasaraswati, whose husband Rajaguru was among the dead, is yet to reconcile to the loss. “They should be hanged for the crime they committed, for the sufferings we underwent for two decades since that night. Our children were very young when the incident happened, and his salary as a police inspector was the only source of income for the family. We have struggled to make ends meet ever since, depending on the little money that we received as pension,” she says, speaking to The Indian Express from her native Thirunelveli district. 

A stone sculpture depicting India's progress at the memorial.

The memorial has a huge lawn with tree lined pathways.

QUOTE 5: Settled on the outskirts of Chennai, Balasaraswati had gone to Thirunelveli prior to Rajiv’s visit to Sriperumbudur as part of the Lok Sabha election campaign. On May 21, she was on her way back when the train she was travelling in was stopped near Vridhachalam as news about the blast spread across the state. “At that point of time, I didn’t panic as I thought he being only an inspector would be quite away from the VIP and thus the blast site. But I was wrong; I found it out in the newspapers the next morning. My husband was also killed, leaving behind me and two small children,” she recalls. Her son is now a sub-inspector with the Tamil Nadu Police.

QUOTE 6: Also among those who lost their lives that night was veteran Congress member ‘League’ Munusamy, a 62-year-old former freedom fighter and member of the erstwhile Legislative Council. “That the incident happened 20 years ago is not a valid reason to forget the seriousness of the crime. This is not a usual case of murder out of rage or emotions. It was a planned murder of a former prime minister that should be viewed as a special case. And the punishment was awarded by the trial court and was confirmed by the Supreme Court. If it is not executed, it will only create a wrong precedent where justice is subverted by emotions,” says his son ‘League’ M Mohan, currently a PCC member, who was part of the march on Tuesday seeking that the convicts get their due punishment.