Terming Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin’s request to release the killers of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi as “anti-national”,
BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Tuesday urged the President to reject the plea and not to entertain such frivolous requests in future.
In an eight-page detailed letter to President Ram Nath Kovind, Swamy alleged that the hanging of the seven accused LTTE members was scuttled by Congress president and Rajiv Gandhi’s wife Sonia Gandhi in a dubious way by asking for mercy for one accused which was used by others to save themselves from hanging and converting their punishment to life sentence. He also accused Rajiv’s daughter Priyanka Vadra for being part in saving the seven LTTE killers, of which six are foreigners.
Swamy pointed out that not only Rajiv Gandhi, 18 other people including several young police personnel also died in the blast orchestrated by LTTE in 1991. Blaming DMK, AIADMK and other Tamil parties for playing dirty games of always demanding for mercy of the former Prime Minister’s killers, Swamy also criticised the Congress for being mute spectators.
Swamy pointed out how Sonia’s clemency petition to one accused Nalini saved all other six accused from hanging. “Her daughter Priyanka Vadra also broke Jail Manual Rules and visited the convicted prisoner Nalini in jail to sympathise with her. Ms Vadra has yet to be prosecuted for this offence by the Tamil Nadu Government,” said Swamy.
Swamy praised Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa for eliminating LTTE and its Chief V. Prabhakaran, pointing out that India’s Central and State Governments, however, delayed the execution of the killers of the former Prime Minister.
“Therefore I request, and also strongly recommend to your, Hon’ble Rashtrapati Ji, to reject this stale and anit-national recommendation of the current State Government of Tamil Nadu and to pass appropriate orders to ensure that the 7 convicts on remitted life sentence, continue, to serve their sentence for life” said Swamy in his letter.