Rajiv Gandhi was not just a father to Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi or husband to Sonia Gandhi. He was the Prime Minister of the nation, a man loved and revered by thousands at the time he was killed. When he died, thousands mourned with the Gandhis. So does the Gandhi family have the right to 'forgive' Rajiv Gandhi's killers?
During an interview at the University of Cambridge earlier this year in May, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was asked a question about the death of his father Rajiv Gandhi and how one adopts the political ideology based on the "Gandhian" principle of Ahimsa (non-violence) and lives with it at a personal level. Rahul, who was 21-year-old when Rajiv was assassinated, said that the death of his father had a profound effect on him.
"The single biggest learning experience of my life was my father's death. There is no bigger experience than that," said Gandhi, now 51, after several minutes of pause. For those few moments, the reluctant Gandhi scion was not just a politician but a son who had lived through the pain and the (in his case very public) trauma of losing a parent.
But Rajiv Gandhi was not just a father to Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi or husband to Sonia Gandhi. He was the Prime Minister of the nation, a man loved and revered by millions at the time he was killed. When he died, thousands mourned with the Gandhis. So does the Gandhi family have the right to "forgive" Rajiv Gandhi's killers?
The question has been simmering ever since the Supreme Court released all six convicts serving sentences for the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi earlier this year.
Gandhi was killed at a poll rally on May 21, 1991, in a suicide bombing hatched by the banned terror outfit LTTE. When Nalini Sriharan, one of the convicts who was pregnant at the time of the assassination, moved court urging Indian authorities to reduce her sentence, Sonia Gandhi who was still establishing herself politically as the party바카라s chief, decided to pardon Nalini and even filed a clemency petition in 1999 which eventually led to the reduction of Nalini바카라s sentence in 2000. Sonia Gandhi was allegedly moved by the tragedy that had befallen her family and did not want any other child to face similar hardships.
Both Rahul and Priyanka have talked about their own personal journeys when it came to coming to terms with their father바카라s assassination.
In 2008, Priyanka Gandhi who was 19 at the time of the assassination, met Nalini in prison. 바카라It is true that I met Nalini Sriharan in Vellore central jail on 19 March 2008. It was my way of coming to peace with the violence and loss that I have experienced,바카라 she had said later.
A year later, in an interview with NDTV, Priyanka spoke in detail about the transformative experience of evolving from a 바카라furious바카라 teenager angry with the whole world for her father바카라s deaths to a 바카라forgiving daughter바카라.
In the same interview, Priyanka had said that the 바카라anger didn't last that longer바카라.
바카라The anger passes as you grow up,바카라 she said. She also stated that she eventually realised that 바카라victimhood바카라 cannot lead to closure and that trying non-violence is the 바카라absence of victimhood바카라.
The 2016 book Rajiv Murder: Hidden Truths and Priyanka-Nalini Meeting, revealed how Priyanka had asked Nalini why she did it and has said that her father was a 바카라soft바카라 man who could have been reasoned. Speaking of the meeting later, Gandhi, who reportedly cried during the meeting, said that despite letting go of the initial hate and anger, until meeting Nalini, she had considered herself in a position to 바카라forgive바카라 her. After the meeting, Priyanka claimed that Nalini herself was victim of her circumstances, just like her.
바카라The minute you realise you are not a victim and the other person is as much a victim of the same circumstances as you are...then how can you put yourself in a position when you are someone to forgive someone else?바카라
However, Priyanka had agreed that 바카라a nation cannot react as Priyanka, the daughter of Rajiv, reacts바카라.
With the Supreme Court releasing all six convicted for killing Rajiv Gandhi, the Congress party seems to have reached an intellectual impasse with the Gandhi family. While the family has long chosen to forgive the killers and even empathise with them as victims, Congress has distanced itself from the family바카라s stand and opposed the apex court바카라s move.
Asked about statements of forgiveness by Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in the past, party leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that despite the personal views of the Gandhi family, the assassination of a party leader and former prime minister was an 바카라institutional issue바카라 and that the party바카라s stance on the matter has always been the same. Congress is set to file a review petition of the apex court바카라s decision. The Centre, under pressure from the Congress, has already moved court for a review of its decision. In its petition, the Centre contended that the Supreme Court passed the order without hearing its side.
The government cited procedural lapse as the basis for the Centre바카라s review petition, arguing that the convicts had not made the Union of India a respondent in the case despite the latter being a 바카라necessary and proper party바카라.
In her 2021 review of Mahatma Gandhi바카라s grandson and researcher Rajmohan Gandhi바카라s book Revenge & Reconciliation: Understanding South Asian History, journalist Amrita Shah had noted that 바카라compared to the brutal instances of revenge, the impulse toward reconciliation reveals sagacity, maturity, and innovation바카라. Nevertheless, Indian history is dominated by instances of revenge-seeking.
Despite being the land of Buddha and Gandhi - known the world over the spiritual symbols of non-violence, Rajmohan Gandhi바카라s book painted the picture of India as a 바카라land not of release, but of violent retribution lit only fleetingly by the possibility of transcendence바카라.
In the Mahabharata, for instance, retribution and revenge are key themes. The story even involves a son avenging the killing of his father by murdering the children of the perpetrator. Just like the idea of non-violebce, these contradictory values of masculine power play are entrenched in India바카라s social ethos and inform its policy thought.
But while the Gandhi family can find peace in forgiveness, can the same be said for the nation? Can a nation forgive the killer if its leader? In a paper titled Can Nations Forgive, researcher Thomas W. Burkman noted that forgiveness was essential for reconciliation.
바카라In probing the matter of justice for wrongdoers, peace research would raise the distinction between criminal justice and restorative justice바카라In a criminal justice paradigm, crime is a violation of laws. Punishment is the legal satisfaction of that violation."
Restorative justice, on the other hand, is an approach to justice that seeks to 바카라repair harm by providing an opportunity for those harmed and those who take responsibility for the harm to communicate about and address their needs in the aftermath of a crime.바카라 Under restorative justice systems, one of the responses to a crime is to organize a meeting between the victim and the offender, sometimes with representatives of the wider community.
Through restorative justice programs, offenders are made to take responsibility for their actions and to fully understand the extent of the harm they have caused. The underlying thought is to give them an opportunity to perpetrators to redeem themselves. Unlike "retribution", which is the focus of the criminal justice system, restorative justice programmes have been academically proven to help victims recover from the loss and trauma as well by making them active participants that can thereby help reduce the feelings of anxiety and powerlessness that victims may feel.
Can restorative justice be used to help heal a nation of its trauma and reverse feelings of injustice it might feel after losing a respected and loved leader to the throes of violence?
Perhaps the world should take a page out of the Gandhi family바카라s book. Lessons of reconciliation-dialogue, accepting the past, and the maxim "what we are for rather than who we are against바카라, as Amrita Shah put it, can not only help one deal with loss at a personal level but 바카라could be applied fruitfully by the troubled nations of South Asia바카라 to solve international crises and internal strife.
In an age where military muscle flexing is the hallmark of a successful nation, the Indian Supreme Court바카라s decision to give clemency and reform a chance gives the nation pause rethink its idea of power, justice and forgiveness and perhaps look at reconciliation not as crutch for the weak but as an acquired virtue of the astute.