Congress President Rahul Gandhi said on Saturday that he and his sister Priyanka Gandhi had "completely forgiven" their father Rajiv Gandhi's killers.
LTTE, a militant organisation from Sri Lanka, led by Velupillai Prabhakaran was found responsible for plotting and executing the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
When asked during an interactive session in Kuala Lumpur if he and his sister Priyanka Gandhi had forgiven his father Rajiv Gandhi's killers, Rahul Gandhi said: "We were very upset and hurt and for many years, we were quite angry. But, somehow, completely...in fact, completely (forgiven).
"When one realises that when these events take place, its collision of ideas, forces, confusion. That's where you get caught. When I saw Prabhakaran lying dead on TV (in 2009), I got two feelings - first was why they are humiliating this man in this way.
"And second was...I felt really bad for him and for his kids," said Gandhi during the interactive session.
"We have been through this experience, so we understand. I literally find it difficult to hate people, even my sister does. I don't like any kind of violence."
In 1998, a TADA court found 26 people guilty of conspiracy and murder and also held Velupillai Prabhakaran as responsible for the assassination. Though all 26 were sentenced to death by the TADA court, the sentences of quite a few was reduced to life imprisonment. There has always been much speculation that it was not just the LTTE, but other forces were also behind the killing, a factor that was probed by the Jain commission. Gandhi said: "We knew that my father was going to die. We knew that my grandmother was going to die. In politics, when you mess with the wrong forces, and if you stand for something, you will die. That's pretty clear.
"My grandmother told me she was going to die and my father...I told him he was going to die."
"In politics, we deal with forces, big forces, which are normally not visible. You are dealing with structures that are powerful. Those are not visible but they can hurt you," he added.
The Tamil Nadu government had written to the Centre earlier, expressing its intent to release Perarivalan, Murugan, Santhan, Nalini, Robert Pious, Jayakumar and Ravichandran – all serving life terms for assassinating former Prime Minister Gandhi in 1991.
In January this year, the Supreme Court asked the Centre to respond within three months to the Tamil Nadu government’s decision to release the seven convicts in the assassination case.
IANS inputs