What sense does freeing Rajiv Gandhi's killers make to the common Indian?
The Tamil Nadu government's decision of freeing the Rajiv Gandhi assassins is directly related to vote bank politics. The former Prime Minister of India was assassinated in a bomb blast by the LTTE, a terrorist organization of Srilanka in 1991. The incident terribly shook the hearts of people of the country.
The LTTE militants namely Murugan, Santhan, Perarivalan were awarded death penalty by the Supreme Court in 2001. The other four militants were given life sentence. One death convict Nalani's sentence was commuted to life earlier.
The three death convict filed a mercy petition to the President of India to remit or pardon their death sentence. But there was undue delay on the part of President to clear their petition. The Supreme Court later commuted the death penalty to life imprisonment citing the delay as the reason.
The Tamil Naidu government went a step further and announced its decision to free all the Rajiv Gandhi's assassins lodged in Tamil Nadu's Vellore jail.
The Tamil Naidu government decided to use its power of remission for freeing the convicts and gave a three day deadline to central government to present its view on this case.
The central government filed a petition in the Supreme Court to restrain the state government as the conviction of accused was under central laws. The Supreme Court upheld the central government's plea.
The Supreme Court decision of commuting to life was based on the rationality, that while waiting for the decision on mercy petition, the convicts had undergone a great deal of psychological agony. But the decision by state government was without proper reason and done in haste that was clearly politically motivated. The decision of the Tamil Nadu government was clearly politically motivated in order to gain few votes in the 2014 Lok Sbha elections.
The Tamil Naidu government didn`t think even twice that what could be the implications of its decision. The decision would hamper the federal polity of the country, influence foreign policy, could create regional tension and may set a bad precedent.
In this case the national interest of the country was sidelined for the interest of few people`s aspiration or rather for getting few more votes.
The decision did not care how the people will feel after seeing the killers of their Prime Minister roaming freely in the country. What faith they may have in the criminal justice system of India?
Even the Supreme Court questioned the decision of state government as it clearly overlooked the procedural requirements in the case.
Such kind of a decision is a threat to the integrity of the nation. The decision may be looked by some Tamil people as correct but what about other people who view it differently
Is the problem of any state bigger than the National interest or national unity? Our forefather fought for the whole nation without thinking themselves as Tamil, Marathi, or Punjabi so why the politics is played on ethnic/community/caste lines. The decision of the state government aggravates the problem of regionalism in the country.
Sanjeev Kumar
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