The Congress party and the Nehru-Gandhi family appear to be speaking in two different voices on the issue of setting free the killers of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

While Congress president Rahul Gandhi, mother Sonia Gandhi and sister Priyanka Vadra have pardoned the killers and have suggested that they are open to the assassins being set free, the Congress has accused the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government of "playing politics" over the release of all seven life convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

The Congress on Monday came down heavily on the Modi government and also the AIADMK-led Tamil Nadu government for, what it said was, a soft approach in dealing with the question of whether or not the former prime minister's assassins should be released from jail.

Talking to media persons in New Delhi on Monday, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said, "Bereft of who says what, as a citizen and a Congressman, we are of a clear opinion that the State cannot derelict its duty of punishing terrorists and terrorism."

"It is time to show the mirror of truth to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government who are shielding terrorism and terrorists by such acts," Surjewala said.

File photo of Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra paying tribute to Rajiv Gandhi on his 50th birth anniversary in New Delhi. (Photo: Reuters)

Incidentally, the Narendra Modi-led central government has previously said that it not in favour of releasing Rajiv Gandhi's killers. On August 10, the Centre rejected a proposal made by the Tamil Nadu government to release the seven convicts.

According to news agency IANS, the Centre told the Supreme Court, "Releasing the killers of a former Prime Minister will set a very dangerous precedent. The case has been decided by various forum of judiciary and executive and the prisoners do not deserve to be set free."

READ | India Today Magazine's detailed account of the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi

The Tamil Nadu government on September 9 sent a recommended that the killers, who are all serving life terms, be released from jail. The recommendation was sent to Governor Banwarilal Purohit, after the Supreme Court, which was hearing the matter, left the ball in the state government's court.

The convicts -- Nalini, Robert Payas, S Jayakumar, Santhan, Sriharan (Nalini's husband), AG Perarivalan and Ravichandran -- have been in jail for over 27 years.

However, Surjewala said, "We ask a simple question, bereft of what the large-hearted (then) Congress president Sonia Gandhi or the current Congress president Rahul Gandhi or his sister Priyanka Gandhi have said viz-a-viz having no enmity towards the assassins of Rajiv ji. Does the State have a duty to protect terrorists or to find terrorists?"

It is probably the only issue on which the stand of the Congress party, which has been accused of nepotism and being fixated on one family, is different from that of the Nehru-Gandhi family.

Nalini (R) seen in a court in this June 15,1991 file photo. (Photo: Reuters)

Rahul Gandhi has time and again said that he and his family have forgiven his father's killers and want to move forward. Last month, during a session at the London School of Economics, the Congress chief said that he was unhappy after Rajiv Gandhi's killer and LTTE chief Prabhakaran was killed.



"When I saw Prabhakaran lying on the beaches in Jaffna (Sri Lanka), when I saw him being humiliated, the way he was, I felt sorry for him, because I saw my father in his place and his children in my place," Rahul said.

READ | I told him he was going to die: Rahul on Rajiv Gandhi's assassination



Speaking at another event, in Singapore in March, Rahul similarly said that both he and his sister Priyanka had "completely forgiven" their father's killers. "We were very upset and hurt, and for many years. We were quite angry. But, somehow, (we have)... completely... in fact, completely (forgiven them)," he had said.

In July this year, Rahul was even more direct when he met Kaala director Pa Ranjith. Ranjith said that Rahul had told him that he or his family did not have any objections to the release of AG Perarivalan, one of the convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.



Rajiv Gandhi's daughter Priyanka, on the other hand, once met another convict -- Nalini -- at the Vellore jail in 2008. She later described the visit as her "way of coming to peace with the violence and loss that I have experienced".

Nalini, the main accused Murugan's wife, was sentenced to death. However, her death sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment following an intervention by Sonia Gandhi.

As the Congress party differs with the central and Tamil Nadu governments, it also finds itself on a different page from that of the Nehru-Gandhi family over the release of the Rajiv Gandhi's killers.

READ | Didn't want Rajiv in politics, was scared he would be assassinated, says Sonia Gandhi

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