21.05.2007
By Walter JAYAWARDHANA

Sonia Gandhi with Rahul Gandhi & Priyanka Vadhera at Veer Bhumi to pay tributes to Rajiv Gandhi on his 16th death anniversary today (21) [Courtesy: The Hindu]

 

It was 16 years ago, Independent India's ninth Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by Thenmuli Rajaratnam alias Dhanu, a suicide bomber of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at Siriperumbudur near Chennai by a conspiracy hatched by Velupillai Prabhakaran and his intelligence Chief Pottu Amman.

The Indian nation remembered the former Prime Minister who was killed on 21st May, 1999 by paying rich tributes in singing "sthothras" at Vir Bhumi the memorial of the departed leader on the banks of river Yamuna.

Gandhi's Italian born wife and ruling Congress Chief Sonia and their children parliamentarian Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra joined Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh, Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and a host of other politicians like Union Ministers Shivraj Patil, A.K. Antony and Ajay Maken in offering floral tributes at the memorial.

Meanwhile 200 Congress Party youth leaguers of the Karnataka were marching across the states of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu and reaching Siriperumbudur to hold a memorial for the dead leader, at the place of his assassination.

After 16 years of the killing the two main accused of the murder Velupillai Prabhakaran, the supremo of the LTTE and Pottuamman, his intelligence chief could not be arrested by the Indian authorities and are still operating the same insurgency, which led to the assassination 16 years ago, from the Northern jungles of Sri Lanka.

But many say the irony of the matter is that the LTTE has staged a come back to Tamil Nadu, once again getting involved in murders and kidnappings of Indian citizens while procuring arms for them and aiding other separatist movements in India.

"As far as that event is concerned...I would say it is a great tragedy... a monumental historical tragedy... which we deeply regret, and we call upon the government of India and people of India to be magnanimous to put the past behind..." - (Balasingham during an interview in a TV channel on  the 27th of June, 2006)