The president of Indian National Congress Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said that his family was aware of the death of Rajiv Gandhi. “We knew that my father was going to die. We knew that my grandmother (Indira Gandhi) 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,” said Gandhi, who is on a five-day trip to the Southeast Asian countries.

While interacting with the IIM alumni in Singapore, Mr. Gandhi said he and his sister have completely forgiven the killers of his father Rajiv Gandhi. “We were very upset and hurt for many years we were quite angry. But, somehow, completely…in fact, completely (forgiven) (Sic.)” Rahul Gandhi said.

“There is a history that when one realises that when these events take place, it’s collision of ideas, forces, confusion. That’s where you get caught. I remember when I saw Mr Prabhakaran on TV lying dead, I got two feelings – one was why they are humiliating this man in this way.”

“And second was I felt really bad for him and for his kids and I did that because I understood deeply what it meant to be on the other side of that thing. So to me when I see violence regardless of who it is, I know that there is a human being behind that, there is a family behind that, a kid crying behind that. I have been through a lot of pain to get this and it is something I consider very valuable. I find it difficult to hate people, even my sister does,” added Rahul Gandhi.

Rahul Gandhi’s father, the former Prime Minster India, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a female suicide bomber of Liberation of Tigers for Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a terrorist group in Sri Lanka led by V. Prabhakaran on May 21, 1991 at an election rally in Tamil Nadu.

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