Rajya Sabha member Subramanian Swamy has written to President Ram Nath Kovind opposing Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s recommendation to remit the sentences of seven life-term convicts in former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
Mr. Swamy asked the President “to reject the stale and anti national recommendation of the State government of Tamil Nadu” and “to pass appropriate orders that the seven convicts continue to serve sentence for life as was intended when they got a remission from death sentence”.
The letter said the 18 others killed along with Rajiv Gandhi included young police officers whose children were cruelly orphaned.
Last week, Mr. Stalin wrote to the President requesting him to accept the State government’s recommendation in September 2018 and pass orders to remit the life sentences of all the seven convicts. He also urged that S. Nalini, Murugan, Santhan, A.G. Perarivalan, Jayakumar, Robert Payas and P. Ravichandran be released immediately.
“Does Shri Stalin mean to suggest to you that the life of such a young national leader in the prime of his political life, and one who had been Prime Minister of India, and who may well have been on his way to once again to become Prime Minister of India, is worth only a certain quantum of years of undergone sentence by these foreign terrorists?” Mr. Swamy asked.
