Apr 10, 2008

Nalini Sriharan: I wanted to see the earth shake

New Delhi: Priyanka Gandhi revisited her past that has haunted the Nehru-Gandhis for the past 17 years. Unnoticed and alone, she paid a visit to Nalini, who is the only survivor of the group that assassinated Rajiv Gandhi, in Vellore Jail on March 19 this year.

In a short press statement, Priyanaka said, ?I do not believe in anger, hatred and violence and I refuse to allow it any power over my life. The meeting with Nalini was my way of coming to peace with the violence and loss that I have experienced? 

Priyanka refused to elaborate on the details of her meeting saying it was a purely a personal visit. But according to Nalini's lawyer, in the one-on-one meeting, Priyanka wanted to know why her father, "a good man", was killed, and this is what transpired between the two:

Priyanka: My father was a good man. Why was he killed?

Nalini: I wanted to see the earth shake.

Priyanka: I don't understand you. Tell me who were involved? Was there any political party involved?

Nalini: I do not know anything about the larger conspiracy. When I was offered the job, I accepted it because I wanted to see the ground shake. Your dad had justified the anger, hatred, violence and
loss of over 4000 sikh lives by saying - 'When a big tree falls, then the earth is bound to shake'.

"I believed that like your grandma, your dad was also a big tree. But the earth didn't shake at all when he fell. Either your dad was lying when he said that the ground beneath a big tree is bound to shake when it falls or he wasn't as big a tree as I had imagined."