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Madhya Pradesh Police cites Verma Commission report on Rajiv Gandhi’s 1991 assassination in the security conditions for Rahul Gandhi’s Indore event.
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Reference triggers political row with Congress leaders questioning the need to invoke assassination of Rahul’s father in a routine security document.
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Police defends reference as security measure, while BJP says Congress failed to provide adequate information about the event.
A reference to the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in a police security document for his son and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ programme in Indore has triggered a political row, with the Congress questioning the need to invoke the 1991 killing while laying down conditions for a routine political event.
Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to hold his programme in Indore on Saturday, 19 September.
The Congress said the Madhya Pradesh Police’s ‘security conditions document’ for the event cited observations from the Verma Commission, which was set up to investigate the security lapses surrounding Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination.
According to the party, the document states that the ‘Verma Commission report has analysed the role of event organisers and local political activists in great depth and detail’ and that the ‘Commission clarified that the organisers’ irresponsible attitude was the primary reason for the security breakdown in the Sriperumbudur incident on May 21, 1991′.
Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in a suicide bombing at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu on 21 May 1991. The Verma Commission was constituted to examine the security lapses that preceded the assassination.
The Congress questioned the appropriateness of invoking that tragedy in the security conditions for Rahul Gandhi’s programme, particularly given the political significance of the reference. Madhya Pradesh Congress president Jitu Patwari said the police had never before referred to Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination in the security conditions for a party event and accused the BJP government of using its power to obstruct Rahul Gandhi’s programme.
