NEW DELHI (IANS): For the first few years after her father's assassination, Priyanka Gandhi, the daughter of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, said she had been "absolutely furious".
"I didn't realise (at that time), but I was absolutely furious. Not with any individual, but with the whole world," Priyanka Gandhi said in a television interview.
Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by an LTTE suicide bomber while campaigning for the 1991 general elections in Sriperumbudur, in Tamil Nadu.
"I guess that I was young, therefore you are more angry," she said, adding that it was a "slow process" to realise that she was "furious" over her father's death. "But that anger did not last long."
 |
| Congress party campaigner Priyanka Gandhi Vadra takes part in a communal prayer with Muslim men in her brother Rahul's constituency Amethi on April 21, 2009. Daughter of Congress party president Sonia Gandhi and slain president Rajiv Gandhi, Priyanka claims to have no personal ambition for elected office. AFP |
Priyanka Gandhi described her "admiration" for the Tamil people for their intelligence and hard work. "I understand Tamil nationalism. But I don't agree with the method. As a human being, I don't believe in killing for anything," she said, referring to the Tamil Tigers. With her grandmother and father both killed due to political reasons, Priyanka Gandhi revealed that she had one "moment of terror" for her mother's safety.
"I had this one moment of terror in 2004, when I peeked into her office and saw her surrounded by people exhorting her to be PM. I burst into my brother's room and said, she is going to die."
Now, she says that she is more sanguine and does not worry "day to day" about the security threats against her mother and brother.
On Tuesday, Priyanka Gandhi had said that India cannot forgive LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran for her father's assassination in 1991, but she personally does not hate him.
While campaigning for her brother Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi in his Amethi constituency, Priyanka Gandhi had told reporters: "Politically speaking, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was killed and India can never forgive them (LTTE) for it. However, as a person I do not have any grudges against him (Prabhakaran) and do not hate him."
Fluency in Hindi
Priyanka has given the credit for her proficiency in Hindi to the mother of Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan. "It is all thanks to Teji Bachchan," Priyanka Gandhi said in a television interview.
The Bachchans and Gandhis were family friends, with Amitabh and Rajiv Gandhi growing up as friends together -- before they fell out later in their lives.
"As a child, I spent a lot of time with her. She used to give me all the poems and books of Harivansh Rai Bachchan (her poet husband), which I loved," Priyanka Gandhi said, adding: "She really got me interested in Hindi literature."
From that, she graduated to other gems of Hindi literature, like Premchand's novels, and continues her reading till now. "That's why my Hindi is good, due to my reading."
Not surprisingly, Sonia Gandhi turned to her daughter to help with her speeches when she first forayed into politics. "I used to write her speeches, but it was only in the first year. Not any more," she said.
Priyanka Gandhi has been leading the election campaign of her mother and brother, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, in their respective constituencies of Rae Bareli and Amethi. |
E-mail