Sonia invited to attend Rajiv Gandhi Memorial Oration in Lanka

Bandula Jayasekara in New Delhi

President Mahinda Rajapakse extended an invitation to Congress Leader Sonia Gandhi to attend the first Rajiv Gandhi memorial oration to be held in Sri Lanka next year.

He extended the invitation to Sonia Gandhi, when she called on him at the Rashtrapathi Bhawan. Rajapakse will deliver the first Rajiv Gandhi memorial oration. Sri Lanka always wanted to honour the late Indian leader and the invitation has been extended at a time when the relationship between the two countries is at a peak.

Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a LTTE suicide cadre in Sriperdumbudur about 30 miles from Chennai in May 1991. Gandhi was only 46 years when he was killed.

Rajapakse also told a meeting in New Delhi that he would expedite the building of a memorial for over 1,000 soldiers of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) who sacrificed their lives in Sri Lanka, fighting the LTTE.