Rajiv slaying:

Rahul says still waiting for justice

Srinagar: Seeking to justify the delay in hanging Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said he himself had not got justice in the assassination case of his father Rajiv Gandhi as yet but he believes in the justice system.

In an interaction with HN Bahuguna University students, when Rahul was asked about the reason for the delay in Afzal Guru case, he cited his own case saying he was 14 years old when his grandmother late Indira Gandhi was killed with 32 bullets.

There were 150 witnesses. Two persons were hanged but the case took seven years. In Rajiv's assassination case, 40 people were involved. It has been 17 years but "nobody has been punished".

"The issue is not that Afzal Guru has not been hanged; the issue is that our legal system works very slowly. My father was the Prime Minister. My grandmother was the Prime Minister. I was a son, a grandson. I have not got justice. But I believe in our justice system; you do get justice in India," said Rahul. During the interaction which lasted over an hour, the Amethi MP faced a volley of questions seeking to draw a comparison between him and his father. Rahul said he was only following in the footsteps of his father who was striving to involve even village youth in the political system. Unlike his father who was forced by circumstances to enter politics, Rahul suggested that he never had any other career in mind. Asked if he would still be in politics if his father were alive, Rahul remembered how he saw his father working tirelessly for people.

"I would ask him 'Papa, why are you doing it, why are you mingling with the crowd?' But he did not stop. As long as he was in politics, he worked for you (youth)."