Shiv Sena lambasts TN CM M K Stalin for meeting Rajiv Gandhi assassination convict Perarivalan, terms it “morally wrong”

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut remarked that TN CM’s ‘dignifying’ of Perarivalan has set a dangerous ideal

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Mumbai: Shiv Sena on Wednesday lashed out at Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin for felicitating A G Perarivalan – a convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination who was released recently. Shiv Sena MP and chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut censured the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister for ‘dignifying’ the late Prime Minister’s assassin and remarking that it set “a dangerous ideal.” 

The Shiv Sena is an ally of the Congress in the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra. The Sena leader wanted to know as to what the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister was trying to prove by his actions.  

Sanjay Raut remarked, “Everyone knows Tamil Nadu’s politics and its twists and turns. Rajiv Gandhi was the nation’s leader who sacrificed himself. He was assassinated in Tamil Nadu. If the Chief Minister (M K Stalin) felicitates his assassins, then I do not think it is morally right nor is it part of not our culture.” 

He further said that while it was all right that A G Perarivalan had been released after 31 years, it was highly improper for TN CM M K Stalin to have hugged him and felicitated him. 

Raut further remarked, “Earlier, pro-Khalistani leaders from political parties (in Punjab) had felicitated Khalistani terrorists. Attempts had been made to dignify Indira Gandhi’s assassins, but the people’s resentment foiled such acts. Likewise, some political parties and leaders had attempted to elevate terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir to the status of freedom fighters. This, too, was met with public ire.” 

He remarked that whatever be one’s politics, it did not behove a state’s Chief minister to show respect to a Prime Minister’s assassin in this manner.  

Incidentally, in September last year, Raut, while targeting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for excluding the picture of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru from a poster released by the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), had praised TN CM M K Stalin for showing “political maturity “in not removing the pictures of his political rivals. 

Sanjay Raut has spoken of M K Stalin as being part of a grand ‘anti-BJP coalition’ in the past, had lauded the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister for his decision of not removing the pictures of his political rivals and former state CMs – J Jayalalithaa and E K Palaniswami – from the school bags which were being distributed free to children in the southern state.