Congress pays homage to Rajiv Gandhi
By IANSFriday, May 21, 2010
CHENNAI - Congress leaders Friday paid tributes to former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in Tamil Nadu, where he was blown up by a suicide bomber on this day 19 years ago.
Tamil Nadu Congress chief K.V. Thankabalu and other leaders paid floral tributes to Gandhi’s portrait at Satyamurthy Bhavan, the party headquarter here.
Later, the Congress leaders went to Sriperumbudur, a small town 40 km away where Gandhi was blown up by a suicide bomber in 1991, to pay homage to the pilot-turned-politician.
A “Rajiv Gandhi flame” carried by the labour wing of the Congress from Bangalore also reached Sriperumbudur Friday. Thankabalu received it there.
Gandhi was killed at an election rally May 21, 1991 by a young Tamil Tiger woman guerrilla strapped with explosives on her body.
The assassin bent down as if to touch Gandhi’s feet and quietly activiated a switch, turning her into a terrible human bomb that killed her, Gandhi and a dozen others.
Congress leaders also organised blood donation camps and gave away food to the poor in Chennai.
