Don't have hatred towards anybody: Rahul on Rajiv case convicts
Chennai: Congress president Rahul Gandhi said Wednesday he harboured no hatred towards the convicts of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case and asserted that it was for the courts to decide on their release.
The Congress chief, who is touring Tamil Nadu for a day to launch the United Progressive Alliance's campaign, said the assassination of his father and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 had two aspects.
"While one was personal, which we have dealt with, the other was the legal issue, which has to take its course. Whatever course the legal issue takes, we are happy with it," Rahul Gandhi said.
"We are quite forgiving people, we do not have animosity or hatred towards anybody and it is for the courts to decide (on their release)," he told reporters.
"You need a conversation to start with stakeholders, that is the type of things we excelled at," the Congress president added.
Exuding confidence that a Congress-led Opposition would emerge victorious in the Lok Sabha election, Rahul Gandhi promised initiatives such as reforms in the goods and services tax, encompassing its simplest form and a "phenomenal and revolutionary idea" of a minimum income guarantee scheme.
On the Rafale deal, he said while there was no question about its capability, the issue was about corruption and the need was for a probe into it.
The Congress chief did not answer if his party would scrap the deal if voted to power. "The Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) is a 'corrupt' man, bypassed negotiations, ran parallel negotiations on the Rafale deal."
Hitting out at Modi, Rahul Gandhi asked as to why the prime minister was not addressing the media and interacting with students like he did.
"Why are you (Modi) hiding?" he asked, adding that the prime minister should have the guts to face the media.
Lashing out at the BJP, he said the saffron party's idea was to capture every institution of the country and run it from Nagpur, the RSS headquarters.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
