PTI
Srinagar, Oct 21: In the midst of the criticism faced by the UPA government over delay in hanging Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday injected a personal element lamenting he has not got "justice" even 17 years after his father Rajiv Gandhi's assassination.
The remarks by the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family in an apparent reference to the non-execution of death sentence awarded to those convicted in the assassination of the former prime minister came when he blamed the "slow" pace of the country's legal system.
"My father was a prime minister. My grand mother was also a prime minister, but I did not get justice. My father was killed by a bomb. Forty people were involved. It has taken 17 years, but still there has been no punishment," Gandhi told students of the H N Bahuguna University in this hill state.
Gandhi's remarks came when a student asked him why death row convict Afzal Guru has not been hanged yet.
"The issue is not why Afzal is not being hanged. Our legal system is very slow," said the Congress general secretary.
He blamed the "slow" Indian legal system for that but said he had "full faith" in the judiciary and had no no complaints about it.
The Congress MP said he never complained why his father's killers were not hanged. "I believe in the legal system of the country. I will get justice but it will take time."
‘My father was a visionary’
Rahul Gandhi went nostalgic while remembering his "visionary" father Rajiv Gandhi and said he was following the late leader's footsteps and that will take forward his vision.
The young Congress leader said he was following his father in addressing the problems faced by the youth of the country.
In an hour-long interactive session with students, the former Prime Minister's name was raised several times with the young graduates asking Rahul what were the similarities between him and his father.
"When he was an MP and then the Prime Minister, he addressed the youth. He brought down the voting age, introduced the panchayati raj and ushered in a revolution in communications," he said, adding that during Rajiv Gandhi's tenure the youth were promoted in all spheres.
Rahul said his father's politics brought about a change in the country.
Though the time and technology are different now, the basic idea of promoting the youth is the same.
"I am doing the same what my father was doing then," the Congress General Secretary said.
To a question as to whether he would have entered politics if his father was not killed, Rahul recalled the days when Rajiv Gandhi was in the country's helm of the affairs.
"I was 12 years of age when my father entered politics and was 20 when his political career ended. He did not have a single moment when he did not think about you (youth)," he said.