Date:16/04/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/16/stories/2008041657950100.htm

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‘A purely personal visit’

Anita Joshua

NEW DELHI: Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s daughter Priyanka Vadra on Tuesday described her meeting with Nalini Sriharan — a convict in the assassination of the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi — as a “purely personal visit.”

Ms Vadra said it was her “way of coming to peace with the violence and loss that I have experienced.”

She undertook the visit completely on her own initiative, Ms Vadra said and added: “I do not believe in anger, hatred and violence and I refuse to allow it any power over my life.”

Apart from releasing Ms. Vadra’s statement, the Congress refused to comment on the matter; echoing Ms Vadra’s request that her privacy be respected. Earlier in the day, Ms Vadra’s brother and All-India Congress Committee general secretary Rahul Gandhi said: “We don’t carry hatred. We don’t carry anger. It’s not an exercise. She felt that she wanted to go and see the person. She has been feeling it for some time.”