If the House is agreed, I will call on the leaders of the political groupings to express a vote of sympathy on the death of Rajiv Gandhi.
Death of Rajiv Gandhi. - Expression of Sympathy.
I wish to express my outrage and the outrage of the House at the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. His untimely death has clearly robbed the political world of a statesman of great resilience. We knew him as a man of peace, whether in Opposition or in Government. In a country that has been badly divided by strife he was a unifying force. That was particularly obvious after the death of his mother, Mrs. Indira Gandhi. I hope his death will not stop the elections but will fortify the people of India and their leaders and provide them with a democratic workable government. If this can be achieved his death will not have been in vain.
For all of us in this House, where the democratic parliamentary process is central to our lives, the death in this way of any parliamentarian is an attack on all of us and on the values which sustain House of Parliament across the world. In this case the death of Mr. Gandhi is not just a great personal tragedy for his family and for his party but it is an attack on the whole democratic process in his country. In offering our sympathy to his family, to his party and to the people of India, we can only hope that the democratic process is sufficiently strongly rooted in that country that it can sustain this foul attack.
It is another occasion when we have to bow to the people of violence who have once again assaulted democracy and the democratic structure, when we see the largest democracy in the world being assaulted by the people of violence.
Many people might disagree with the views of Mr. Gandhi, but it has to be said he sought to establish a state with equality for all people irrespective of caste or station. His passing is a loss to the democratic world.
I am not one to support the idea of a dynasty, but it must be noted that of his immediate family he is yet another victim with his brother and his mother before him, who has fallen victim to the assassin's bullet or, in this case, bomb. There is now a long list of martyrs to democracy which the men of violence have created during this century.
As a democratic forum we wish to express our sympathy to the Ambassador and to the Indian people, to Mr. Gandhi's party and to democrats everywhere.
I would like on behalf of the Labour Party to extend my sympathy to the Gandhi family and, indeed, to the people of India on this terrible outrage which took place yesterday. It is absolutely dreadful that people should resort to violence to advance their cause. The Gandhi family, as has been mentioned, have already paid a terrible price because of their involvement in Indian politics. Three of them have been shot down and murdered. I hope this dreadful event will not bring further instability and bloodshed to India. Mr. Gandhi helped to unite and stabilise India after the assassination of his mother and it is awful that he should have gone the same way as his mother before him.
On behalf of my party, the Progressive Democrats, I would like to join with the other leaders in their tributes to Mr. Gandhi. We are all united in abhorrence at what has happened. We can only hope that the resilience of democratic politics which India has shown in the face of a succession of similar incidents since the time of Mahatma Gandhi will once more be evident and that the country will survive and go forward as the largest democratic nation in the world, with 514 million people going to the polls at over 600,000 polling stations. I hope the present instability will soon be removed.
I join in the tributes to Mr. Gandhi in relation to his manifest sense of moderation and of trying to unify his people. We send our sympathy from this House to his family, to the Congress Party and to the people and Government of India.
The House will now stand in silent tribute for one minute.
Senators rose in their places.