Haritha Murugan was born in prison to parents convicted of plotting the murder of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. She has only met them once since that time.
It was a story on BBC I did not expect to read. When we spend our minutes focused on the key players of any event, we tend to forget the ripple effect that pours down through generations.
As a baby, Haritha was taken to Sri Lanka where she grew up with her paternal grandmother. She is now a medical student in London, hoping to get a visa from the Indian High Commission to travel back and see her parents again. Having spent many hours myself in the unforgiving lines of the Indian embassy in London, I can’t even begin to imagine her plight.
Through no fault of her own, she has been entangled in the dark lives of parents to whom she was born. Her father is one of three men still on death row for the murder of Rajiv Gandhi, and her mother (whose death sentence was commuted) will spend the rest of her life in jail.
I admit I always focus on parents who have to accept children that have been gifted to them. But in the same light, children too have to play the cards they have been dealt. In Haritha’s case, very difficult ones.
From the eyes of a hopeful child, parents are never guilty. But a date has been set for the hanging of Haritha’s father: September 9th.
In light of this disturbing declaration, I feel compelled to ask you to be grateful for the family to which you belong. Whether Haritha’s parents are guilty or not makes no difference at all in this regard–she was simply an innocent child born to her fate. Albeit of a very different nature, Haritha has also served a life sentence.
