‘Sonia Gandhi will not celebrate New Year’

New Delhi  :  Congress president Sonia Gandhi will not celebrate the New Year as a tribute to the 23-year-old rape victim who died Saturday. She has also asked all her well-wishers and party members not to wish her on the occasion, a Congress leader said Monday.

“Sonia Gandhi has appealed to the party members and well-wishers against coming to her to extend New Year greetings in the wake of the gang-rape incident,” party general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi told reporters here.

The 23-year-old woman, who was raped and brutally tortured in a moving bus Dec 16, died of her injuries Saturday in a Singapore hospital, where she was rushed in a last-ditch effort to save her.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi were present at the airport when her body was flown back to India early Sunday morning.

Earlier, at the 127th foundation day of the Congress party Dec 28, Sonia Gandhi said: “Dec 28 is close to New Year. Normally, we wish each other (on this occasion) but not so this time as our thoughts are with the young woman.”

File Photo  : AFP