Rajiv Gandhi

6th Prime Minister of India

In office31 October 1984 – 2 December

1989

Early Life

He was born on 20 August 1944. His father was Feroze Gandhi.

His mother was Indira Gandhi.

By the time of his father's death, Rajiv was away at a private boarding school for boys: initially at the Welham Boys' School and later The Doon School, both located at Dehradun, Uttarakhand. He was sent to London in 1961 to study his A-levels. In 1962, he was offered a place at Trinity College, Cambridge to study engineering. Rajiv stayed at Cambridge until 1965 and left the university without

a degree mainly because he did not appear in the final Tripos examinations. In 1966, he was offered a place at the

Imperial College London. He again left Imperial College after a year without a degree.

Education

Marriage

In the January of 1965, he met Italian Antonia (Sonia) Maino in Varsity restaurant in Cambridge. Antonia was studying English at Lennox School of Languages (which was not associated with the University of Cambridge). Rajiv and Sonia were married in 1968 in India.

Rajeev as pilot

Rajiv began working for Indian Airlines as a professional pilot

while his mother became Prime

Minister in 1966.

More about family

In 1970, his wife gave birth to their first child Rahul Gandhi, and in 1972, to Priyanka

Gandhi, their second. Even as Rajiv remained aloof in politics, his younger

brother Sanjay became a close advisor to their mother.

Entry into politicsFollowing his younger brother's death in 1980, Gandhi was pressured by Indian National Congress party politicians and his mother to enter politics. He and his wife were both opposed to the idea, and he even publicly stated that he would not contest for his brother's seat. Nevertheless, he eventually announced his candidacy for Parliament. He fought his first election from Amethi Loksabha seat. In this by-election, he defeated Lokdal leader Sharad Yadav by more than 200,000 votes.

Assassination of Indira Gandhi

Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India, was assassinated on 31 October 1984. She was killed by two of her Sikh bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, to avenge the military attack on the Harmandir Sahib (Sikhism's holiest shrine, also called "The Golden Temple") during Operation Blue Star.

Death of Indira Gandhi

Indira Gandhi was rushed to AIIMS immediately after the shooting. She

died one hour later, undergoing surgery to remove 7 of the 20 bullets that wounded her. She was cremated

on 3 November, near Raj Ghat (a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi) at an

area named Shakti Sthal.

Gandhi was in West Bengal when his mother was assassinated on 31 October 1984 by her bodyguards.

Top Congress leaders, as well as President Zail Singh pressed Rajiv to become India's Prime Minister, within hours of his mother's assassination by two of her Sikh bodyguards. Soon after assuming office, Rajiv asked President Zail Singh to dissolve Parliament and hold fresh elections, as the Lok Sabha completed its five year term. Rajiv Gandhi also officially became the President of the Congress party. The Congress party won a landslide victory - with the largest majority in history of Indian Parliament - giving Gandhi absolute control of government. Rajiv thus revived

hopes and enthusiasm amongst the Indian public for the Congress.

Rajiv Gandhi – Prime Minister of India

Economic policy

He increased government support for science and technology and associated industries, and

reduced import quotas, taxes and tariffs on technology-based industries, especially

computers, airlines, defence and telecommunications. He introduced measures significantly reducing the License Raj, allowing businesses and individuals to purchase capital,

consumer goods and import without bureaucratic restrictions.

Foreign policy

Gandhi began leading in a direction significantly different from his mother's socialism. He improved bilateral relations with the United States — and expanded economic and scientific cooperation. During his state visit to the Soviet Union he met with Premier Nikolai Tikhonov, Andrey Gromyko of the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and

Mikhail Gorbachev.

Security policy

The Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord was signed by Rajiv Gandhi and the Sri Lankan President J.R. Jayewardene, in Colombo on 29 July 1987. The very next day, on 30 July 1987, Rajiv Gandhi was assaulted on the head with a rifle butt by a young Sinhalese naval cadet named Vijayamunige Rohana de Silva, while receiving the honor guard. The intended assault on the back of Rajiv Gandhi's head however glanced off his shoulder.

Currency crisis

During the late 1980s, Gandhi's administration failed to slow the 30 percent fall in the value of the

Indian Rupee from 12 to 17 to the US Dollar.

Bofors scandal

Gandhi's finance minister, V. P. Singh, uncovered compromising details about government and political corruption, to the consternation of Congress leaders. Transferred to the Defence ministry, Singh uncovered what became known as the Bofors scandal, involving tens of millions of dollars - concerned alleged payoffs by the Swedish Bofors arms company through Italian businessman and Gandhi family associate Ottavio Quattrocchi, in return for Indian contracts. Upon the uncovering of the scandal, Singh was dismissed from office, and later from Congress membership. Rajiv Gandhi himself was later personally implicated in the scandal when the investigation was continued by Narasimhan Ram and Chitra Subramaniam of The Hindu newspaper. This shattered his image as an honest politician;

he was posthumously cleared over this allegation in 2004, however.

Shah Bano case

In 1985, the Supreme Court of India ruled in favor of Muslim divorcee Shah Bano, declaring that her husband should give her alimony. Muslim fundamentalists in India treated it as an encroachment in Muslim Personal Law and protested against it. Gandhi agreed to their demands.

Assassination

Rajiv Gandhi's last public meeting was at Sriperumbudur on 21 May 1991, in a village approximately 30 miles from

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, where he was assassinated while campaigning for the Sriperumbudur Lok Sabha Congress

candidate. The assassination was carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) suicide bomber

Thenmozhi Rajaratnam also known as Gayatri and Dhanu. At 10:10 p.m., the assassin Dhanu approached him in a public

meeting and greeted the former Prime Minister. She then bent down to touch his feet (an expression of respect among

Indians) and detonated a belt laden with 700 grams of RDX explosive tucked under her dress. The former Prime Minister

along with many others were killed in the explosion that followed.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXHKJdVrAPQ&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fresults%3Fsearch_query%3Drajiv%2Bgandhi%2Bassassination%26aq%3Df&has_verified=1

Rajiv Gandhi Memorial

The Rajiv Gandhi Memorial was built at the site recently and is one of

the major tourist attractions to the small

industrial town.

Dreams coming trueDreams coming true

Rajeev Gandhi is survived by his Rajeev Gandhi is survived by his wife and two children. His wife wife and two children. His wife Mrs. Sonia Gandhi (President, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi (President,

Congress Party) is working Congress Party) is working tirelessly to fulfill the dreams of tirelessly to fulfill the dreams of

Rajiv Gandhi. His son Rahul Rajiv Gandhi. His son Rahul Gandhi and daughter Priyanka Gandhi and daughter Priyanka are supporting their mother.are supporting their mother.