Rajiv Gandhi
Rajiv Gandhi was born in Mumbai on 20 August 1944 to
Indira and
Feroze Gandi. Rajiv was admitted
to Shiv Niketan School, where the teachers said Rajiv was shy and introverted,
and "greatly enjoyed painting and drawing". Rajiv was sent to
London in 1961 to study. In 1962, he was offered a place at Trinity College
Cambridge, to study
engineering. Rajiv stayed at Cambridge until 1965, but did not finish his degree.
He returned to India in 1966 and became a professional pilot for the
state-owned Indian Airlines. In 1968 he married Sonia
Gandhi; the couple settled in Delhi to a domestic
life with their children Rahul and Priyanka and.In
1980 he won his brother's Parliamentary seat of Amethi
and became a member of the Lok Sabha. As part of his political grooming, Rajiv was made a
general secretary of the Congress party and given significant responsibility in
organizing the 1982 Asian Games.
Rajiv Gandhi was in
West Bengal on 31 October 1984 when his mother, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi,
was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards, to avenge the military
attack on the Golden Temple during Operation Blue
Star. After Rajiv to
succeed his mother as Prime Minister within hours of her murder. Commenting on
the anti-Sikh riots in Delhi, Indian politics got the youngest ever Prime
minister in Rajiv Gandhi. This phenomenon attracted attention the world over. The Sri
Lankan Civil War broke out with the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which was
demanding an independent lTamil state in Sri
Lanka.However, the LTTE refused to give up violence and used propaganda against
India, threatening Tamils opposed to its cause. In 1987, Gandhi sent the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to protect civilians and
to apprehend anyone carrying arms. The IPKF was attacked by LTTE, which led to
the former disarming the latter. Gandhi withdrew the IPKF in 1989.On 30 July
1987, a day after Gandhi went to Sri Lanka and signed the Indo-Sri Lanka
Accord, an honour guard named Vijitha Rohana hit him on his shoulder
with his rifle; But Gandhi's quick reflexes saved him from injury. It is first
assault on him. Rajiv Gandhi given Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh the status of
states that were earlier union territories. During Gandhi's time in the public
sector telecom companies MTNL and VSLN was developed. Telecommunication services has been an
important factor in India's development. Gandhi's government also allowed
the import of fully assembled motherboards, which led to the price of computers
being reduced.]According to some commentators, the seed for
the information technology (IT) revolution was also planted during Rajiv
Gandhi’s time. In 1989 elections opposition parties LokDal, Indian Nation congress(Socialist) and Janmorcha united under Singh to form
the Janatha Dal Singh led the National
Front coalition to victory in 1989 elections and he was sworn in as Prime Minister.
Though the coalition won 143 seats compared to Congress's 197, it gained
majority in the lower house of the parliament through outside support from
the Bharathiya
Janta Partyb and the left parties.Rajiv Gandhi's last public meeting was on 21
May 1991, at
Sriperumbudur, a village
approximately 40 km (25 mi) from Chennai, where he was assassinated while campaigning
for the Sriperumbudur Lok Sabha Congress candidate. At 10:10 pm, a woman
later identified as Thenmozhi Rajaratnam, approached Gandhi in public and greeted him. She then bent
down to touch his feet and detonated a belt laden with 700 g (1.5 lb)
of RDX explosives tucked under her dress.The explosion killed Gandhi, Rajaratnam, and
at least 25 other people. The assassination was captured by a 21 year old local
photographer, whose camera and film were found at the site. The cameraman,
named Haribabu, died in the blast but the camera remained intact. At Delhi,
where Rajiv Gandhi was
cremated called Veer Bhumi
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