Rajiv Gandhi

Some Lesser Known Facts About Rajiv Gandhi

• Did Rajiv Gandhi smoke: Not Known

• Did Rajiv Gandhi drink alcohol: Not Known

• His teachers at Shiv Niketan School said that he was shy and was inclined towards painting and drawing.

• Trinity College, London offered him a place in Engineering, which he acknowledged and began it the exact same year but did not complete his degree.

• Rajiv fled back to India in 1966 when his mother became the Prime Minister of India. There he joined Delhi flying club and became a trained pilot. Later in 1970, flag carrier airline of India, Air India absorbed him as a pilot.

• Unlike his family, he never wanted to join politics. He joined it only when his mother, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi forced him to do so after the death of his brother in an aircraft crash in 1980 which was being flown by Sanjay himself.

• He contested the general elections in 1980 from his late brother’s constituency, Amethi and became an MP in the lower parliament house (Lok Sabha).

• In 1981, Rajiv was elected as the president of Indian Youth Congress.

• Party wanted him to learn politics and for that, he was named the party general secretary in 1982 and was also given the responsibility to organise the Asian Games that year.

• He took the Prime Minister office on the day his mother was shot dead by two of her own Sikh bodyguards as the retaliation of Operation Blue Star. The assassination was followed by Anti-Sikh riots in the country, on which, Rajiv said, some of them were because of the murder of his mother. “When a tree falls, it is the Earth around that shakes” was the controversial remark he made to justify the mass murders.

• The first thing that Rajiv did after taking up as the PM was passing Anti-defection law which prevented any MP or MLA from joining any other political party until next elections.

• Though there was no mention of economic policy in his 1984 election manifesto, he did give it a try to liberalise the nation’s economy, and for that, he started providing incentives to make private production profitable. He started giving subsidies to the corporate companies to increase industrial production, especially of durable goods. His own party members criticised these moves terming them to be ‘pro-rich’ and ‘pro-city reforms.’

• Rajiv nearly escaped death in 1987, thanks to his reflexes. He himself narrated the incident that when he saw a slight movement through the corner of his eye while inspecting the guard of honour. He said the ducking that he did right at the moment of shooting prevented the bullet from penetrating into his head and that the burnt gunpowder fell on his shoulder below the left ear. The guard who fired the bullet told that his intention was to finish Gandhi for the damage he (Rajiv) has caused to Sri Lanka.

• While he was in the office, the parliament saw a number of changes in the cabinet to which, the opposition leaders said: “The Cabinet change reflects the instability of the Congress Government at the Centre.”

• It was in 1986 when Public Sector telecom companies like MTNL and VSNL were established and developed during Rajiv’s time in office. In the era where telephones were a luxury item and were considered for just rich, Rajiv made it possible for common mass to afford it. The seed of Information Technology (IT) revolution was sowed by none other than Rajiv Gandhi.

• He initiated Operation Black Thunder in 1988 in order to clear the Golden Temple, Amritsar of arms and gunmen. Two groups named National Security Guard and Special Action Group were created, which surrounded the temple for about 10 days during which extremists’ weapons were confiscated. This operation was to bring peace to Punjab.

• May 1991 was the last time India got to listen to him. He was at Sriperumbudur, a village near Chennai, where he was assassinated while campaigning for the Sriperumbudur Lok Sabha Congress candidate. A woman who was later identified as Thenmozhi Rajaratnam approached him in public and greeted him. A belt that had about 700gm of RDX explosives detonated when she bent down to touch Gandhi’s feet.

• Later in 1991, the Indian Government posthumously awarded him Bharat Ratna, the nation’s highest civilian honour. ‘Revolutionary Leader of Modern India’ was another honour awarded posthumously to Rajiv in 2009 at the India Leadership Conclave.

• Indian Government later built the Rajiv Gandhi Memorial (Ninaivagam),  in Sriperumbudur, India, the place where he was assassinated.