Rajiv Gandhi

Rajiv Gandhi
Gandhi in 1987
6th Prime Minister of India
In office 31 October 1984 – 2 December 1989
President	Zail Singh R. Venkataraman
Preceded by	Indira Gandhi
Succeeded by	V. P. Singh
Leader of the Opposition, Lok Sabha
In office 18 December 1989 – 23 December 1990
Prime Minister	V. P. Singh
Preceded by	Jagjivan Ram
Succeeded by	L. K. Advani
President of the Indian National Congress
In office 28 December 1985 – 21 May 1991
Preceded by	Indira Gandhi
Succeeded by	P. V. Narasimha Rao
Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha
In office 17 August 1981 – 21 May 1991
Preceded by	Sanjay Gandhi
Succeeded by	Satish Sharma
Constituency	Amethi
Personal details
Born	Rajiv Gandhi (1944-08-20)20 August 1944 Bombay, Bombay Presidency, British India (present-day Mumbai, Maharashtra, India)
Died	21 May 1991(1991-05-21) (aged 46) Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, India
Manner of death	Assassination
Political party	Indian National Congress
Spouse	Sonia Maino ​ (m. 1968)​
Children	Rahul Priyanka
Parents	Feroze Gandhi (father) Indira Gandhi (mother)
Relatives	Nehru–Gandhi family
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge (dropped out) Imperial College London (dropped out)
Awards	Bharat Ratna (1991)
Monuments	Vir Bhumi
Signature

This article is part of a series about Rajiv Gandhi
Prime Minister of India (1984–1989) Early life and education Eponyms Family Memorial Foundation Assassination Premiership General elections 1984 Ministries First Second Lok Sabha Seventh Eighth National policy Legislations NPE Anti-defection law Muslim Women Act Representation of Women NDPS Prevention of Corruption Act Treaties and accords Assam Accord Non-Nuclear Aggression Agreement Mizoram Peace Accord Missions and agencies BIRF Controversies Bofors scandal Wars and attacks Sri Lankan Civil War Operation Pawan Operation Brasstacks Operation Flowers are Blooming Gallery: Picture, Sound, Video
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Rajiv Gandhi^[1] (Hindi pronunciation: [raːdʒiːʋ ɡaːndʱiː] ^ⓘ; 20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991)^[2][3] was an Indian politician who served as the 6th Prime Minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the assassination of his mother, then–prime minister Indira Gandhi, to become at the age of 40 the youngest Indian prime minister. He served until his defeat at the 1989 election, and then became Leader of the Opposition, Lok Sabha, resigning in December 1990, six months before his own assassination.

Gandhi was not related to the world-famous Mahatma Gandhi. Instead, he was from the politically powerful Nehru–Gandhi family, which had been associated with the Indian National Congress party. For much of his childhood, his maternal grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru was prime minister. Gandhi attended The Doon School, an elite boarding institution, and the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. He returned to India in 1966 and became a professional pilot for the state-owned Indian Airlines. In 1968, he married Sonia Maino; the couple settled in Delhi for a domestic life with their children Rahul and Priyanka. For much of the 1970s, his mother was prime minister and his younger brother Sanjay an MP; despite this, Gandhi remained apolitical.

After Sanjay died in a plane crash in 1980, Gandhi reluctantly entered politics at the behest of his mother. The following year he won his brother's Parliamentary seat of Amethi and became a member of the Lok Sabha—the lower house of India's Parliament. As part of his political grooming, Rajiv was made general secretary of the Congress party and given significant responsibility in organising the 1982 Asian Games.

On the morning of 31 October 1984, his mother (the then prime minister) was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards^[4][5][6][7] Satwant Singh and Beant Singh in the aftermath of Operation Blue Star, an Indian military action to remove Sikh separatist activists from the Golden Temple of the Harmandir Sahib. Later that day, Gandhi was appointed prime minister. His leadership was tested over the next few days as organised mobs of Congress supporters rioted against the Sikh community, resulting in anti-Sikh massacres in Delhi. Sources estimate the number of Sikh deaths at about 8,000–17,000.^[8] That December, the Congress party won the largest Lok Sabha majority to date, 411 seats out of 542. Gandhi's period in office was mired in controversies; perhaps the greatest crises were the Bhopal disaster, Bofors scandal and Mohd. Ahmed Khan v. Shah Bano Begum. Soon after the installation of Gul Shah as chief minister in Jammu and Kashmir, the 1986 Kashmir riots erupted.^[9] In 1988, he reversed the coup in Maldives, antagonising militant Tamil groups such as PLOTE, intervening and then sending peacekeeping troops to Sri Lanka in 1987, leading to open conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). In mid-1987, the Bofors scandal damaged his corruption-free image and resulted in a major defeat for his party in the 1989 election.

Gandhi remained Congress president until the elections in 1991. While campaigning for the elections, he was assassinated by a suicide bomber from the LTTE. His widow Sonia became the president of the Congress party in 1998 and led the party to victory in the 2004 and 2009 parliamentary elections. His son Rahul was a Member of Parliament from 2004 and was the President of the Indian National Congress until 2019 and his daughter Priyanka Vadra was a general secretary of the INC. In 1991, the Indian government posthumously awarded Gandhi the Bharat Ratna, the country's highest civilian award. At the India Leadership Conclave in 2009, the Revolutionary Leader of Modern India award was conferred posthumously on Gandhi.^[10]