Rajiv Gandhi jayanti

 Rajiv Gandhi (20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was an Indian statesman and pilot who served as the 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 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 then 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 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. Later that day, Gandhi was appointed prime minister. His leadership was tested over the next few days as organised mobs rioted against the Sikh community, resulting in anti-Sikh massacres in Delhi. That December, the Congress party won the largest Lok Sabha majority to date, 414 seats out of 541. Gandhi's period in office was mired in controversies such as Bhopal disaster, Bofors scandal and Mohd. Ahmed Khan v. Shah Bano Begum. 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). His party was defeated 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. 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.

Early life and career-                                                                                                                              Gandhi with his mother Indira, maternal grandpa Jawaharlal Nehru and brother Sanjay in 1949. Gandhi with his mother Indira Gandhi and brother Sanjay Gandhi in 1971. Rajiv Gandhi was born in Bombay (Mumbai) on 20 August 1944 to Indira and Feroze Gandhi. In 1951, Rajiv and his younger brother Sanjay were admitted to Shiv Niketan school, where the teachers said Gandhi was shy and introverted, and "greatly enjoyed painting and drawing". He then studied at the St. Columba's School, Delhi. Thereafter, he was admitted to the preparatory Welham Boys' School and then moved to The Doon School, Dehradun in 1954, where Sanjay joined him two years later. At Doon, Gandhi's senior was Mani Shankar Aiyar, who later became a prominent member in his inner circle. Gandhi was also educated at the Ecole d'Humanité, an international boarding school in Switzerland. He left the Doon School in 1961 with a second-class certificate, having performed well in his final subjects apart from a pass mark in chemistry.

During Gandhi's final year at Doon, his mother and Albert D'Rozario, the scientific attaché at the Indian High Commission in London, arranged his application to Cambridge University. D'Rozario, who had been a college classmate of Gandhi's father Feroze, recommended that Gandhi should read engineering, and met with Mark Pryor, the Senior Tutor at Trinity College, Cambridge. Pryor arranged for Gandhi's conditional admission to Trinity, contingent on his passing the Mechanical Sciences Qualifying (MSQ) Examination with acceptable marks. After studying for his A-Levels at the sixth form college of Davies, Laing & Dick in London, Gandhi sat the MSQ Examination in March 1962 but was unsuccessful. He passed on his second attempt in June, and was admitted to Trinity on 4 September 1962, joining the college in October. While at Trinity, he joined the Cambridge University Boat Club.

During Gandhi's time at Cambridge, his mother and D'Rozario remained concerned about his well-being. D'Rozario, who along with his wife Sophy often hosted Gandhi at their Finchley home, took Gandhi to task for his inattention towards his studies. Despite his support, Gandhi failed end-of-year exams and left Trinity in 1965 without a degree, though he kept in touch with his former mentor in his retirement. In 1966 he began a course in mechanical engineering at Imperial College London, but also failed to complete it. Gandhi really was not studious enough, as he went on to admit later.

Gandhi returned to India in 1966, the year his mother became prime minister. He went to Delhi and became a member of the Flying Club, where he trained as a pilot. In 1970, he was employed as a pilot by Indian Airlines; unlike Sanjay, he did not exhibit any interest of joining politics. In 1968, after three years of courtship, he married Edvige Antonia Albina Màino, who changed her name to Sonia Gandhi and made India her home. Their first child, a son, Rahul was born in 1970. In 1972, the couple had a daughter, Priyanka, who married Robert Vadra. Gandhi was a friend of Amitabh Bachchan, and was familiar with Bachchan even before he launched his acting career. Rajiv, Sanjay and Bachchan spent time together when Bachchan was student in Delhi University and a resident of New Delhi. In the 1980s, Bachchan entered politics to support Gandhi.

Entry into politics- On 23 June 1980, Rajiv's younger brother Sanjay Gandhi died unexpectedly in an aeroplane crash. At that time, Rajiv Gandhi was in London as part of his foreign tour. Hearing the news, he returned to Delhi and cremated Sanjay's body. As per Agarwal, in the week following Sanjay's death, Shankaracharya Swami Shri Swaroopanand, a saint from Badrinath, visited the family's house to offer his condolences. He advised Rajiv not to fly aeroplanes and instead "dedicate himself to the service of the nation". Seventy members of the Congress party signed a proposal and went to Indira, urging Rajiv to enter politics. Indira told them it was Rajiv's decision whether to enter politics. When he was questioned about it, he replied, "If my mother gets help from it, then I will enter politics". Rajiv entered politics on 16 February 1981, when he addressed a national farmers' rally in Delhi. During this time, he was still an employee of Air India.