Rajiv’s impact

Ritam Banati

Rajiv Gandhi`s birth anniversary on August 20 is celebrated as Sadbhavna Diwas (Harmony Day) in the country. This is to symbolise the late politician as a man who believed in peace. In fact there have been people who on meeting him have been in awe of the calm that his face reflected. When Rajiv was killed, a prominent TV journalist while commemorating him a short while later, called him a clever politician who was however free from any mark of shrewdness. Rajiv Gandhi was one of the few politicians who entered politics by the force of compulsion rather than actual choice. If his brother Sanjay Gandhi had not been killed in a plane crash, young Rajiv may not have contested his first Lok Sabha election from Amethi in 1981. Then again, when his mother Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her bodyguards, Rajiv became the youngest Prime Minister of the world`s largest democracy at the age of 40. He headed the country for five full years from 1984-89 largely riding on a huge sympathy wave. The ex-commercial airline pilot was born on August 20, 1944 in Mumbai and got married to his Italian wife Sonia in 1969 with whom he had Rahul and Priyanka. The family was happy living a private life quite away from politics. But fate had other things in store for him. And the 1984 killing of Indira Gandhi brought son Rajiv to the centrestage of the Indian political scene. Credited with ushering in technological revolution in India, young Rajiv ensured that the country`s rural areas got a well-connected telephone network via the advent of the PCOs. He has also been lauded for launching the IT revolution in India. This is what widened communication links in the country and he also tried to merge the rural and the urban society through the system of indirect communication by creating MTNL in 1986. The fruit of this seed which was laid by Rajiv was to be savoured in the succeeding years. Besides this, the national education policy which was introduced in the same year, aimed at modernizing and expanding higher education programs across India through the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya System. Rajiv`s foreign policy stressed on the strengthening of bilateral relations with the United States of America in an effort to display that India was actually non-aligned in the Cold War era. The late Prime Minister not only had a wholesome vision for his country but he also set out to make a difference. On the economic front during his tenure, he started dismantling the government quotas and tariffs. This was a strategy which was politically as well as socially beneficial. But the Shah Bano case invited criticism when his government usurped the Supreme Court`s authority by amending the Constitution to appease the minorities and thus deny the poor Muslim woman her constitutional right to alimony from her divorced husband. The worst blot on his integrity was after the events that followed the assassination of his mother Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. The country witnessed the dreadful communal riots in 1984 when over 3000 Sikhs got killed in a virtual genocide. When asked, Rajiv had responded, saying "When a big tree fell, the entire earth will shake". This statement was received in bad taste and invited condemnation from various quarters. And lead to an unsuccessful bid on his life also. Even the Bofors scandal was something which damaged his honest credentials. The accusation that was hurled was that his government took bribes from Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi who wanted Indian contracts. However his name was cleared in 2004, much to the satisfaction of his family who appeared immensely happy on camera for the first time perhaps years after his untimely death. Rajiv`s assassination sent shockwaves throughout the nation. He was at Sriperembudur near Chennai at the time to attend an election rally. But before he could give his speech LTTE`s suicide bomber Dhanu killed gruesomely the nation`s much loved Prime Minister. Many say it was because of the Indian Peace Keeping Force which he sent to Sri Lanka and his decision to intervene in a conflict that was an internal problem of the neighbouring country. The IPKF that Rajiv sent to Lanka had as its mission the cessation of hostilities between the Lankan government and the LTTE. This was not violent in nature and was sent to the country under a 1987 accord signed by Rajiv Gandhi and the then Lankan Prime Minister Jayawardene. Under this, the LTTE however did not surrender all its arms and continued with its militant tactics. Among its victims were Jaffna`s Mayor and Jayawardene. However the new premier Premadasa`s policy towards the LTTE was not negative enough. And he did not like the idea of the IPKF on Lankan soil. Rajiv favoured a phased withdrawal of the peace keeping force. The LTTE had by then created a disinformation campaign in India`s state of Tamil Nadu against the alleged atrocities of the Indian Army. But at that time India witnessed a change in government and a coalition came to power under VP Singh who ordered the withdrawal of IPKF from Lanka at once. The LTTE was scared that Rajiv would come to power once again in the election that followed after the downfall in 1990 of the coalition government led by Singh. And would then pursue the same anti-LTTE policies . Therefore they successfully plotted and executed the heinous assassination. The irony was that his mother had shelled out money to train the Tamils in India militarily to fight for their rights violently with Lanka`s Sinhalese majority. Interestingly and ironically the same LTTE whose cause was espoused by his late mother was what was to lead to her own son`s death on May 21, 1991 following her own assassination only seven years back. Today is Rajiv Gandhi’s 65th birth anniversary