Every year on May 21, India pays homage to the former prime minister and Congress leader Rajiv Gandhi, who was assassinated during a political campaign, 31 years ago on May 21.
A Bharat Ratna recipient, Gandhi was the sixth prime minister of the country. He took charge of the office in 1984 following the assassination of his mother Indira Gandhi and became the youngest ever to serve the office. He was 40-year-old at that time.
Hailing from the politically powerful Nehru–Gandhi family, Gandhi was born in 1944 in Bombay. His maternal grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Prime Minister of India.
In 1984, after the assassination of his mother, Rajiv took over the reins of the Congress.
In 1987, Rajiv had sent the Indian Peacekeeping Force to Sri Lanka to help end the civil war and this angered the Tamil population there.
He was assassinated by a female LTTE suicide bomber at a public meeting in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu on 21 May 1991.
Prime Minister of India
On the morning of 31 October 1984, his mother was assassinated by one of her bodyguards; 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.
That December, Congress party won the largest Lok Sabha majority to date, 411 seats out of 542. Rajiv 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 installing Gul Shah as Chief Minister in Jammu and Kashmir, the 1986 Kashmir Riots erupted.
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.
Assassination
Rajiv Gandhi's last public meeting was on 21 May 1991, at Sriperumbudur, a village approximately 40 km (25 mi) from Madras (present-day 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 – a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam – 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 14 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. Gandhi's mutilated body was airlifted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi for post-mortem, reconstruction and embalming.
A state funeral was held for Gandhi on 24 May 1991; it was telecast live and was attended by dignitaries from over 60 countries. He was cremated at Veer Bhumi, on the banks of the river Yamuna near the shrines of his mother Indira Gandhi, brother Sanjay Gandhi, and grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru.
