It’s been three decades to Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, but his name still crops up every now and then in Indian politics. Talking about the recent examples, in May 2019, he was called ‘Corrupt Number 1’ by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. BJP MP Nalin Kateel also said that Gandhi’s assassination Nathuram Godse had killed ‘one person’ but Rajiv Gandhi had killed thousands. Not to forget the fact that Rajiv Gandhi was India’s youngest Prime Minister at the age of 40 and someone who laid the foundation of modern India. He was the last member from the Gandhi family to hold the position. Before entering politics, Rajiv was a pilot and was never interested in joining politics. Circumstances, his brother Sanjay Gandhi’s death, made him join politics and the rest is history.
On Rajiv Gandhi’s birth anniversary, here’s a look at eight inspirational quotes by him:
1. "Better a brain drain than a brain in the drain."
2. "A responsive administration is tested most at the point of interface between the administration and the people."
3. "India missed the Industrial Revolution; it cannot afford to miss the Computer Revolution."
4. "The world is changing much too fast for us to have a moribund system which is not flexible, which cannot evolve and develop with changes in our society, in our country, as they come about in the world."
5. "Women are the social conscience of a country. They hold our societies together."
6. "India is an Old country but a young nation…I am young and I too have a dream, I dream of India Strong, Independent, Self-Reliant and in the front rank of the nations of the world, in the service of mankind."
7. "Education must be a great equaliser in our society. It must be the tool to level the differences that our various social systems have created over the past thousands of years."
8. "Our task today is to bring India to the threshold of the twenty-first century, free of burden of poverty, legacy of our colonial past, and capable of meeting the rising aspirations of our people."
