Biography on rajiv gandhi college

Rajiv Gandhi: A Biography

Rajiv Ratna Gandhi was an Indian politician who served as the Prime Minister of India from 1984 until November 1989, following the assassination of his mother, Indira Gandhi. He was born on August 20, 1944, in Bombay, India, to parents Indira and Feroze Gandhi. Two years later, his younger brother Sanjay was born. Both children received an excellent education, first at Doon School in Dehradun and later at Imperial College in London. They eventually studied engineering at the University of Cambridge.

Upon returning to India, Rajiv Gandhi obtained his pilot's license and began working for Indian Airlines in 1968. In June 1981, Rajiv was elected to the Lok Sabha (the lower house of Parliament), and a month later, he joined the executive committee of the Youth Congress.

On October 31, 1984, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by Sikh terrorists. On the same day, Rajiv took the oath as the new Prime Minister of the country. Shortly thereafter, he also became the leader of the Indian National Congress, and under his leadership, the party won the parliamentary elections in December 1984.

During his tenure as Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi implemented various measures to reform the governance system and liberalize the country's economy. He also tried to tackle separatism in Punjab and Kashmir, preferring peaceful means over open confrontation. However, the effectiveness of his governance declined sharply after a series of financial scandals involving members of his administration. In November 1989, Rajiv Gandhi resigned as the Prime Minister of India, but retained the overall leadership of the Indian National Congress.

On May 21, 1991, Rajiv Gandhi was conducting pre-election activities near Madras. During a meeting with voters, a woman approached him with a large basket of flowers, purportedly intended for Gandhi. When she was very close to him, an explosion occurred. Seventeen mutilated bodies, including Rajiv Gandhi and the woman suicide bomber, who was later discovered to be connected to Tamil separatists, were found at the site of the tragedy.

In 1998, an Indian court convicted 26 participants in this terrorist attack. According to the convicted individuals, who were indeed Tamil terrorists from Sri Lanka, the explosion was their retaliation against Rajiv Gandhi for ordering the deployment of Indian peacekeeping forces in Sri Lanka in 1987 to combat Tamil separatists.