he could not conceal his feeling that Rajiv Gandhi would be invincible for the opposition. This was met by an uproar and a demand for withdrawal of the remark by the ruling Congress party members. Santhan alias T. Suthenthiraraja - a Sri Lankan national. He resigned his post as prime minister in November 1989 after the Congress (I) Party was defeated in parliamentary elections, though he remained leader of the party. Darryl Jude Peters: Attendee and observer. [63] According to Pitroda, Gandhi's ability to resist pressure from multi-national companies to abandon his plan to spread telecommunication services has been an important factor in India's development. 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). Shourie, Arun (1992).

[56] Gandhi said: The Government of India believe that, despite some problems and delays, many of which were foreseen but unavoidable in the resolution of an issue of this magnitude and complexity, this Agreement represents the only way of safeguarding legitimate Tamil interests and ensuring a durable peace in Sri Lanka. [78] In their 1994 book The State Within a State, journalists Yevgenia Albats and Catherine Fitzpatrick quoted a letter signed by Viktor Chebrikov, head of the KGB, in the 1980s.
S Nalini Sriharan is the lone surviving member of the five-member squad behind the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and is serving life imprisonment. This was in contrast to Section 125 of the Code. Two groups called National Security Guard and Special Action Group were created; they surrounded the temple in a 10-day siege during which the extremists' weapons were confiscated. [citation needed], In the Jain report, various people and agencies are named as suspected of having been involved in the murder of Rajiv Gandhi. The Narasimha Rao government initially rejected Verma's findings but later accepted it under pressure. [8] 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. Nalini was treated as a class 'A' convict from 10 September 1999 till the privilege was withdrawn in May 2010 after a mobile phone was allegedly recovered from her cell during a surprise check. [59], In May 1988, Gandhi launched the Operation Black Thunder to clear the Golden Temple in Amritsar of arms and gunmen. Many Congress politicians were accused of orchestrating the violence. [7], Gandhi returned to India in 1966, the year his mother became Prime Minister. Arrested on 14 June 1991, she and 25 others were sentenced to death by a special court on 28 January 1998. The final report, submitted in June 1992, concluded that the security arrangements for the former PM were adequate but that the local Congress party leaders disrupted and broke these arrangements.[16]. . This phenomenon attracted attention the world over. [19] At a Boat Club rally 19 days after the assassination, Gandhi said, "Some riots took place in the country following the murder of Indiraji. Jayakumar - the brother in law of Robert Pious. [38] He did so by providing incentives to make private production profitable. His mother, Indira Gandhi was the first and the only woman Prime Minister of India. The judgement further cites the death of Thileepan in a hunger strike and the suicide by 12 LTTE cadres in a vessel in Oct 1987. [15] He won the seat, defeating Lok Dal candidate Sharad Yadav by a margin of 237,000 votes. The judgment while convicting the accused, four of them to death and others to various jail terms, states that absolutely no evidence existed that any one of the conspirators ever desired the death of any Indian other than Rajiv Gandhi, though several people were killed. [75][78] The payments were authorised by a resolution and endorsed by the USSR Council of Ministers, and had been paid since 1971. [76] On 29 December 2011, Ram Jethmalani made an indirect reference to the issue in the Rajya Sabha, calling it a shame that one of India's former Prime Ministers was named by a Swiss magazine. In June 1981 he was elected in a by-election to the Lok Sabha (lower chamber of national parliament) and in the same month became a member of the national executive of the Indian Youth Congress (the youth wing of the Congress Party). The Commission report stated that the year 1989 signified "the perpetuation of the general political trend of indulging the Tamil militants on Indian soil and tolerance of their wide-ranging criminal and anti-national activities". [67], In his book, Unknown Facets of Rajiv Gandhi, Jyoti Basu and Indrajit Gupta, released in November 2013, former CBI director Dr. A P Mukherjee wrote that Gandhi wanted commission paid by defence suppliers to be used exclusively for meeting running expenses of the Congress party. Mohsina Kidwai became the Minister of Railways; she was the only female figure in the cabinet. [93] Nalini regrets the killing of Gandhi and said the real conspirators have not been caught yet. [27], After his swearing-in as Prime Minister, Gandhi appointed his fourteen-member cabinet. I ducked down a little bit in a reflex action. [41] He introduced measures to significantly reduce the Licence Raj after 1990, allowing businesses and individuals to purchase capital, consumer goods and import without bureaucratic restrictions. [92] Later, it was reported that Gandhi's daughter, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, had met Nalini at Vellore Central Prison in March 2008. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Some Indian Muslims treated it as an encroachment upon Muslim Personal Law and protested against it. into the security lapses that contributed to the killing. Rajaratnam had predeceased Thenmozhi by sixteen years. [clarification needed][78], 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.

This day will never be forgotten by the nation. Rajiv Ratna Gandhi (/ˈrɑːdʒiːv ˈɡɑːndiː/ (listen); 20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was an Indian politician who served as the 6th Prime Minister of India from 1984 to 1989. Citing McKinsey as a source, the article stated that Rajiv Gandhi held 2.5 billion Swiss francs in secret Indian accounts in Switzerland. [citation needed] He was one of 33 members of the Indian parliament who were part of the Games' organising committee; sports historian Boria Majumdar writes that being "son of the prime minister he had a moral and unofficial authority" over the others. . Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login).