Rajiv gandhi

It is about a political minister in India

1. Rajiv Gandhi
6th Prime Minister
of India
In office
31 October 1984 – 2 December
1989

2. Early Life
He was born on 20 August 1944. His father
was Feroze Gandhi.
His mother was Indira Gandhi.

3. By the time of his father's death, Rajiv was away at a private
boarding school for boys: initially at the Welham Boys' School
and later The Doon School, both located at Dehradun,
Uttarakhand. He was sent to London in 1961 to study his
A-levels. In 1962, he was offered a place at
Trinity College, Cambridge to study engineering. Rajiv stayed at
Cambridge until 1965 and left the university without a degree
mainly because he did not appear in the final Tripos
examinations. In 1966, he was offered a place at the
Imperial College London. He again left Imperial College after a
year without a degree.
Education

4. Marriage
In the January of 1965, he met Italian
Antonia (Sonia) Maino in Varsity
restaurant in Cambridge. Antonia was
studying English at Lennox School of
Languages (which was not associated
with the University of Cambridge). Rajiv
and Sonia were married in 1968 in
India.

5. Rajeev as pilot
Rajiv began working
for Indian Airlines as
a professional pilot
while his mother
became Prime
Minister in 1966.

6. More about family
In 1970, his wife gave birth to their first child
Rahul Gandhi, and in 1972, to Priyanka
Gandhi, their second. Even as Rajiv
remained aloof in politics, his younger
brother Sanjay became a close advisor to
their mother.

7. Entry into politics
Following his younger brother's death in 1980,
Gandhi was pressured by Indian National
Congress party politicians and his mother to
enter politics. He and his wife were both
opposed to the idea, and he even publicly stated
that he would not contest for his brother's seat.
Nevertheless, he eventually announced his
candidacy for Parliament. He fought his first
election from Amethi Loksabha seat. In this by-
election, he defeated Lokdal leader Sharad
Yadav by more than 200,000 votes.

8. Assassination of Indira Gandhi
Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of
India, was assassinated on 31 October
1984. She was killed by two of her Sikh
bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant
Singh, to avenge the military attack on the
Harmandir Sahib (Sikhism's holiest shrine,
also called "The Golden Temple") during
Operation Blue Star.

9. Death of Indira Gandhi
Indira Gandhi was rushed to AIIMS
immediately after the shooting. She
died one hour later, undergoing surgery
to remove 7 of the 20 bullets that
wounded her. She was cremated on 3
November, near Raj Ghat (a memorial to
Mahatma Gandhi) at an area named
Shakti Sthal.

10. Gandhi was in West Bengal when his mother was
assassinated on 31 October 1984 by her bodyguards.
Top Congress leaders, as well as President Zail Singh
pressed Rajiv to become India's Prime Minister, within hours
of his mother's assassination by two of her Sikh bodyguards.
Soon after assuming office, Rajiv asked President Zail Singh
to dissolve Parliament and hold fresh elections, as the Lok
Sabha completed its five year term. Rajiv Gandhi also
officially became the President of the Congress party. The
Congress party won a landslide victory - with the largest
majority in history of Indian Parliament - giving Gandhi
absolute control of government. Rajiv thus revived hopes
and enthusiasm amongst the Indian public for the Congress.
Rajiv Gandhi – Prime Minister of India

11. Economic policy
He increased government support for science
and technology and associated industries, and
reduced import quotas, taxes and tariffs on
technology-based industries, especially
computers, airlines, defence and
telecommunications. He introduced measures
significantly reducing the License Raj, allowing
businesses and individuals to purchase capital,
consumer goods and import without bureaucratic
restrictions.

12. Foreign policy
Gandhi began leading in a direction significantly
different from his mother's socialism. He
improved bilateral relations with the United
States — and expanded economic and scientific
cooperation. During his state visit to the Soviet
Union he met with Premier Nikolai
Tikhonov, Andrey Gromyko of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
Mikhail Gorbachev.

13. Security policy
The Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord was signed
by Rajiv Gandhi and the Sri Lankan President
J.R. Jayewardene, in Colombo on 29 July
1987. The very next day, on 30 July 1987,
Rajiv Gandhi was assaulted on the head with a
rifle butt by a young Sinhalese naval cadet
named Vijayamunige Rohana de Silva, while
receiving the honor guard. The intended
assault on the back of Rajiv Gandhi's head
however glanced off his shoulder.

14. Currency crisis
During the late 1980s, Gandhi's
administration failed to slow the 30
percent fall in the value of the
Indian Rupee from 12 to 17 to the
US Dollar.

15. Bofors scandal
Gandhi's finance minister, V. P. Singh, uncovered compromising
details about government and political corruption, to the
consternation of Congress leaders. Transferred to the Defence
ministry, Singh uncovered what became known as the Bofors
scandal, involving tens of millions of dollars - concerned alleged
payoffs by the Swedish Bofors arms company through Italian
businessman and Gandhi family associate Ottavio Quattrocchi,
in return for Indian contracts. Upon the uncovering of the
scandal, Singh was dismissed from office, and later from
Congress membership. Rajiv Gandhi himself was later personally
implicated in the scandal when the investigation was continued
by Narasimhan Ram and Chitra Subramaniam of The Hindu
newspaper. This shattered his image as an honest politician;
he was posthumously cleared over this allegation in 2004,
however.

16. Shah Bano case
In 1985, the Supreme Court of India ruled
in favor of Muslim divorcee Shah Bano,
declaring that her husband should give
her alimony. Muslim fundamentalists in
India treated it as an encroachment in
Muslim Personal Law and protested
against it. Gandhi agreed to their
demands.

17. Assassination
Rajiv Gandhi's last public meeting was at Sriperumbudur on
21 May 1991, in a village approximately 30 miles from
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, where he was assassinated while
campaigning for the Sriperumbudur Lok Sabha Congress
candidate. The assassination was carried out by the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) suicide bomber
Thenmozhi Rajaratnam also known as Gayatri and Dhanu. At
10:10 p.m., the assassin Dhanu approached him in a public
meeting and greeted the former Prime Minister. She then bent
down to touch his feet (an expression of respect among
Indians) and detonated a belt laden with 700 grams of RDX
explosive tucked under her dress. The former Prime Minister
along with many others were killed in the explosion that
followed.

18. Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXHKJdVrAPQ&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fresults
%3Fsearch_query%3Drajiv%2Bgandhi%2Bassassination%26aq%3Df&has_verified=1

19. Rajiv Gandhi Memorial
The Rajiv Gandhi Memorial
was built at the site recently
and is one of the major
tourist attractions to the
small industrial town.

20. Dreams coming trueDreams coming true
Rajeev Gandhi is survived by his wife Rajeev Gandhi is survived by his wife
and two children. His wife Mrs. Sonia and two children. His wife Mrs. Sonia
Gandhi (President, Congress Party) is Gandhi (President, Congress Party) is
working tirelessly to fulfill the working tirelessly to fulfill the
dreams of Rajiv Gandhi. His son dreams of Rajiv Gandhi. His son
Rahul Gandhi and daughter Priyanka Rahul Gandhi and daughter Priyanka
are supporting their mother.are supporting their mother.