In a culture where children take up the profession of their father, her becoming a politician was seen as natural and acceptable.
As Prabhakaran was leaving his house, Rajiv Gandhi called his son Rahul and asked him to fetch his (Gandhi's) bulletproof jacket. He put the jacket on Prabhakaran's back and remarked with his usual charming smile: "Take care of yourself."
An upcoming book by investigative journalist Chitra Subramaniam claims that senior Indian bureaucrats "tutored" Bofors officials in a secret meeting in 1987 on how to absolve then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi of all blame in the infamous bribery scandal. The book, "Boforsgate," details how the meeting was held to cover up the alleged Rs 64 crore bribe in a Rs 1,437 crore deal for Howitzer guns, and how Indian officials provided advice on concealing information from investigators. Subramaniam's revelations are based on documents provided to her by the Swedish head of police investigating the Bofors case.
A revealing excerpt from Mani Shankar Aiyar's fascinating new book, The Rajiv I Knew.
Rahul Gandhi pays tribute to his father, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, on his 79th birth anniversary on the banks of the Pangong Lake in Ladakh, August 20, 2023.
'Some of his decisions were not so good, but his intentions were always guided by a deep national interest.'
Gianiji had crafted his moves with the meticulous planning of a chess grandmaster. He did not know whether a checkmate was feasible, as his time was running out, but he wanted Rajiv Gandhi to smell the fear of loss. A fascinating excerpt from K C Singh's The Indian President: An Insider's Account of the Zail Singh Years.
Rajiv Gandhi met Indian Airline brass, was shown financial details against norms.
The idea of weaponization got a fillip from an unexpected quarter. In the last week of October 1985, Rajiv met US President Ronald Reagan. Reagan told Rajiv, 'Pakistan has already made a bomb.' When Rajiv started talking about disarmament, the US president cut him short, 'Don't talk theory, think of your own protection.'
A June 27 briefing document about the call says: 'Overall impression was that Gandhi was highly excited, perturbed and concerned, but highly appreciative of the call.'
'She was not a yes person. She would tell the truth and her feelings to Indira Gandhi, and Indira Gandhi would value her opinion. The same was the case with Rajiv Gandhi who would value her opinion.'
The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted bail to A G Perarivalan, serving life sentence in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
Rajiv Gandhi would have turned 72 on August 20. Had he lived. On a humid night 25 years ago, the former prime minister of India was murdered in cold blood by an LTTE suicide bomber. Neena Gopal was an eyewitness to the assassination, and in this exclusive extract from her new book, The Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, she reveals for the first time what she saw in Sriperumbudur that night.
We felt impelled to ask ourselves, what if he had survived May 21, 1991? He would have turned 66 on Friday, yes, but what would he have looked like?
The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the release of A G Perarivalan, who has served over 30 years of life term in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
Opposition leaders have criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to the nation, calling it politically motivated and a misuse of official platforms during ongoing elections.
The Ministry of External Affairs informed a parliamentary committee that nearly 1,000 Indians remain in Iran amidst the West Asia conflict, and 23,000 students in the Gulf region missed CBSE exams due to the turmoil.
'He told senior journalists a few days after the Babri Masjid demolition, 'Jo hua theek hua. Maine isliye hone diya ki BJP ki rajniti hamesha ke liye khatam ho jaye.'
No one can capture an inch of Indian land till the Narendra Modi government is in power, Home Minister Amit Shah said Tuesday and claimed the actual reason behind the Congress disrupting Lok Sabha proceedings was not the clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers but a question on the cancellation of Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) registration of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.
LTTE leaders has been barred by SL court to travel out of the country
There is something that makes the Uthiramerur assembly constituency in Kancheepuram district special.
'We were in a heavily nuclearised environment. China had tested for Pakistan in the 1980s and helped their missile programme stay just one step behind us.'
'Narendra Modi -- a man with deep and vital experience of Indian politics -- has seen the BJP lose many elections between 1975 and 2015, and with every defeat, he learned lessons that made sure he would never allow his party to be defeated so easily again.'
The Centre said the remission of sentence will have "international ramifications".
The Congress claimed that dynastic politics exists across party lines and also hailed the Nehru-Gandhi family's leadership.
10 things you must know about the most famous foreign correspondent in India who made Bharat his home.
'It is a well-entrenched belief in the downtrodden, the deprived sections, that Modi cares for them. He has come to occupy their mindspace as their messiah.' 'And it is this deprived, dispossessed section that is powering his electoral performance, breaking ancient shibboleths and shackles like religion and caste and region and language,' argues Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
There are various factors that should feature in judging the fate of Rajiv Gandhi's killers, says Shubhashis Gangopadhyay
Modi wants the BJP to gets an additional 10% of the vote share from what it won in 2019. Plans are afoot to get new faces to replace MPs with poor chances of winning. Sources say more than 100 MPs are like to be axed, notes Modi biographer Ramesh Menon.
'I give a lot of credit to Rahul Gandhi for standing up and fighting it for a long time and surviving, nobody else would have been able to survive'
Suresh Kalmadi brought several top-class events to India including the 2003 Afro Asian Games, the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games, the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
Because of his proximity to Indira Gandhi, he was able to intervene directly at the level of the PMO, which he did in the days leading up to the partition of Pakistan in 1971 when he transferred crucial information about Pakistan's moves via information handed to him by an East Pakistani diplomat in Poland where he was posted.
Mani Shankar Aiyar says the Congress party and not then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was responsible for unlocking the Babri Masjid gates and claimed that the "Bharatiya Janata Party-planted" Arun Nehru was behind it.
He chose what was best for India, not for himself. Few can deny that when god took Shastri away so soon, they did India an injustice, points out Harishchandra.
'The CBI did a wonderful job of tracking down the killers, but at the end of the day, all the hard work went for a toss.' 'If we had caught them alive, the operation would have been successful completely.'
Sitiveni Rabuka's visit to New Delhi marks a major shift in India-Fiji ties as the former coup leader who once expelled India's envoy now returns as an honoured guest, explains Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Diwan Arun Nanda, founder of Rediffusion and one of India's last great admen, changed the industry with memorable campaigns, political ads, and a rare mix of sharp strategy and creativity.
"It is high time India traded dynasty for meritocracy. This would require fundamental reforms, from imposing legally mandated term limits to requiring meaningful internal party elections, together with a concerted effort to educate and empower the electorate to choose leaders based on merit," Tharoor said.
Lionel Messi's much-anticipated 'GOAT Tour to India 2025' just got bigger with Hyderabad added as the new southern leg stop to ensure fans in the region are not "deprived" of seeing their idol following the cancellation of Argentina's proposed friendly in Kerala.
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