The 38 year old Rahul Gandhi (born on June 19, 1970), President of the Indian National Congress, is the son of Sonia Gandhi and the former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi (Aug 20, 1944 – May 21, 1991). He was only eighteen when his grandmother, Indira Gandhi (Nov 19, 1917 – Oct 31, 1984) was assassinated by her security guards. At the age of 21, he witnessed another gruesome murder of his father by the militants of LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam). Rahul Gandhi appears to be in no hurry to become the next Prime Minister of India. Now what is wrong with that?
There are many of us in the private sector (self-employed), who resented the selection of Indira Gandhi as the fourth Prime Minister of India on January 24, 1966. We felt at the time, that she was the least qualified candidate to be a Prime Minister. Before us, our parents were not exactly thrilled with Mahatma Gandhi’s imposition in making Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (Nov 14, 1889 – May 27, 1964) the first Prime Minister of India. The generation before us felt that Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was a better candidate to be the first Prime Minister in 1947. The main opposition to the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty existed because of their socialistic ideas, alien to a free-market Indian ethos. That was a long time back.
Indira Gandhi was a very controversial Prime Minister. She was admired for her guts in times of war. She was resented because of her authoritarian rule, including a brief but extremely contentious, ‘State of Emergency’. She was politically far left to the center and believed in big government. Because of these traits, she was defeated in the 1977 general elections. She was the first sitting Prime Minister in 30 years to be rejected by the people of India. She learnt her lesson fast and came back to power in 1980 with the fall of the Janata Government. She was assassinated on October 31, 1984 because of Sikh agitation. Suddenly there was a power vacuum and her son and heir apparent, Rajiv Gandhi became the next Prime Minister. For some of us this was a blow to our democratic instincts. This was truly a dynastic rule.
The people of India gave Rajiv Gandhi the benefit of doubt. He appeared honest but tentative. Soon he called for the General Elections, he received the sympathy vote and for the first time, congress received 411 seats in the parliament. This was a super majority and he could do what ever he wanted. He started off well, dismantling the License-Permit-Raj his mother had built. But too much power corrupted him and his government fast. He became the darling of the West but lost the confidence of India. He was defeated in 1989 elections. Rajiv Gandhi was killed on May 21, 1991 while campaigning.
Filed under: Indian Politics Tagged: | Assassinated, Authoritarian Rule, Controversial, Democratic Instincts, Dynastic-rule, Dynasty, Fourth Prime Minister of India, free-market, General Elections, India, Indian Ethos, Indian National Congress, Indira Gandhi, Janata Government, January 24th 1966, June 19th 1970, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, License-Permit-Raj, LTTE, Mahatma Gandhi, May 21st 1991, Nehru-Gandhi, October 31st 1984, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, President, Prime Minister, Prime Minister of India, Private Sector, Rahul Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Security Guards, self-employed, Sikh-agitation, Sonia Gandhi, State of Emergency, Super-Majority, Sympathy Vote, West
