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At 41, Rajiv Gandhi was the youngest Prime Minister of India and perhaps
one of the youngest elected heads of Government in the world. His mother,
Indira Gandhi, was eight years older when she first became Prime Minister
in 1966. His illustrious grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, was 58 when he
started his 17 year long innings as free India’s first Prime Minister.
Such an impressive start as the leader of 700 millions Indians would have
been remarkable under any circumstance. What makes it even more so,
indeed unique, is that Mr. Gandhi was a late and reluctant entrant into
politics even though he belonged to an intensely political family that served
India for generations, both during the freedom struggle and afterwards.
He was born on August 20, 1944, in Bombay. He was just three when India
became independent and his grandfather became Prime Minister. His
parents moved to New Delhi from Lucknow. His father, Feroze Gandhi,
became an M.P. He earned a reputation as a fearless and hard working
Parliamentarian.
Rajiv Gandhi spent his early childhood with his grandfather in the Teen
Murti House, where Indira Gandhi served as the Prime Minister’s hostess.
He briefly went to school at Welham Prep in Dehradun, but soon moved to
the residential Doon School in the Himalayan foothills. There he made
many lifelong friendships and was also joined by his younger brother,
Sanjay.
After leaving school, Mr. Gandhi went to Trinity College, Cambridge, but
shifted to the Imperial College, London, soon enough. He did a course in
mechanical engineering. He really was not interested in “mugging for his
exams”, as he was to say later.
By this time it was clear that politics did not interest him as a career.
According to his classmates, his bookshelves were lined with volumes on
science and engineering, not works on philosophy, politics or history.
Music, however, has had a place of pride in his interests. He liked Western
and Hindustani classical music as well as modern music. Other interests
included photography and amateur radio.
His greatest passion, however, was always flying. No wonder then that on
returning home from England, he quickly passed the entrance examination
to the Delhi Flying Club, went on to obtain a commercial pilot’s licence and
soon became a pilot in Indian Airlines, the domestic national carrier.
Congress lost the 1989 elections and Mr. Gandhi became the leader of the
opposition. The National Front collapsed in early 1991 and elections were
announced in May, 1991. He died in a tragic bomb blast on 21st May, 1991
at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu.