How ‘Mr Clean’ was marred by Bofors allegations.
The month of May has seen major transition in Indian politics. First Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s death on 27 May 1964 ended an era. Narendra Modi was sworn in on 26 May 2014 as 14th Prime Minister to herald an era. On 21 May 1991, Rajiv Gandhi, who had reluctantly entered politics in May 1981 (to “help his Mummy”, post the death of her heir apparent, Sanjay Gandhi) was brutally blown up by a human bomb—the first such murder in the annals of mankind—at Sriperumbudur: and thus ended a turbulent decade. He rose to the pinnacle of being the PM with the largest ever mandate (414 seats), was hailed as harbinger of change and “Mr Clean” in 1985 and plummeted in August 1989 to be proclaimed “Bofors chor, commission khor” by the combined Opposition—73 MPs quit Lok Sabha after a CAG report questioned the government’s handling of the Bofors probe. He ended up winning 197 seats in the 9th general elections and quit as PM on 2 December 1989.
As in 1977, the Congress “vanvas” in 1989 did not last long and after the fall of the V.P. Singh government and decimation of the successor Chandrashekhar regime, elections were again held in 1991—and a rejuvenated Congress seemed to be heading back to power with Rajiv Gandhi at the helm when the bizarre tragedy struck and ended Congress party’s golden era. The party is still run by his family, under whose tutelage Congress is now unable to win the mandated 10% of Lok Sabha seats to be officially deemed to be the Opposition.
Rajiv Gandhi was “drawn into the convoluted political machine that was the Congress” (to quote one of his confidants’ tribute in 1991) reluctantly. He had been an Indian Airlines pilot since 1970 and maintained a subjacent profile, while his brother Sanjay Gandhi (in the words of his mother at the Guwahati AICC, 1976 November) “stole the thunder” of Congress party. A happy family man, it was the talk of town that his spouse, Sonia, was “dead-set against” his plunging into politics. The clamour to commandeer him was first heard on 14 December 1980 at an Indian Youth Congress (IYC) rally in Delhi’s Ajmal Khan Park held to commemorate Sanjay Gandhi’s 34th birth anniversary (the first after his death) in which 36-year-old Rajiv Gandhi appeared with his mother on the dais. Youth leaders led by IYC president Ghulam Nabi Azad urged him to “lead them”. Indira Gandhi chided IYC for its “craze” for searching a leader: “All of you are leaders and should develop the leadership within you”. This did not deter IYC National Council from passing a unanimous resolution on 1 May 1981 urging Rajiv Gandhi to “enter politics and lead the Indian youth”. IYC urged that he be requested to contest the Amethi Lok Sabha bypoll necessitated by his brother’s death. On 4 May, AICC General Secretary Vasantdada Patil moved a resolution in the CWC proposing him as the Amethi candidate; on 12 May, accompanied by his spouse, UP CM Viswanath Pratap Singh, cousin Arun Nehru and a host of Congress luminaries he went to Sultanpur and filed his nomination. He won hands down—the combined Opposition candidate, Sharad Yadav of Lok Dal, managed only 21,000 votes. (Ironically, eight years later, V.P. Singh and Arun Nehru acted as the fulcrum of his downfall on Bofors allegations.)
The choice of May 1981 as the poll date had a macabre background. Sanjay Gandhi’s widow, Maneka, was to turn 25 (the mandated age for Lok Sabha poll) on 26 August. She had avowed her intention to inherit her husband’s mantle. As editor of Surya magazine she had been a political consort too—her expose of Jagjivan Ram’s son, Suresh Ram’s escapades, the Jaguar deal, inter alia had embarrassed the Janata regime. Thus ostracized Maneka later left the family home and joined opposition ranks—she and her son Feroze Varun are BJP MPs now. The Sonia-Maneka slugfest provided grist to magazine cover stories and the family feud in the PM House became hot potato in the early 1980s.
Sanjay Gandhi’s abrasiveness had earned him many critics. Rajiv Gandhi’s affable nature reaped admiration. As he was surrounded by his Doon School buddies, Lutyens Delhi compared “Rajiv’s Doons to Sanjay’s goons”. Maneka playing footsie with Sangh Parivar (she sold Surya to an RSS member) and walking out of the Gandhi home also caused Congresspersons to rally round Rajiv Gandhi happily. The mantle fell on Rajiv Gandhi’s shoulders when his mother was assassinated by her own security guards on 31 October 1984. (Despite his humungous tragedy caused by intelligence and security transgression, the system was not streamlined and a gargantuan intelligence-security miscue resulted in Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination on 21 May 1991.) He advanced the elections by a few months and rode on the sympathy wave to create history, surpassing Nehru and Indira’s electoral record: His tally of 414 remains ironclad till date.
One of his first acts was to promulgate an anti-defection law. Stung by the malaise of defections since 1967, Indian polity hailed the move of “Mr Clean”. (In effect he had mothballed his massive majority from possible poachers; alas, it could not sustain and ensure another term for him: index of Opposition unity in 1989 was high; next only to 1977.) His successful visit to the US where President Ronald Reagan applauded the young leader added to his stature. The Punjab and Assam accords of 1985 shored up his image. His no holds barred assault on “brokers of power and influence” in Congress, who he said “had converted a mass movement to a feudal oligarchy” at the Congress centenary session in Bombay (now Mumbai) in December 1985 took him to the zenith. He was hailed as the “messiah of new modern India”.
Then came the downfall—post April 1986 the Shah Bano case where he flip-flopped and gave in to the conservatives and the very “brokers” he had arraigned. Shah Bano gave the BJP, reduced to two Lok Sabha seats in 1984, a godsent handle. The talk of “vote bank politics”, which haunts Congress to this day, was kick-started. The opening of the locks of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya, an obtrusive attempt to placate Hindu chauvinists, backfired. The advantage went ultimately to BJP. Thus, by end 1986, Rajiv Gandhi had alienated both Hindus and Muslims alike and the albatross of “appeasement and vote bank politics” hung round his neck.
In January 1987, he summarily dismissed the Foreign Secretary, A.P. Venkateswaran, from service at a press conference. Chagrined, the Indian Foreign Service Association took the unrivalled step of passing a resolution questioning the PM. “Operation Brasstacks” on the India-Pak border, a fancy of his Doon buddy Arun Singh, brought the nation to the brink of war, which was defused thanks to diplomacy.
Amidst these goof-ups there were highs too. In 1962, India under Nehru had lost the China war. In 1965, in the Lal Bahadur Shastri era the successful thwarting of Pakistan’s “Operation Gibraltar” had provided post-China succour. Indira Gandhi’s 1971 Bangladesh triumph had catapulted India as a “medium power”. Rajiv Gandhi put on anvil the present standing of India as an ally sought by the West and Quad nations. In 1986, at the request of Seychelles’ President France Albert Rene, Indian Navy’s “Operation Flowers are blooming” thwarted a coup attempt in the strategic Indian Ocean island.
In 1987, the Army reoccupied the Quaid post in Siachen on the Pakistan border through its “Operation Rajiv”. In 1988, India attempted its first aerial rapid deployment by despatching 1,500 troops to help Maldives President Mamoon Abdul Gayoom foil a coup d’etat. Addressing the UN General Assembly in June 1988, Rajiv Gandhi put forth the plea for a world free from nuclear weapons—an initiative which catapulted India’s standing.
Rajiv Gandhi initiated the Information Technology revolution, which has hurled India. Space research and connectivity—a vibrant, affordable and easily accessible telecom network are his handmaidens.
It was his decision to sign the Sri Lanka Accord in 1987 and the sending in of Indian Peace Keeping Force to sort out that island’s Tamil imbroglio, which caused immense damage to him politically and personally, resulting in his brutal assassination on 21 May 1991 in the midst of Lok Sabha elections. On 22 May, according to the report of the Justice J.S. Verma commission, the then chief of Intelligence Bureau informed the Union Cabinet that a video of the last moments at Sriperembudur had been recovered. Later, this video was not made available to the investigators. Verma commission had recommended action against the then Cabinet Secretary, Home Secretary and IB chief for this “lapse”. There is no action taken report thereafter. The needle of suspicion had veered towards Tamil Nadu politicians, including those of DMK—today Sonia Gandhi-led Congress is a junior partner of DMK in that state. Bofors allegations have not been conclusively proved. Rajiv Gandhi’s turbulent decade, marred by character assassination, ended in a brutal assassination, which, according to members of the SIT which probed Sriperembudur, has not been probed to its last detail.