Rajiv Gandhi, A Global Thinker

On 21^st May, 2007, it was the 16^th death Anniversary of Late Shri Rajiv Gandhi. He is known for being India’s Youngest and Dynamic Prime Minister, who was the man with a ‘vision’. What was this vision and what was it that was foreseen by Mr. Gandhi?

Rajiv Gandhi was a modern thinker having a foresight of a great nation which would be the major player in a geopolitical system and world economy. It was evident with the fact that the moment he became the Prime minister of India in 1984, he began dismantling the License Raj - government quotas, tariffs and permit regulations on economic activity. One of his major contributions is modernization of the telecommunications industry, the education system and he was also responsible for expanded science and technology initiatives and improved relations with the United States. Even more than two decades back, he was a global thinker who wanted India to be on par with all the major economies of the world. Rajiv Gandhi was not a natural politician or a Bureaucrat but he was a ‘Technocrat’. He always craved to increase investment in to modern technologies.

The strange thing about Rajiv Gandhi is that he was not a man with an extoordinary academics or qualifications. Till the death of his brother Sanjay Gandhi in 1980 and later assassination of his mother Indira Gandhi in 1984, he had never shown any skyward ambitions towards Indian Politics. He was an heir of the political legacy of his Illustrious Family after the death of Indira Gandhi.

It is believed that unlike his grandfather Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru and his mother Indira Gadhi, Rajiv Gandhi lacked the acumen of a Brilliant Politician due to the lack of intellectual capacity of a luminous Politician. It is said that his contribution to the positive growth of the politics and of the nation is meager and his inept and inexperienced handling of party affairs were responsible for the decline of Congress Party. Also, Rajiv Gandhi’s decision to send Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to Sri Lanka in an endeavor to help the government there to eradicate militants agitating for a separate Tamil homeland was a huge mistake which ultimately resulted in his assassination by LTTE. But I believe that these are nothing but apocryphal hypothesis of people who never agreed with his ideology of a progressive and dynamic nation. Rajiv Gandhi was a representative of the youth of the country. I still remember that poignant day of 21^st May, 2007 when he was assassinated as I was an eight year old kid. Evidently at that time, my knowledge of politics and sociology was prosaic and minimal. But I looked up to Rajiv Gandhi, as a great leader who could steer this country out of the problems that it was facing. Although he could not get much opportunity, but whatever he did is still visible in this age of globalization. May be this is what he desired of and may be his imagination was even beyond what we have achieved today. But one thing that I am sure of is that his death was a major blow to this nation and with his loss we lost a global thinker who always thought ahead of his time. It will be a great exercise to imagine what would have been the place of India in world politics if Rajiv Gandhi was still alive. The only thing that can be done is to think, think and think!