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Rajiv Gandhi
Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He became Prime Minister, following his mother and former Primer Minister, Indira Gandhi’s assassination.
Rajiv Gandhi adopted policies that were significantly different from Indira Gandhi's socialist economic policies. He improved bilateral relations with the United States and expanded economic and scientific cooperation. He increased government support for science and technology and associated industries, and reduced import quotas, taxes and tariffs on technology-based industries, especially computers, airlines, defence and telecommunications. He worked towards reducing the red tape in the government and towards freeing administration from bureaucratic tangles. In 1986, he announced a national education policy to modernize and expand higher education programs across India.
In 1987, Rajiv Gandhi formed the Indian Peace Keeping Force was formed to end the Sri Lankan Civil War between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan military. The India- Sri Lanka Accord that awarded a degree of regional autonomy to the Tamil people was also signed, though it was rejected by the LTTE, leading to more conflict. Opposition parties of Sri Lanka and as well as LTTE, opposed the acts of the military contingent. However, Rajiv Gandhi refused to withdraw the IPKF. One of the other achievements of his governance was that he managed to authorize an extensive police and Army campaign to contain terrorism in Punjab. Punjab was facing many problems at the time due to the fact that the Sikh militants in the state were demanding the creation of a separate state called Khalistan.
Rajiv Gandhi’s clean image was tarnished after news of his involvement in the Bofors scandal. The scandal involved alleged payoffs by the Swedish Bofors arms company to the government in order to let them supply India with artillery. The scandal rapidly eroded Rajiv Gandhi’s popularity and was one of the reasons for his defeat the 1989 general elections. A coalition government came to power but internal contradictions within the coalition caused the government to collapse. Consequently, general elections were called in 1991. While campaigning for elections in Tamil Nadu, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991 by a suicide bomber belonging to LTTE. His wife Sonia Gandhi later joined Indian politics and became the president of the Congress party in 1998.
