What I wrote after Rajiv Gandhi’s death has eerily come close to being a reality
Dynastic succession was not part of the former prime minister's political DNA.
It was just past 11.00 pm on May 21, 1991 when I received the phone call. The chilling words: "Rajiv Gandhi is dead."
More information trickled in. There had been a suicide bomb attack at Sriperumbudur, a temple town 42km from Chennai, dedicated to Ramanujacharaya, the propounder of Vishishta Advaita - the philosophy of separate identities. Rajiv was in Sriperumbudur to address a campaign rally in the middle of the 1991 Lok Sabha election.
I called up David Davidar, editor and publisher of Penguin India. He too was stunned by the news. David, who had worked with my media firm Sterling Newspapers for nearly five years before leaving to launch Penguin in India, suggested I take the early morning flight out to Chennai.
I was then working on a biography of Rajiv Gandhi for Penguin. David and I had planned to publish it during Rajiv's second term as prime minister, after the election results were announced. The Congress' victory was obviously not guaranteed but after eleven months of VP Singh's prime ministership and five months of Chandra Shekhar as prime minister - propped up by the Congress - it was a distinct possibility.
I reached Chennai the next morning. A bone-jarring auto ride took me to Sriperumbudur just before noon. The area around the suicide attack was a scene of devastation.
I described the assassination in my biography:
"For the LTTE hit team, Rajiv's progress towards the dais was excruciatingly slow. Finally, he began walking across the red carpet towards the stage. Dhanu positioned herself in the queue behind three others waiting to garland Rajiv. Shubha remained at the back in the women's section. Haribabu was a few feet to Dhanu's right, about to start shooting the fateful photographs that preceded the assassination.
"As Rajiv accepted garlands from various well-wishers, Dhanu squeezed her way between Latha and Kokila. She kept her eyes firmly on Rajiv. As Kokila recited her poem, Dhanu waited two feet behind her. When Kokila had finished, Dhanu moved forward towards Rajiv with the garland, but a woman constable put a hand up in front of her. Rajiv turned to the constable, Anusuya, and smiled. 'Let everyone have a turn,' he said. 'Don't worry. Relax.' Those were to be his last words.
"As he turned towards Dhanu, she placed the sandalwood garland Haribabu had bought from Poompuhar earlier that afternoon around his neck. Rajiv smiled as he took off the garland to hand it over to a Congress (I) worker on his right. Dhanu knelt to touch his feet.
"Rajiv bent down slightly in a gesture to lift Dhanu up. At that moment, Dhanu looked at the woman constable who had moved a few feet away and smiled at her. Then, still half-bent, she pressed the second toggle switch.
"The explosion ripped her own body in half. Her severed head landed several feet away. Haribabu, whose camera recorded the last blinding flash, fell in a mangled heap. Rajiv took the full force of the impact on his face and chest."
How will Rajiv be remembered? What was his legacy? Would he have made a better prime minister in a putative second term than he was in his first?
Rajiv was half-Parsi and half-Kashmiri. His father Feroze was an outstanding parliamentarian though his marriage to Indira Gandhi was a troubled one. Rajiv himself was innately decent but, as events proved, politically naïve.
Many of his achievements in settling fractious regional issues were overshadowed by Bofors. It is a shadow that continues to hang over the Gandhi family.
Was Rajiv in favour of dynastic succession? The answer is a qualified no. This is what I wrote in my book:
"Rajiv himself kicked off the Congress campaign in the first week of April with a flying visit to his constituency, Amethi. Piloting a blue-and-white Beechcraft Kingair, Rajiv was accompanied - as for much of this campaign - by Sonia. The villagers needed no convincing to vote Congress (I) though Rajiv spent less time in Amethi than almost anywhere else during the gruelling campaign.
"Making up for Rajiv's absence were Sonia and Priyanka, who at nineteen had developed fine political instincts. Those who saw her campaigning in Amethi for her father spotted in her shades of the young Indira Gandhi, her grandmother. Later, at their father's funeral on 24 May 1991, she was the most poised in the family, comforting her devastated mother, and drawing the comment that it was she, rather than the shy and retiring Rahul, who might one day don her father's political mantle. During the campaign, many Congress (I) party workers pleaded with Sonia to contest from nearby Sultanpur, but on each occasion the answer was a terse no. 'Soniaji is not interested in contesting elections. She is only interested in the welfare of the people of Amethi,' was the standard reply from Rajiv's aides."
Rajiv himself was against dynastic politics. He did not encourage Rahul, then nearly 21, to campaign for him in the May 1991 Lok Sabha election. Rahul was abroad throughout the campaign. Rajiv's principal legacy was introducing a modern, technology-driven culture in India. He had an active foreign policy and was beginning to understand the nuances of domestic politics before his tragic death. He would likely have been a better second-term prime minister than he was a first-term prime minister.
But wasn't dynasty his unintended legacy? Given the structure of the family-run Congress, that was inevitable. But dynastic succession was not part of Rajiv's political DNA.
What I wrote shortly after Rajiv's death 24 years ago has eerily come close to being a reality:
"Rumours of Sonia's 'impending' entry into politics - through the backdoor of Amethi - have swirled around Delhi for months. The politicising of Rajiv's posthumous Bharat Ratna award ceremony, the regular darshan Sonia grants to Congress(I) ministers (including Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao), the stream of people from Amethi who flow past 10 Janpath every day, and the devoted coverage of her activities by Doordarshan: all these are seen by Gandhi family loyalists as signs that Sonia will remain a major power-centre - even perhaps an alternative power-centre - for many Congressmen."
Rajiv was a gracious man: a technocrat by training, a family man by instinct and a politician by accident. While writing his biography, he gave me access to his entire cabinet - from Madhavrao Scindia to Arun Nehru. The picture that emerged was a man of character and principle. But he was subjected to some very poor advice by a coterie of inexperienced political novices. As a result his prime ministership gradually unravelled. His untimely death prevented him from redemption.