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Bharata Ratna for Rajiv ( Ratna* ) Gandhi ( born 20 Aug 1944 in Bombay died 21 May 1991)
Dt: 24/8/22
Bharata Ratna for Rajiv ( Ratna* ) Gandhi
( born 20 Aug 1944 in Bombay died 21 May 1991)
Dr T.H. Chowdary*
Chief Ministers of Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh (the only two Congress ruled states) S.S. Ashok Gehlot and Bhupesh Baghel respectively announced a number of new schemes named after Rajiv Gandhi , the third in a family of Bharata Ratnas, on his 78th birth anniversary on 20 Aug 2022. The day is observed as Sadhbhavana Divas. Some names of schemes named after him are : Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojana, Rajiv Gandhi Grameena Bhumi Heena Krish Majdoor Nyay Yojan, Rajiv Yuva Mitan Clubs ( 13,269), Rajiv Godhan Nyay Yojana, all in Chhattisgarh and Rajiv Gandhi Center of Advanced Technology in Rajasthan. It is known that by the end of Sonia- led UPA Central government in 2014 there were over 400 Nehru-Indira-Rajiv named schemes , institutes , facilities etc., in India. Nowhere else in the world are members of one family celebrated as those of Nehru . Nehru & Indira his daughter were awarded Bharata Ratna during their life time (1955 and 1971 respectively); Rajiv the grandson of Nehru was awarded Bharata Ratna in 1991 soon after his assassination in May 1991.
2. Did Rajiv Ratna Gandhi deserve the Bharata Ratna award ? Let us see the record:
a) After the death of Sanjay Gandhi in an air accident in June 1980, mother Indiraji wanted the elder son Rajiv by her side in her political and prime ministerial roles. He was asked to resign his pilot’s job in Air India to take up this new role. After a few months he was made the General Secretary of the Congress. On the assassination of Indira ji on 31 Oct 1984, Rajiv Gandhi was sworn by the President as the Prime Minister. The Congress parliamentary party later endorsed Rajiv’s appointment as the Prime Minister.
* The name given to Rajiv at his birth. Ratna was later dropped .
b)
When India got independence in Aug 1947 the Commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces was an Englishman Gen. Bucher. When Nehru was asked as to why he was retaining an Englishman as Chief of Army and not appointing Gen. Cariappa, the Indian in his place Pt. Nehru said that Cariappa did not have enough experience to become the Chief of Army staff. On hearing the remarks of Nehru, Gen. Cariappa responded : “ what experience has Jawaharlal Nehru to become the Prime Minister of free India?”. This remark of Gen Cariappa aptly applies to the assumption of the Prime Ministership of India by a novice in politics, that is, Rajiv Gandhi .
c) The failures of Rajiv Gandhi are far too serious to merit the Bharata Ratna award. Let us recall some of them:
· It was during his time that the Bofors scandal erupted. As per the Swedish radio bribes were given so that the Bofors got the order. It was such a scandal that even if it could not be proved that Rajiv Gandhi or the Congress party or any member of Rajiv’s family received the bribes, it was more than clear that Quattrocchi an Italian family friend of Sonia Gandhi was involved and the suspicion was that Sonia’s family in Italy benefitted by the Bofors deal. All over India there was the slogan , “gali gali mein shor hai ; Rajiv Gandhi chor hai”. Despite Rajiv Gandhi’s forceful denials the nation believed that bribes were received by those in the inner circle of Rajiv Gandhi’s family . The scandal led to the down fall of the Congress party which was defeated in 1989 general elections .
· Sri Rajiv Gandhi, audaciously sent the Indian Peace Keeping Force ( IPKF) to Sri Lanka ostensibly to put down the insurgency of the LTTE against the Sri Lankan government and to protect the Sri Lankan government from the LTTE. This was a misadventure , in that ultimately the IPKF had to be withdrawn in disgrace, condemned by the LTTE and disowned by the Sri Lankan government. Quite a number of precious lives of the Indian armed forces were lost in this mis-adventure.
· In another show of India’s might, Rajiv Gandhi’s government imposed a blockade of exchange of goods between India and Nepal that drove Nepal into the arms of China, leading to alienation of the Hindu nation, Nepal from India.
· The Supreme Court of India in the Sha Bano ( a Muslim divorcee) case held that a Muslim woman divorcee was entitled to receive alimony. The entire Muslim clergy and their political backers denounced this judgement, holding it as subversion of Muslim personal law . Rajiv Gandhi first encouraged his minister Md Arif Khan to defend the Supreme Court decision as befitting a secular India . But soon after, frightened by the prospect of losing the Muslim vote, he ignominiously got legislation passed to annul the Supreme Court decision to please Muslim electorate.
· The most ignominious episode is his inaction when in the aftermath of Indira ji’s assassination, under the leadership of Congressmen, Sikhs were slaughtered in and around Delhi in an orgy which lasted for a few days with no action taken by the Prime Minister while the massacre was going right under his nose. Worse, at a boat club rally 19 days after assassination of Indira Gandhi, Rajiv speaking about the massacre of the Sikhs said , “ some riots took place in the country following the murder of Indiraji . We know the people were angry and for a few days that India had been shaken . When a mighty tree falls , it is only natural that the earth around it shakes”. A Congers party colleague Sri Mani Shankar Iyar wondered whether this observation of Rajiv Gandhi was an endorsement of the killing of thousands of Sikhs as retribution for his mother’s assassination by a Sikh body guard.
· In the 1989 general elections to the Lok Sabha, Rajiv Gandhi’s Congress party was roundly defeated. There was the ramshackle V.P Singh government supported from outside by the BJP. Then that government collapsed due to internal contradictions in the Janata Dal led by V.P Singh and undermined by Devilal. Rajiv Gandhi encouraged a faction of the Janata Dal led by Sri Chandra Sekhar to form a minority government with about 40 MPs of the Janata Dal supported by Rajiv Gandhi’s party from outside. Just as his mother Indira Gandhi encouraged Charan Singh to become the Prime Minister by splitting the Janata Dal in 1979, Rajiv Gandhi encouraged Chandrasekhar to split the Janatadal and form a minority government of just about 50 supporting him and Rajiv Gandhi Congress supporting from outside. After a few weeks, just as Indira Gandhi pulled down Charan Singhs’ government, Rajiv Gandhi pulled down Chandrasekhar’s government and then the country had to go in for another general election to the Lok Sabha. During the campaign Sri Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on 21 May 1991 by an operative of the LTTE for the suppression of which he sent the IPKF to Sri Lanka.
3. With this record which was positively unbefitting of a Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi least deserved the highest honour that the Republic of India bestows namely, Bharata Ratna.
4. Under the influence Sri P V Narasimha Rao who not only restored the fortunes of the Congress by forming a Congress government though it had only 220 and odd MPs , most deserved the Bharata Ratna for the bold decision he had taken to end permit-license- quota, a Nehruvian socialism and liberalizing the Indian economy the result of which has been an economic upsurge in the country. Under the influence of Rajiv’s widow, Sonia P V Narasimha Rao was not given Bharata Ratna, which he deserved more than Rajiv Gandhi and some others who got it. It is most appropriate if Prime Minister Modi recommends to the President that the highest honour Bharata Ratna be bestowed upon Sri P.V.Narasimha Rao, posthumously though.
5. That Rajiv Gandhi was responsible for I.T revolution in India is largely untrue and is merely propaganda. Although it may not be relished, one fact requires to be let known . It is not true that Rajiv Gandhi was solely and mostly responsible for computerisation of all work in the country and the telecom revolution, both of which are post-Rajiv developments . The Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the largest information technology company in the country was founded in 1969. In the early 1980s was founded India’s second largest IT company, Infosys. It is software and information services and communications companies that are bringing name and fame to India as an ICT giant. The National Informatic Center (NIC) was set up in the late 1970s / early 1980s to provide computer-based, networked information to Union and State Governments and Law Courts. Rajiv Gandhi can be credited only for breaking the barrier against use of computers in government offices . I was one of the beneficiaries . When I was a Dy Director General in the Department of Telecoms (DOT) in 1983-87, we had computer use trainers deployed at the initiative of Sri Rajiv Gandhi, the Prime Minister in all government offices. That is the credit that is legitimately due to Rajiv Gandhi. Excessive and exaggerated credits are illegitimate. I am sorry to have to make this observation since in our Republic truth shall always triumph - Satyameva Jayate.
6. The really creditable action of Rajiv Gandhi was the separation of Telecoms from Posts; constituting Telecoms as a separate department (DOT) and beginning the corporatization process by launching the MTNL and VSNL. The telecom revolution took place by the policies of PM’s P V Narasimha Rao and Atal Behari Vajpayi . (1,591 words)
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