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RAJIV GANDHI : A PROMISE TO KEEP

- Professor Kishore Gandhi

Rahul Gandhi's Assurance to Farmers

AMETHI: Shri Rahul Gandhi, the youthful MP from Amethi, inaugurated the Rajiv Gandhi Rural Electrification project in his Parliamentary constituency here on 14th April. Shri Rahul Gandhi said that with the completion of this project not only rural villages will be electrified but it will also bring respite from power-cuts. Shri Rahul Gandhi said that he was fully committed to fulfil this demand of the people and was personally overlooking the project. Earlier, while inaugurating the Kisan Mela, Shri Rahul Gandhi assured that he would take up the problem of farmers in Parliament as he had taken up the case of the cane growers.

Here is an insight from Robert Frost that shaped and moulded the imaginative mind of Rajiv Gandhi, who toiled endlessly for building a new India and a new world order. He was a dreamer, an enquirer and lover of mankind and devoted his intellectual and political gifts and his extraordinary capacity for hard work to propel the country into 21^st century, with the backing of technological missions and management culture. It became his mission to make India as superpower so that the country could play a decisive role in shaping and moulding the destiny of mankind from refreshingly positive perspective.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep;

But I have a promise to keep;

And miles to go before I sleep.

My perception of Rajiv Gandhi flows from a series of interactions with him on number of crucial issues as well as of the media which flashed the messages with bold images and metaphors about his courage and determination, impeccable moral and intellectual integrity, commitment and conviction, transparent sincerity and his powerful vision of universality. He endeavoured to operationalizes his vision into pragmatic policies and feasible programmes for a new leap forward.

Rajiv Gandhi was catapulated into policies after the death of his younger brother, Sanjay Gandhi, in an air crash. A family man, whose passion and profession in life was flying, had lived on the fringes of politics all his life yet he had never allowed himself to be drawn into it. An overwhelming pressure was mounted on Rajiv Gandhi, Congress workers clamoured for his entry into politics, while he steadfastly refused all suggestions. Indira Gandhi had an affectionate relationship with Rajiv but she did not bulldoze him into politics. She handled the situation diplomatically and often spoke to correspondents of newspapers that "I am not going to talk about it. It is for Rajiv to decide". She told Khushwant Singh that "Sonia would divorce Rajiv, if he entered politics."

Sonia Gandhi writes "that for the first time in fifteen years that we had known each other, I fought like tigress for him, for us and our children, for the life we had made together, his flying which we loved, our uncomplicated, easy friendship, and above all, for our freedom _ that simple human right that we had successfully and consistently preserved." Rajiv Gandhi was confronted with Hameltian dilemma, "to be or not to be." He suffered an isolation and found himself out of tune with the world that surrounded him, and more poignantly, in opposition to those with whom he had shared love and trust. Sonia and Rajiv had long talks and finally, against their own instinct and intuition, Rajiv entered the cesspool of India politics.

Sonia Gandhi wrote, "Rajiv was just as tormented by the conflict. There stood his mother, crushed and alone. How could he now at this time in her life when she needed him most turn away and choose the easy way out? I had come to love his mother as my own and felt for her deeply. I understood Rajiv's duty to her. At the same time, I was angry and resentful towards a system which, as I saw it, demanded him as a sacrificial lamb. It would crush and destroy him, of that I was absolutely certain." It is a measure of the man and his commitment to his wife that Rajiv did not unilaterally take the decision to join politics. Rajiv said that "we had long talks, my wife and I and then we decided it was a joint decision."

Rajiv Gandhi's organizational ability, his capability to be the team leader and his eye for perfection were displayed in ASIAD in 1982 and CHOGM and NAM conferences. Flyovers and stadia were built in record time because of his close monitoring of construction activities and other programmes. In a communication to P.D. Tandon in December 1982, Indira Gandhi wrote: "Rajiv played a big part in this. He has good organizing capacity and an eye for minutest detail. He has not had much sleep or food. In fact today was almost the first day he joined us for dinner."

Rajiv Gandhi assumed the office of Prime Minister after the brutal assassination of Indira Gandhi on 31^st October, 1984. Being novice in politics and totally innocent, Rajiv Gandhi's voice backed by sincerity and enriched sensitivity, appealed to the intelligentsia and print media which flashed the message across the country that he symbolized the unity and integrity of the country and all the splintered opposition parties were identified with the Anandpur Saheb resolution. His emotional appeal virtually touched the hearts of our millions of electorates who believed that he had the capacity and dynamism to keep the country united and taking it forward with his computer technology into the 21^st century.

Once brought to power, he relentlessly tried to fulfill his electoral promises by following the value-based politics of reconciliation instead of confrontation with the opposition parties. He even engineered accords with Akali leaders of Punjab, student leaders of Assam, rebels of Mizoram, Dr. Farooq Abdullah of the National Conference and Sharad Pawar of Congress (S). He also signed the accord with President Jayewardene of Sri Lanka. He also got the Anti-Defection Bill enacted by the Parliament to eliminate the role of money in politics and to put an end to the politics of Aya Ram and Gaya Ram.

After providing a coherent national politics and a new parameters of development, Rajiv Gandhi moved on to shape the contours of global development. His ideas and opinions were given due consideration by the leaders of super-powers and non-aligned world. The human civilization, which literally hangs in balance, the balance of terror, has a narrow option: unified world or no world at all. He was the moving spirit behind the six-nation joint declaration, calling moratorium on the proliferation of nuclear weapons which virtually paved the way for December 1987 Summit between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The signing of the agreement by the super-powers to abolish medium range nuclear weapons has sparked hopes of human survival and evolution in this nuclear age.

It is an irony of the Indian intelligentsia and political leaders _ both of the Congress and opposition parties _ that while he was emerging as a leader of the international community, the print media and irresponsible ambitious leaders launched a multi-pronged attack on his policies and openly criticized him for his erratic behaviour, whims and fancies.

It is tragic that the Bofors affair clouded his tenure and became a critical instrument in the General Elections of 1989 culminating in the defeat of the Congress party. Indirectly it also contributed to his assassination in Sriperumbudur because his successor withdrew the special security cover that was essential for his safety. Rajiv Gandhi had learnt a lot from his experience and was all set to lead India into 21^st century. But destiny, in a crucial twist, willed otherwise. What a tragic irony that Indira Gandhi and both her sons should have met such violent deaths, both of them in the prime of their lives. Such are inscrutable karmic patterns that govern our destinies.