Gandhi, Rajiv

Gandhi, Rajiv (1944-1991), Indian prime minister, born in Bombay (now Mumbai) and educated at Cambridge University and Imperial College, London. His grandfather was Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of the independent state of India, and his mother was Indira Gandhi, also prime minister. Rajiv Gandhi initially had no interest in politics and became a commercial airline pilot. When his younger brother Sanjay, heir apparent to the family political dynasty, died in a plane crash, Rajiv sought his seat in parliament and won by a landslide (1980). He soon became his mother's chief adviser and an important political force himself. Appointed by Indira as a general secretary of the ruling Congress-I party (1983), he moved to reorganize it. His fight against corruption earned him the nickname “Mr. Clean”. By 1984 he was the most powerful political figure in India after his mother. When she was assassinated later that year, he was unanimously elected by party leaders to replace her as prime minister. After a ritual mourning period he was unanimously elected president of the Congress-I party, as well. After a triumph in the national elections he pledged to deal with population control, educational and social reforms, and ethnic problems, but by 1989 little headway had been made in solving these problems, and charges of corruption plagued his administration. He was accused of isolating himself from the people, and many questioned his credibility. He ran for re-election in 1989 and was defeated. Trying for a comeback in 1991, he was assassinated by a bomb at a campaign rally in Tamil Nadu, whose separatist movement he had angered.