RAJIV GANDHI ASSASSINATED

The former Prime Minister and Congress 1st President, Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, was killed in a powerful bomb blast at Sriperumbudur near Madras on the night of May 21, 1991. Mr. Gandhi, who was campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections, was scheduled to address a public meeting in Sriperumbudur when the tragedy struck.

Born on August 20, 1944, Mr. Rajiv Gandhi took over as Prime Minister of India after his mother, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, was assassinated on October 31, 1984. In the ensuing general election to the Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament) in December, 1984, Mr. Rajiv Gandhi was returned to power with a massive mandate. After serving a full five-year term, Mr. Gandhi, however, resigned as Prime Minister when the Congress 1st, the party he was leading, lost the election in 1989. In the mid-term election to the Lok Sabha in May this year, Mr. Gandhi was making a determined bid to stage a come- beck when the cruel hands our midst.

Mr. Rajiv Gandhi was given a state funeral which was attended, among others, by a large number of world dignitaries that included the Prime Ministers of Pakistan and Bangladesh, the Vice-President of the United States, Prince Charles of the United Kingdom and the PLO leader, Mr. Yasser Arafat.