Those whom the Gods love...
Rajiv Gandhi
Born: August 20, 1944
Died: May 21, 1991
Age: 46
Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated while campaigning in Sriperumbudur, a town close to Chennai, by a woman suicide bomber reportedly assigned by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
It was a typical act of revenge for the LTTE who never forgave Rajiv for deploying the Indian Army against the Tamil Tigers three years earlier, when he was India's prime minister..
Rajiv was India's sixth prime minister, elected to the post at 40, the youngest to ever hold that office. He succeeded his mother Indira Gandhi who was assassinated on October 31, 1984 by her bodyguards to avenge Operation Bluestar, the June 1984 attack on the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
The Indian Airlines pilot was coerced into politics by his mother after the death of his younger brother Sanjay on June 23, 1980. What worked in his favour was his early image of being young, modern, and free of corruption. India saw much development in his tenure in various areas -- notably telecommunications and education -- but there was also the shadow of the military debacle in Sri Lanka (where the Indian Peace Keeping Force had to withdraw) and the Bofors scandal, which haunts the Congress to this day.
Photograph: Mukesh Parpiani