Rajiv Gandhi Death Anniversary: How India's 6th PM Was Assassinated On May 21, 1991
May 21 is observed as National Anti-Terrorism Day in India every year to commemorate the death anniversary of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
“Saab is gone ma.” A knock on the window at night, a policeman waiting outside with grim news. This is how former Union minister Margaret Alva found out about the demise of former PM Rajiv Gandhi, according to a piece she wrote in Hindustan Times on his 28th death anniversary.
“Suddenly everything had collapsed. My leader, my friend, the icon of millions was gone,” Alva wrote.
Tuesday marks 33 years since Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a suicide bomber in Tamil Nadu while he was campaigning for elections. The suicide bomber belonged to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and attacked Gandhi at a rally in Sriperumbudur.
Gandhi was all of 46 at the time.
When he was sworn in as PM on October 31, 1984, Gandhi was 40. To this day, he is the youngest ever to hold office as PM. He went on to lead the Congress to a massive landslide – yet to be replicated – months after his mother, former PM Indira Gandhi, was killed by her Sikh bodyguards over the Operation Blue Star.
In 1987, Rajiv Gandhi sent Indian Peacekeeping Force (IPKF) to Sri Lanka in order to restore peace in the nation, which was in the midst of a civil war between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government. The LTTE wanted a separate Tamil homeland for Sri Lankan Tamils on account of the persecution faced by the community in the Sinhalese-majority island nation.
However, Rajiv Gandhi’s move was criticised heavily in India as well as abroad. It is believed that the LTTE targeted him in light of this decision.
When he was killed, he was campaigning for the Lok Sabha election. As Gandhi left his motorcade and reached the dais in Sriperumbudur to deliver a speech, he was garlanded by well-wishers, including children.
It was then that the assassin – a woman – approached him, posing as a well-wisher to get close to him. There are various accounts as to what exactly happened. Some say she detonated the RDX while trying to touch his feet and others claim the explosion occurred as she garlanded him.
Apart from Gandhi, the blast claimed the lives of at least 14 other people, including a senior police officer. It occurred around 10.20 pm.
Maradadam Chandrashekhar, the parliamentary candidate from Sriperumbudur, who accompanied Gandhi towards the platform, survived the blast.
The suicide bomber was later identified as Kalaivani Rajaratnam.
After his assassination, the remaining two phases of the Lok Sabha elections were postponed until the following month by the Chief Election Commissioner at the time, T.N. Seshan.
India’s military and paramilitary forces were put on “red alert” as gangs took to the streets of the capital, New Delhi, and other cities, looking for scapegoats, The New York Times reported.
A week of mourning was declared.
Gandhi, the grandson of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, was survived by his wife Sonia, who flew to the erstwhile Madras to bring his remains to New Delhi, and two children, son Rahul Gandhi and daughter Priyanka Gandhi.
Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case In Court
In 1999, the Supreme Court upheld the conviction of seven individuals for the assassination. These were Nalini, A.G. Perarivalan, T. Suthendraraja alias Santhan, Robert Payas, V. Sriharan alias Murugan, Jayakumar, and Ravichandran alias Ravi.
Out of the 41 people arrested, 26 were sentenced to death by a TADA court in 1998. In 1999, 19 of them were freed by the apex court, which sentenced four of the seven to death. By 2014, however, all death sentences had been commuted to life terms.
In 2022, all the seven convicts were released from jail. While Santhan passed away in February 2024, Murugan, Jayakumar and Payas, all Sri Lankan nationals, returned to the country in April.
National Anti-Terrorism Day
Founded by the V.P. Singh government in Rajiv Gandhi’s memory, the National Anti-Terrorism Day in India was established to educate people about the adverse impacts terrorism and violence have on society and the nation.
Additionally, it seeks to encourage people to live peacefully and in unity and maintain harmony.
The Anti-Terrorism Day also communicates a message across the world regarding India’s determination to fight against terrorism in all its forms.
Various organisations and educational institutions, on May 21, organise debates, discussions, and seminars focused on the impact of terrorism.
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