PM PAYS TRIBUTE TO FORMER PM RAJIV GANDHI
New Delhi, Aug 20, 2026 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday paid homage to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on his birth anniversary.
In a post on X, PM Modi said, “On the occasion of his birth anniversary, paying homage to former Prime Minister of India, Shri Rajiv Gandhi.”
Born on August 20, 1944, in Bombay, now Mumbai, Rajiv Gandhi became India’s youngest Prime Minister at the age of 40 after the assassination of his mother, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, in 1984.
He assumed office as Prime Minister as well as Congress president and led the party to one of its biggest electoral victories in the 1984 Lok Sabha elections. The Congress won 401 of the 508 seats it contested.
Rajiv Gandhi represented a generational shift in Indian politics. His grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, was 58 when he became independent India’s first Prime Minister, while his mother Indira Gandhi was 49 when she first assumed the office in 1966.
Rajiv Gandhi spent much of his early childhood at Teen Murti House with Nehru. He attended Welham Preparatory School in Dehradun before joining Doon School. He later studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, and Imperial College London, where he pursued mechanical engineering.
Politics was not initially his chosen career. He was interested in science, engineering, music, photography and amateur radio, with flying being his greatest passion. After returning to India, he obtained a commercial pilot’s licence and worked as a pilot with Indian Airlines.
Rajiv Gandhi entered politics following the death of his younger brother, Sanjay Gandhi, in a plane crash in 1980. He contested the Lok Sabha by-election from Amethi and won by a substantial margin.
In 1968, Rajiv Gandhi married Sonia Gandhi. The couple had two children, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi.
Following the Congress’ defeat in the 1989 general elections, Rajiv Gandhi became the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. He was assassinated on May 21, 1991, in a bomb blast at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu while campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections.