Priyanka Gandhi
Born	12 January 1972 (age 40) Delhi, India
Residence	Delhi, India
Political party	Indian National Congress
Spouse	Robert Vadra
Children	Raihan Vadra and Miraya Vadra
Signature

Contents

• 1 childhood & study
• 2 Political career
  • 2.1 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, 2007
• 3 Personal life
• 4 See also

Childhood and study

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is the daughter of Congress President Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. She is also the sister of Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi. She was born in Delhi on January 12, 1972. It is a matter of great pride that her father, grandmother and great-grandfather, viz. Rajiv Gandhi, Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, all were the Prime Ministers of India. Her mother Sonia Gandhi is currently the President of the Indian National Congress and also the Chairperson of the ruling United Progressive Alliance. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was studied in Modern School, Convent of Jesus and Mary, and is a graduate in Psychology from the University of Delhi. She is married to Robert Vadra, and has two children, Raihan and Miraya.

Though Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has not been very active in politics, she did play a crucial role for the Congress during the elections in Uttar Pradesh for both assembly and Parliament. She concentrated in Raebareli and Amethi constituencies from where her mother Sonia Gandhi and brother Rahul Gandhi are the sitting Member of Parliaments. During an interview to BBC Priyanka Gandhi Vadra once said: “I am very clear in my mind. Politics is not a strong pull, the people are. And I can do things for them without being in politics”. Regarding her active participation in politics she had said “I have said it a thousand times, I am not interested in joining politics…”. However, she continued to regularly visit her mother’s and brother’s constituencies of Rae Bareilly and Amethi where she dealt with the people directly, a role she appears to enjoy. She is a popular figure in the constituency, drawing large crowds everywhere. During the Parliament elections in 2004, she became the campaign manager of her mother Sonia Gandhi and also played a great role by supervising the campaign for her brother and Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi. She is reputed as a good organizer, level headed, and always believed in the principles of her party, the Congress.

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Personal details
Born	5 January 1955 (age 57) Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Nationality	Indian
Political party	Indian National Congress (1970–1997) Trinamool Congress (1997–present)
Spouse(s)	Unmarried
Residence	Harish Chatterjee Street, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Alma mater	University of Calcutta
Profession	Politician Advocate Social Worker
Signature

Contents

• 1 Early life and career
• 2 Early political career
  • 2.1 Indian National Congress
  • 2.2 Trinamool Congress
    • 2.2.1 Railway Minister
    • 2.2.2 Split with NDA
• 3 Nandigram protests
• 4 2009 Indian election
  • 4.1 Railway Minister, second tenure
• 5 2011 Assembly election
  • 5.1 Chief Minister

Early life and career

Mamata Banerjee was born to Gayetri and Promileswar Banerjee on 5 January 1955, in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. She grew up in a lower middle-class family and started her political career in Congress^{[clarification needed]}. As a young woman in the 1970s, she quickly rose in the ranks^{[clarification needed]} to become the general secretary of the state Mohila Congress (1976–80).^[10] She was a college student in the mid-1970s when politics in Bengal began to accommodate the riffraff^{[clarification needed]}.

Banerjee graduated with an honours degree in History from the Jogamaya Devi College, an undergraduate women’s college in southern Kolkata.^[11][12]Later she earned a master’s degree in Islamic History from the University of Calcutta. This was followed by a degree in education from the Shri Shikshayatan College. She also earned a law degree from the Jogesh Chandra Chaudhuri Law College, Kolkata.^[13] She also clamied that she has a PhD from East Georgia University which doesn’t exist at all.

Throughout her political life Banerjee has maintained an austere lifestyle, never spending much money on clothes, cosmetics or jewellery and always with a cotton bag slung on her shoulder. She has remained single throughout her life.^[14][15]

Early political career

In the West Bengal Assembly elections of 2011, Trinamool Congress and congress parties combined, a move spearheaded by Mamata Banerjee, successfully won with over 77% of the total seats. This is considered a historic victory over the Left Front rule.

Indian National Congress

Banerjee started her political career in congress, and as a young woman in the 1970s, she quickly rose in the ranks of the local Congress group, and remained the General Secretary of Mahila Congress (I), West Bengal, from 1976 to 1980.^[16] In the 1984 general election, Banerjee became one of India’s youngest parliamentarians ever, beating veteran Communist politician Somnath Chatterjee, from the Jadavpur parliamentary Constituency in West Bengal. She also became the General-Secretary of the All India Youth Congress. Losing her seat in 1989 in an anti-Congress wave, she was back in1991 general elections, having settled into the Calcutta South constituency. She retained the Kolkata South seat in the 1996, 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2009 general elections.^[17]

In the Rao government formed in 1991, Mamata Banerjee was made the Union Minister of State for Human Resources Development, Youth Affairs and Sports, and Women and Child Development. As the sports minister, she announced that she would resign, and protested in a rally at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata, against Government’s indifference towards her proposal to improve sports in the country.^[18] She was discharged of her portfolios in 1993. In April 1996, she alleged that Congress was behaving as a stooge of the CPI-M in West Bengal. She claimed that she was the lone voice of reason and wanted a “clean Congress”. At a private rally at Alipore in Kolkata, Mamata Banerjee wrapped a black shawl around her neck and threatened to make a noose with it.^[19] In July 1996, she squatted at the well of Lok Sabha, the lower house of Indian parliament, to protest a hike in petroleum price, although she was a part of the government that instituted it. In that very time she grasped the collar of Amar Singh, MP of Samajwadi Party, in the well of the parliament. In February 1997, on the day of railway budget presentation in Lok Sabha, Mamata Banerjee threw her shawl at the railway minister Ram Vilas Paswan for ignoring West Bengal and announced her resignation. The speaker, P. A. Sangma, did not accept her resignation and asked her to apologise. Later she came back as Santosh Mohan Deb mediated.

Trinamool Congress

Mamata Banerjee speaking to the elected members and party workers at Bongaon stadium after the West Bengal panchayat elections.

In 1997, Mamata Banerjee came out of the Congress Party in West Bengal and established the All India Trinamool Congress. It quickly became the primary opposition to the long-standing Communist government in the state.^[why?] On 11 December 1998, she controversially held a Samajwadi Party MP, Daroga Prasad Saroj, by the collar and dragged him out of the well of the Lok Sabha to prevent him from protesting against the Women’s Reservation bill.^[20]

In 1999, she joined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government and was allocated the Railways Ministry.^[17]

Railway Minister

In 2000, Mamata Banerjee presented her first Railway Budget. In it she fulfilled many of her promises to her home state West Bengal.^[21] She introduced a new biweekly New Delhi-Sealdah Rajdhani Express train and four express trains connecting various parts of West Bengal, namely the Howrah-Purulia Rupasi Bangla Express, Sealdah-New Jalpaiguri Express, Shalimar-Bankura Arannyak Express and the Sealdah-Amritsar Superfast Express (weekly).^[21] She also increased the frequency of the Pune-Howrah Azad Hind Express and extension of at least three express train services. Work on the Digha-Howrah Express service was also hastened during her brief tenure.^[22]

She also focused on developing tourism, enabling the Darjeeling-Himalayan section with two additional locomotives and proposing the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited. She also commented that India should play a pivotal role in the Trans-Asian Railway and that rail links between Bangladeshand Nepal would be reintroduced. In all, she introduced 19 new trains for the 2000–2001 fiscal year.^[22]]

Split with NDA

In early 2001, after making allegations against the BJP^[why?], Banerjee walked out of the NDA cabinet and allied with the Congress Party for West Bengal’s 2001 elections, amidst speculation that the move could unseat the Communist government. She returned to the cabinet in January 2004, holding the Ministry of Coaland Mines portfolios until the 2004 elections, in which she was the only Trinamool Congress member to win a Parliament seat from West Bengal.^[17]

On 20 October 2005, she protested against forceful land acquisition and the atrocities^{[clarification needed]} on local farmers in the name of industrial development policy of the Buddhadev Bhattacharyagovernment in West Bengal. Benny Santoso, CEO of the Indonesia-based Salim Group had pledged a large investment to West Bengal, and the West Bengal government had given him farmland in Howrah, sparking protest. In soaking rain, Banerjee and other Trinamool Congress members stood in front of the Taj Hotel where Santoso had arrived, shut out by the police. Later, she and her supporters followed Santoso’s convoy. A planned “black flag” protest was avoided, when the government had Santoso arrive three hours ahead of schedule.^[23][24]

Mamata Banerjee suffered further setbacks in 2005, when her party lost control of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the sitting mayor defected from her party. In 2006, the Trinamool Congress was defeated in West Bengal’s Assembly Elections, losing more than half of its sitting members.

On 4 August 2006, Banerjee hurled her resignation papers at the deputy speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal in Lok Sabha. The provocation was the speaker (Somnath Catterjee)’s rejection of her adjournment motion on illegal infiltration by Bangladeshis in West Bengal. The motion was turned down by the speaker on the ground that it was not in the proper format.^[25][26]

In November 2006, Banerjee was forcibly stopped on her way to Singur for a rally against a proposed Tata Motors car project. Mamata reached the West Bengal assembly and protested at the venue. She addressed a press conference at the assembly and announced a 12-hour shutdown by her party on Friday.^[27] The Trinamul Congress MLAs^{[clarification needed]} protested by damaging furniture and microphones in the West Bengal Assembly.^[27][28] A major strike was called on 14 December 2006.

Now in the 2009 parliament election where TMC^{[clarification needed]} was in alliance with UPA^{[clarification needed]} and people of West Bengal acted against the Left front and elected Congress-TMC alliance cccin^{[clarification needed]} 26 seats, which made Mamata Banerjee again the Indian Railway Minister for next five years.

In the 2010 Municipal Elections in West Bengal, TMC won Kolkata Municipal Corporation in a margin of 62 seats. TMC also won Bidhan Nagar Corporation in 16-9 seats margin. In 2011, Banerjee won a sweeping majority and assumed the position of chief minister of the state of West Bengal. Her party ended the 34-year rule.^{[clarification needed]}

Nandigram protests

The Nandigram violence was an incident in Nandigram, West Bengal where, on the orders of the Left Front government, more than 4,000 heavily-armed police stormed the rural area in the district ofPurba Medinipur with the aim of stamping out protests against the West Bengal government’s plans to expropriate 10,000 acres (40 km²) of land for a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) to be developed by the Indonesian-based Salim Group. The police shot dead at least 14 villagers and wounded 70 more.

The SEZ controversy started when the government of West Bengal decided that the Salim Group of Indonesia^[29][30][31] would set up a chemical hub under the SEZ policy at Nandigram. The villagers took over the administration of the area, and all the roads to the villages were cut off. A front-page story in the Kolkata newspaper, The Telegraph, on 4 January 2007 was headlined, “False alarm sparks clash”. According to the newspaper that village council meeting at which the alleged land seizure was to be announced was actually a meeting to declare Nandigram a “clean village”, that is, a village in which all the households had access to toilet facilities. The administration was directed to break the Maoist-backed Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee’s (BUPC) resistance at Nandigram and a massive operation with at least 3,000 policemen along with armed cadre of the Marxist ruling party was launched on 14 March 2007. However, prior information of the impending action had leaked out to the BUPC who amassed a crowd of roughly 2,000 villagers at the entry points into Nandigram with women and children forming the front ranks. In the resulting mayhem, at least 14 people were killed.^[32] Many people of the lower classes were made homeless due to this political carnage.^[33] A large number of intellectuals protested on the streets and this incident gave birth of a new hope for movement to ouster the left from government headed by the CPI(M)^{[clarification needed]}.^[34][35][36] Mamata Banerjee wrote letters to the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Home MinisterShivraj Patil to stop the violence promoted by CPI(M) in Nandigram. Agitation in Nandigram subsided, after the state government shelved the proposed chemical hub project.

2009 Indian election

Trinamool Congress performed well in the 2009 parliamentary election, bagging 19 MP seats, among them 5 women (including Banerjee), reiterating its faith in the Women’s Reservation Bill^{[clarification needed]}. Its allies in congress and SUCI also got six and one MP seats respectively marking the best performance by any opposition party in West Bengal since the start of the left regime. Until then, the Congress victory of 16 seats in 1984, by the sympathy vote after the death of Indira Gandhi, was considered the best show of opposition.

Railway Minister, second tenure

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In 2009, Mamata Banerjee became railway minister for the second time and announced a number of new initiatives in the railway budget. Some argued that these reflected her bias towards her home state, West Bengal, although she had lead initiatives to benefit the entire country. She decided to develop about 50 railway stations to be world-class stations with international-level facilities. These will be developed through innovative financing and public-private partnerships. Banerjee also declared the Railway Ministry’s intention to develop another 375 stations as Adarsh (Ideal) Stations^{[clarification needed]}. Furthermore, she announced construction of multi-functional complexes in station premises for providing rail users facilities, they included shopping-malls, food stalls and restaurants, book stalls, PCO/STD/ISD^{[clarification needed]}/Fax booths, medicine and variety stores, budget hotels, underground parking, and the like. The railway minister announced that these complexes will also be developed by public-private partnerships. Banerjee also set up scholarships for the higher education of the female children of group D staff^{[clarification needed]}, to promote their economic independence. She proposed to open seven nursing colleges on railway land.^[37] Banerjee also introduced new train services like “Duronto” and “Yuva” in the budget, the former the fastest train service in India.^[38] To relieve women passengers during rush hour, Mamata introduced a Special Ladies Train on 19 July between Bandel and Howrah.^[39] Later, she introduced more Special Ladies Trains , e.g. Kalyani-Sealdah and Panvel-Mumbai CST.^[40]

Mamata Banerjee flagged off the Duronto Express – a nonstop train, fastest train of India between Sealdah and New Delhi on 18 September 2009.^[41] The super fast Duronto Express train between Chennai and New Delhi was introduced on 21 September. Banerjee also took steps to spread railway in terror-hit regions of Kashmir.^[why?] Anantnag-Qadigund Railway line was inaugurated in October.^[42]

On 7 February 2010, Banerjee will start as many as nineteen new train services.^[43] Due to repeated sexual harassment and/or sexual assault of India’s women commuters, eight trains will be designated as women-only.^[44]

2011 Assembly election

Mamata Banerjee’s All India Trinamool Congress along with SUCI and Indian National Congress Alliance won the state assembly election against the Left ruling party by securing 227 seats. Trinamool Congress alone won 184 seats with the INC winning 42 seats where the other ally SUCI secured one seat. Throughout the 34-year-regime, the Left Front had never won fewer than two-thirds of the 294 seats, but this time it could only manage 62 seats.

Mamata Banerjee at Milan Mela ground after inauguration of the ‘Infocom 2011′ an IT fair in Kolkata.

Chief Minister

Mamata Banerjee’s Oath of Office Taking the Oath at Raj Bhavan, Kolkata Mamata Banerjee takes the oath of office as Chief Minister administered by Governor M. K. Narayanan on May 20, 2011.

Banerjee was sworn in as Chief Minister of West Bengal on 20 May 2011. As the first woman Chief Minister of West Bengal, one of her first decisions was to return 400 acres of land to Singurfarmers. “The cabinet has decided to return 400 acres to unwilling farmers in Singur,” the chief minister said. “I have instructed the department to prepare the papers for this. If Tatababu wants, he can set up his factory on the remaining 600 acres, otherwise we will see how to go about it,” she added.^[45]

She has also been credited to solving the longstanding “Gorkhaland Problem”^{[clarification needed]}by setting up the Gorkhaland Autonomous Council. ,^[46] thus fulfilling another of her campaign promises.

She has started various reforms in education and health sectors. Some of the reforms in the education sectors include release of the monthly pay of the teachers on the first of every month^[47][48] and quicker pensions for retiring teachers.^[49]In health sector “A three-phase developmental system will be taken up to improve the heath infrastructure and service,” Mamata Banerjee said.”^[50]

In fact she was instrumental in the rollback of the petrol price hikes ^[51] and the suspension of FDI in Retail Sector until a consensus is evolved.^[52]

Born

Political party

Other political

affiliations

Spouse(s)

Children

Alma mater

Profession

Religion

• 1 Early life and education
• 2 Political career
  • 2.1 Early career
  • 2.2 Jana Sangh to Janata Party
  • 2.3 Janata Party to Bharatiya Janata Party
  • 2.4 The rise of the BJP
  • 2.5 NDA Government formation
  • 2.6 Prime Minister candidacy
• 3 Vajpayee-Advani Duo
• 4 Rath Yatras
• 5 Political Journey of L K Adwani

Early life and education

Lal Krishna Advani was born at Karachi, in Sindh of British India to Kishanchand D. Advani and Gyani Devi. He completed his early schooling from Saint Patrick’s High School, Karachi, then he joined the D.G. National College in Hyderabad, Sindh for his college education. He then graduated in Law fromGovernment Law College, Bombay University.^[2]

Political career

Early career

L.K Advani’s life as a politician started in 1947 when he was elected as the Secretary, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Karachi. In 1947, Advani was sent to Mewar in Rajasthan, which had witnessed communal violence following partition, to oversee the affairs of the RSS there.

Jana Sangh to Janata Party

Advani became a member of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, which was founded in 1951 by Shyama Prasad Mukherjee. After serving various positions in theJana Sangh, he became its President in 1975. When Jai Prakash Narayan, who led the public movement against the Emergency refused to campaign for the opposition parties unless all of them joined together, the Jana Sangh and many other opposition parties merged into the Janata Party. With the dissolution of Jana Sangh, Advani and his colleague Atal Bihari Vajpayee joined the Janata Party to fight the Lok Sabha Elections of 1977.

Janata Party to Bharatiya Janata Party

The Janata Party was formed by political leaders and activists of various political parties who had been united in opposing the state of Emergency imposed in 1975 by then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. After elections were called in 1977, the Janata Party was formed from the union of the Congress (O), Swatantra Party, Socialist Party of India, Bharatiya Jana Sangh and the Lok Dal. Indian National Congress defector Jagjivan Ram formed the Congress for Democracy and joined the Janata alliance. The widespread unpopularity of Emergency rule gave Janata Party and its allied a landslide victory in the election. Morarji Desai became the Prime Minister of India, Advani became the Minister of Information and Broadcasting and his close friend and Jana Sangh senior colleague Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the External Affairs Minister.

The nature of the birth of the Janata Party sowed the seeds of its destruction as well. Bitter animosity amongst its ranks ensured that the government remained on the brink. Finally, the issue of dual membership became the bone of contention as some members of the Janata Party insisted that the erstwhile members of the Jana Sangh dissociate themselves from the right-wing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

The erstwhile members of the Jana Sangh, came out of the Janata Party and they formed the new Bharatiya Janata Party. Advani became a prominent leader of the newly founded BJP and represented the party in the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of the Indian Parliament).^[2]

The rise of the BJP

Advani became the president of the BJP in 1986. His rise coincided with a growing unease and disquiet with the ruling Congress Party, among the Hindu upper castes due the increasing assertion of the lower castes with the Mandal politics and growing fundamentalism among the minority Muslims. Sensing an opportunity Advani embarked on a new aggressive phase of his politics and by 1991, he had taken a party to new heights.

He gradually brought in a shift in the party’s policies by advocating Hindutva. Meanwhile, the finance minister V. P. Singh also defected. In the elections of 1989, the combined might of the VP Singh led Janata Dal and the BJP managed to eat into the Congress’s seats. Despite emerging as the single largest party, the Congress opted to sit in Opposition, and a coalition headed by V P Singh as Prime Minister formed the government. The BJP supported this government from the outside.

Lal Krishna Advani with Condoleezza Rice

In 1989, the BJP launched a movement led by Advani on the issue of the Ram Janmabhoomi (the birth place of Rama). The BJP demanded that a temple dedicated to deity Rama be created at the site of the Babri Masjid where, according to Archaeological Survey of India (ASI),^[3][4] a temple stood tillBabur’s invasion of India in 1528. Sunni Central Wakf Board rejected this claim claiming the remains of the temple had been found at a depth of 50 metres, while no digging up to such depths had actually taken place. However, rather than a settling on a political solution to the dispute, the disputed structure was destroyed by a Hindu mob, sparking massive Hindu-Muslim riots.

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Advani embarked on a “Rath Yatra” to mobilize “karsevaks” to converge upon the Babri Masjid to offer prayers. This “Rath Yatra”, undertaken in an air-conditioned van decorated to look like a chariot, started from Somnath in Gujarat and had covered a large part of Northern India until it was brought to a halt by the Chief Minister of Bihar, Laloo Prasad Yadav.

This movement helped the BJP cross fresh boundaries, especially in North India. Advani succeeded in drawing away a large chunk of the upper caste voters who were already mortified at the rise of Mandal politics, away from the Congress^{[citation needed]}. In the 1991 general elections, the BJP came second after the Congress party in terms of seats.

In 1992, two years after Advani ended his yatra, despite assurances given by the Kalyan Singh led BJP Government to the Supreme Court, the Babri Masjid was demolished by the “karsevaks” with alleged complicity of the Kalyan Singh government.^[5][6] Advani is one of the main accused in the Babri Masjid case.^[7]

BJP, under Advani, sat in the opposition from 1991-1996 during the reign of P V Narasimha Rao. The Rao regime was repeatedly accused by the BJP of corruption and various scandals.

NDA Government formation

After the 1996 general elections, the BJP became the single largest party and was consequently invited by the President to form the Government. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was sworn in as Prime Minister in May 1996. However, the Government did not last long and Vajpayee resigned after thirteen days.

After two years in the political wilderness, the BJP under the umbrella of the National Democratic Alliance (a BJP-led coalition), again came to power with Vajpayee as PM in March 1998, when elections were called after India saw two unstable Governments headed by H D Deve Gowda and I K Gujral respectively. Advani assumed the office of Home Minister and was later elevated to the position of Deputy Prime Minister. As Union Minister, Advani had a tough time with India facing a string of internal disturbances in the form of terror attacks from neighbouring Pakistan . The BJP-led NDA Government lasted for its full term of five years till 2004, with Vajpayee as the Prime Minister. The NDA was the only non-Congress Government to last for five years.

L.K. Advani with Dmitry Medvedev of Russia.

Advani was charged in a Hawala scandal where he allegedly received payments through hawalabrokers. He and others were later discharged by the Supreme Court of India, because there was no additional evidence which could be used to charge them.^[8] According to the judicial inquiry by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) they could not find any substantive evidences; the Supreme Court ruling stated that no statement even mentioned Advani’s name and that evidence against him was limited to the mention of his name on a few loose sheets of paper.^[8]

However, the failure of this prosecution by the CBI was widely criticized.^[9] While some believe the CBI probe catapulted his rise through the BJP on his newfound “moral authority”,^[10] others have claimed the inquiry was a political stunt.^[11][12]

As elections approached in 2004, Advani was supremely confident and conducted an aggressive campaign where he claimed the Congress Party would not get even 100 seats. The BJP suffered a defeat in the general elections held in 2004, and was forced to sit in the opposition. Another coalition, the United Progressive Alliance led by the resurgent Congress came to power, with Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister. The NDA disintegrated with the Telugu Desam Party, which had supported the NDA government from the outside, deserting the alliance.

Vajpayee retired from active politics after the 2004 defeat, putting Advani to the forefront of the BJP. Advani became Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2009. During this period, Advani had to deal with rebellion from within the party. His two close associates, Uma Bharati, and Madan Lal Khurana, and longtime rival Murali Manohar Joshi publicly spoke out against him. In June 2005, he drew much criticism when he, while on a visit to the Jinnah Mausoleum at Karachi – his town of birth, endorsed Mohammad Ali Jinnah and described him a “secular” leader. This did not sit well with the RSS either and Advani was forced to relinquish his post as BJP president. However, he withdrew the resignation a few days later.

The relationship between Advani and the RSS reached a low point when K S Sudarshan, opined that both Advani and Vajpayee give way to new leaders.^[13] At the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the BJP in Mumbai in December 2005, Advani stepped down as party president and Rajnath Singh, a relatively junior politician from the state of Uttar Pradesh was elected in his place. In March 2006, following a bomb blast at one of the holiest Hindu shrines at Varanasi, Advani undertook a “Bharat Suraksha Yatra” (Sojourn for National Security), to highlight the alleged failure of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (a Congress led coalition) in combating terrorism.

Prime Minister candidacy

Advani discussing “black money” at one of many rallies during the 2009 campaign.

In an interview with a news channel in December 2006, L.K. Advani stated that as the Leader of the Opposition in a parliamentary democracy, he considered himself as the Prime Ministerial candidate for the general elections, ending on 16 May 2009.^[14] Some of his colleagues were not supportive of his candidacy.^[15]

A major factor going in favor of Advani was that he had always been the most powerful leader in the BJP with the exception of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who endorsed Advani’s candidacy shortly after the interview was done. On 2 May 2007, BJP President Rajnath Singh, in an interview, stated that: “After Atal there is only Advani. Advani is the natural choice. It is he who should be PM”.^[16] On 10 December 2007, the Parliamentary Board of BJP formally announced that L. K. Advani would be its prime ministerial candidate for the General Elections due in 2009.

However, Indian National Congress party and its allies won the 2009 General Elections, allowing incumbent Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to continue in office. Following the defeat in the elections, L. K. Advani paved way for Sushma Swaraj to become the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha.^[17]

Vajpayee-Advani Duo

Through the 90s and the first few years of the 21st century, the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-LK Advani combination steered the BJP to heights it had never before witnessed. Their political relationship provided stability, continuity, experience and authority to a party that was beginning even then, to severely lack a solid second-rung. As Advani himself acknowledged, rarely do two political leaders share such a bond, a working relationship that allows them both to thrive and grow without disturbing the fine balance of that bond.

Vajpayee, the poet-Prime Minister and Advani as his able and trusted lieutenant, brought depth and gravity to the BJP leadership. It still is, and will be in many ways, the gold standard to which the BJP will hold itself for many years to come.

Rath Yatras

Popularly known in India as the Eternal yatri or Eternal Charioteer,^[18] L.K. Advani has taken 6 yatras throughout India.

1. Ram Rath Yatra- L.K. Advani started his first Rath Yatra from Somnath, Gujarat^[19] on 25 September 1990 to finally reach Ayodhya on October 30, 1990. The yatra has been linked to the Mandir-Masjid dispute centred around Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site at Ayodhya. The BJP and Advani, however, focused the yatra on the secularism–communalism debate.^[20]

2. Janadesh Yatra- Four Yatras named Janadesh Yatra^[21] started on 11 september 1993 from four corners of country. L.K. Advani led this yatra from Mysore. Travelling through 14 States and two Union Territories, the yatris congregated at Bhopal on September 25 in a massive rally. The purpose of Janadesh Yatrawas to seek the people’s mandate against the two Bills, the Constitution 80th Amendment Bill and the Representation of People (Amendment) Bill.^[22]

3.Swarna Jayanti Rath Yatra- The Swarna Jayanti Rath Yatra by Mr. Advani travelled across India between May and July 1997. According to Mr.Advani, the yatra was conducted in celebration of 50 years of Indian Independence and also to project the BJP as a party committed to good governance.^[23]

4. Bharat Uday Yatra- The Bharat Uday Yatra took place in the run-up to the 2004 Lok Sabha Elections.^[24]

5. Bharat Suraksha Yatra- The BJP launched a nationwide mass political campaign in the form of the Bharat Suraksha Yatra from April 6 to May 10, 2006. It consisted of two yatras – one led by L.K. Advani, Leader of the Opposition (Lok Sabha), from Dwaraka in Gujarat to Delhi; and the other led by Rajnath Singh, then the President of the BJP, from Jagannath Puri in Orissa to Delhi.^[25] The yatra was focused on left wing terrorism, minority politics, corruption, protection of democracy and price rise.^[26]

6. Jan Chetna Yatra- The Jan Chetna Yatra was launched on 11 October 2011 from Sitab Diara, Bihar. The BJP states the purpose of Jan Chetna Yatra is to mobilise public opinion against corruption of the UPA government and put BJP agenda of good governance and clean politics before the people of India.^[27]

Political Journey of L K Advani

	1942 : Joined Rashtiya Sevk Sangha [R S S ]
	1947 : R S S Organiser of Karachi city
	1951 – 1957 : State Secretary of Rajasthan Jansangh
	1957 : Secretary of Delhi Jansangha and Parliamentary group of party
	1970 – 1989 : Member of Rajya Sabha
	1973 – 1977 : President of Jansangha
	1975 – 1977 : Detained Under MISA in Bangalore Jail.
	1977 : Cabinet Minister of Information & Broadcasting.
	1980 : Founder Secretary of Bharitya Janta Party [BJP ] and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha
	1986 : National President of BJP
	1989 : Elected to Lok Sabha
	1991 : Reelected to Lok Sabha, Leader of Opposition.
	1998 : Cabinet Home Minister
	1999 – 2004 : Deputy Prime Minister of India.
	2004 : Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha
	2009: Projected as Prime Ministerial Candidate by BJP in Lok Sabha Election

• 1 Early life
• 2 Political career
• 3 Controversies
  • 3.1 Corruption charges
  • 3.2 Criticism of Hindu groups
  • 3.3 Communal-ism

Early life

Digvijay Singh was born in the Raghogarh royal principality, in Guna district of Madhya Pradesh. He is a Raghorarhi-Rajput by community. He was educated at Daly College in Indore. He is also an alumnus of Shri Govindram Seksaria Institute of Technology and Science, where he completed a B.E. in engineering in 1968.

Political career

Digvijay Singh first became president of the Raghogarh municipal committee at the age of 22 years. He then joined the congress party in 1971. He contested his first assembly elections in 1977 for the congress party and became an MLA for the first time. He became a Minister of State and later a Cabinet Minister in the Madhya Pradesh state government led by Arjun Singh in 1980–84 going on to serve as the President of Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee in 1985. He was elected as a Member of Parliament in 1984 and 1991 from Rajgarh constituency. In 1993 Digvijay Singh became the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh and then got re-elected for his second term as chief minister in 1998. He represented his hometown and constituency, Raghogarh from 1977 to 1984 and then from 1993 to 2008 (where he served as the chief minister for 10 years from 1993 to 2003) in the State Assembly elections as well. The Congress got another term in 1998 under his leadership. However, congress government was defeated in 2003 election, because of which BJP came back to power and still ruling the state.

Controversies

Corruption charges

In 2001, during an income tax raid on a liquor manufacturer in Bhopal, income tax authorities seized a diary maintained by the distillery’s owners. They found the names of several officials and politicians of the state and their bribe money written against their names in the diary which reportedly also listed Digvijay Singh’s name with a payment of 100 million rupees against it. Digvijay Singh was the chief minister at the time.^[2] Digvijay Singh said that this was a conspiracy by BJP and NDA to destabilize his government.^[3]

In 2001, he appointed A.N.Singh as the Director-General of the State Police (DGP). A.N.Singh’s name appeared prominently in the tell-tale diaries seized in a raid by the income tax authorities some months ago. When those diaries first made headlines, Singh was the state’s additional DGP (Intelligence).^[4]

A Jhabua court issued a warrant against Digvijay Singh and 14 others for alleged remarks on the 1998 Jhabua nuns rape case accusing Hindu organizations of being involved in the incident, following a civil defamation suit filed by a local lawyer. A Bhopal court later cancelled the warrant after he appeared in person and furnished a surety bond for Rs. 5,000.^[5]

In 2004, the Madhya Pradesh Lok Ayukta registered an FIR in connection with a land scam in Indore under the Prevention of Corruption Act to probe allegations of criminal conspiracy and corruption against Digvijay Singh, and four others.^[6] In 2009, an FIR was registered against Digvijay Singh by the Uttar Pradesh Police for allegedly making objectionable remarks against the then Uttar PradeshChief Minister Mayawati during an election rally.^[7] On 12 February 2009, a case of cheating and corruption was filed against Digvijay Singh, a former state minister Choudhary Rakesh Singh Chaturvedi and ten others by the Madhya Pradesh state Economic Offences Wing under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act for alleged irregularities in construction of theTreasure Island Mall in Indore. On 20 April 2011, the Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court directed the Economic Offences Wing of Madhya Pradesh state to file a charge-sheet against Digvijay Singh and 11 others for these alleged irregularities.^[8][9] The FIR was lodged against him at Mallwan police station in Madhya Pradesh for violating model code of conduct by making objectionable remarks during an election speech on April 2009.^[10]

In 2011 activist Agnivesh called for the Indian National Congress to rein Digvijay in, stating that he was a burden to the party’s image vis-à-vis corruption.^[11]

On 14 November 2011 a complaint was registered at Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta Office against Congress MLA Sanjay Pathak’s mining firms by a person known as Rajendra Dixit, which demanded a Lokayukta probe against an alleged iron ore mining scam worth Rs 5000 crore at Sihora, Jabalpur. The person who made the complaint also submitted on record the note-sheet copy which was allegedly prepared at the orders of then CM Digvijay Singh on June 24, 2002 in which he allegedly ordered the upper secretary, Department of Forest for declaring the forest land as revenue land in order to allow Pathak’s mining firms iron ore Mining at the land.^[12]

Criticism of Hindu groups

Digvijay Singh has consistently taken a public stance against Right-Wing Hindu Groups like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal accusing them of being involved in terrorist activities.

In December 2010, Digvijay Singh gave several interviews in the Media claiming that Mumbai ATS Chief Mr. Hemant Karkare called him hours before he was killed, talking to him about threats to his (Karkare’s) life from Hindu extremist groups. Hemant Karkare in his role as chief of the Mumbai ATS had found incriminating evidence implicating several individuals with known RSS links and was facing a barrage of attacks including from right-wing politicians. During the same time U.S. Wikileaks cables quoted cables sent by the U.S. Ambassador about Congress party “playing religious politics” and “crass political opportunism” in plating doubts regarding Mr. Karkare’s murder by Pakistani terrorists.^[13] A petition was filed in a local court against him, alleging that his remarks in connection with slain Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare, was an attempt to whip up communal frenzy.^[14] However the Maharashtra government was unable to find any evidence that such a call occurred^[15]

Coming on the eve of the WikiLeaks cables, this caused a lot of heat in the media. Digvijay repeated the allegations in his address to the Congress plenary session saying that the right-wing extremism of the kind perpetrated by the RSS and SIMI represented a grave threat to national unity. Equating the RSS to the Nazis he said that The RSS, in the garb of its nationalist ideology, is targeting Muslims the same way Nazis targeted Jews in the 1930s. Israel had taken grave exception to this comment.^[16] He accused the RSS of being involved in a number of terrorist strikes across the country. Further in the same speech, he demanded a CBI enquiry into the mysterious murder of Sunil Joshi, an RSS activist accused of being involved in the Ajmer Dargah attack, alleging that Joshi was murdered because “he knew too much”.^[17]

In a interview, Singh said that he was a better Hindu and followed Hinduism better than RSS.^[18]

Communalism

Observers have accused Digvijay Singh of adopting Islamist methods of propaganda for political purposes, in the form of “Goebbelsian propaganda”^[19]

In the wake of the killing of Osama Bin Laden, Digvijay Singh stated that “even the worst of criminals should be buried or cremated according to their faith”, calling him “Osama Ji” (Word to show respect in Hindi). This statement widely criticized as communal, with an eye for pandering to the Muslim community^[20]

Digvijay Singh suggested that the Batla House encounter case, which led to the death of two suspected terrorists and one police officer, was fake.^[21]

Personal details
Born	20 August 1944 Bombay, British India
Died	21 May 1991 (aged 46) Sriperumbudur, India
Political party	Indian National Congress
Spouse(s)	Sonia Maino
Children	Rahul Priyanka
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge Imperial College, London
Signature

Contents

• 1 Early life and career
  • 1.1 Education
• 2 Entry into politics
• 3 Premiership
  • 3.1 Economic policy
  • 3.2 Foreign policy
  • 3.3 Security policy
• 4 Controversies
  • 4.1 Anti Sikh riots
  • 4.2 Bofors scandal
  • 4.3 Sri Lanka policy
  • 4.4 Shah Bano case
  • 4.5 Allegations of black money
  • 4.6 Allegations of funding from KGB
• 5 Assassination

Early life and career

Rajiv Gandhi was born into India’s most famous political family. His grandfather was the Indian independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru, who was India’s first Prime Minister after independence. He has also a half sister named Udita Rohatgi a high school graduate girl living in New Delhi (India) Rajiv is not related toMahatma Gandhi, although they share the same surname. Rajiv’s father, Feroze, was one of the younger members of the Indian National Congress party, and had befriended the young Indira, and also her mother Kamala Nehru, while working on party affairs at Allahabad. Subsequently, Indira and Feroze grew closer to each other while in England, and they married, despite initial objections from Jawaharlal due to his religion (Zoroastrianism).^[7]

Rajiv was born in 1944 in Mumbai, during a time when both his parents were in and out of British prisons. In August 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru became the prime minister of independent India, and the family settled in Allahabad, and then at Lucknow, where Feroze became the editor of The National Herald newspaper (founded by Motilal Nehru). However, the marriage was faltering and, in 1949, Indira and the two sons moved to Delhi to live with Jawaharlal, ostensibly so that Indira could assist her father in his duties, acting as official hostess, and helping run the huge residence. Meanwhile, Feroze continued alone in Lucknow. Nonetheless, in 1952, Indira helped Feroze manage his campaign for elections to the first Parliament of India from Rae Bareli.

After becoming an MP, Feroze Gandhi also moved to Delhi, but “Indira continued to stay with her father, thus putting the final seal on the separation.”^[8]Relations were strained further when Feroze challenged corruption within the Congress leadership over the Haridas Mundhra scandal. Jawaharlal suggested that the matter be resolved in private, but Feroze insisted on taking the case directly to parliament:

“The Parliament must exercise vigilance and control over the biggest and most powerful financial institution it has created, the Life Insurance Corporationof India, whose misapplication of public funds we shall scrutinise today.” Feroze Gandhi, Speech in Parliament, 16 December 1957.^[9]

The scandal, and its investigation by justice M C Chagla, lead to the resignation of one of Nehru’s key allies, finance minister T.T. Krishnamachari, further alienating Feroze from Jawaharlal.

After Feroze Gandhi had a heart attack in 1958, the family was reconciled briefly when they vacationed in Kashmir. However, Feroze died soon afterwards from a second heart attack in 1960.

Education

At the time of his father’s death, Rajiv was away at a private boarding school for boys: initially at the Welham Boys’ School and later The Doon School, both located at Dehradun, Uttarakhand. He was sent to London in 1961 to study his A-levels. In 1962, he was offered a place at Trinity College, Cambridge to study engineering. Rajiv stayed at Cambridge until 1965 and just like his mother, he dropped out of university and did not appear in the final Tripos examinations.^{[citation needed]} In 1966, he was offered a place at the Imperial College London. He again left Imperial College after a year without a degree.

In the January of 1965, he met Italian Antonia (Sonia) Maino in Varsity restaurant in Cambridge, where she worked as a waitress. Antonia was studying English at Lennox School of Languages (which was not associated with the University of Cambridge). Rajiv and Sonia were married in 1968 in India.

Rajiv began working for Indian Airlines as a professional pilot while his mother became Prime Minister in 1966. He exhibited no interest in politics and did not live regularly with his mother in Delhi at the Prime Minister’s residence. In 1970, his wife gave birth to their first child Rahul Gandhi, and in 1972, to Priyanka Gandhi, their second. Even as Rajiv remained aloof in politics, his younger brother Sanjay became a close advisor to their mother.

Entry into politics

Following his younger brother’s death in 1980, Gandhi was pressured by Indian National Congress party politicians and his mother to enter politics. He and his wife were both opposed to the idea, and he even publicly stated that he would not contest for his brother’s seat. Nevertheless, he eventually announced his candidacy for Parliament. His entry was criticized by many in the press, public and opposition political parties. He fought his first election from Amethi Loksabha seat. In this by-election, he defeated Lokdal leader Sharad Yadav by more than 200,000 votes.

Elected to Sanjay’s Lok Sabha (parliamentary) constituency of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh state in February 1981, Gandhi became an important political advisor to his mother. It was widely perceived that Indira Gandhi was grooming Rajiv for the prime minister’s job, and he soon became the president of the Youth Congress – the Congress party’s youth wing.

Premiership

Rajiv Gandhi (right) in 1984.

Gandhi was in West Bengal when his mother, Indira Gandhi was assassinated on 31 October 1984 by two of her Sikh bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, to avenge the military attack on the Harmandir Sahib (Sikhism’s holiest shrine, also called “The Golden Temple”) during Operation Blue Star. Top Congress leaders, as well as President Zail Singh pressed Rajiv to become India’s Prime Minister, within hours of his mother’s assassination by two of herSikh bodyguards. Commenting on the anti-Sikh riots in the national capital Delhi, Rajiv Gandhi said, “When a giant tree falls, the earth below shakes”;^[10] a statement for which he was widely criticised. Many Congress politicians were accused of orchestrating the violence.^[11] Soon after assuming office, Rajiv asked President Zail Singh to dissolve Parliament and hold fresh elections, as the Lok Sabha completed its five year term. Rajiv Gandhi also officially became the President of the Congress party. The Congress party won a landslide victory — with the largest majority in history of Indian Parliament^[12]— giving Gandhi absolute control of government. He also benefited from his youth and a general perception of being Mr. Clean, or free of a background in corrupt politics. Rajiv thus revived hopes and enthusiasm amongst the Indian public for the Congress.^[13]

Economic policy

He increased government support for science and technology and associated industries, and reduced import quotas, taxes and tariffs on technology-based industries, especially computers, airlines, defence and telecommunications. He introduced measures significantly reducing the License Raj, allowing businesses and individuals to purchase capital, consumer goods and import without bureaucratic restrictions.^[1] In 1986, he announced a National Policy on Education to modernize and expand higher education programs across India. He founded the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya System in 1986 which is a Central government based institution that concentrates on the upliftment of the rural section of the society providing them free residential education from 6th till 12 grade.^[14] His efforts created MTNL in 1986, and his public call offices, better known as PCOs, helped spread telephones in rural areas.^[15]

Foreign policy

Gandhi began leading in a direction significantly different from his mother’s socialism. He improved bilateral relations with the United States — long strained owing to Indira’s socialism and close friendship with the USSR — and expanded economic and scientific cooperation.^[16] During his state visit to the Soviet Union he met with Premier Nikolai Tikhonov, Andrey Gromyko of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Mikhail Gorbachev.

Security policy

Rajiv Gandhi (left) congratulates an Indian Army explorer for reaching the South Pole.

Rajiv authorized an extensive police and Army campaign to contain terrorism in Punjab. A state of martial law existed in the Punjab state, and civil liberties, commerce and tourism were greatly disrupted.^[17] There are many accusations of human rights violations by police officials as well as by the militants during this period. It is alleged that even as the situation in Punjab came under control, the Indian government was offering arms and training to the LTTE rebels fighting the government of Sri Lanka. The Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord was signed by Rajiv Gandhi and the Sri Lankan PresidentJ.R.Jayewardene, in Colombo on 29 July 1987. The very next day, on 30 July 1987, Rajiv Gandhi was assaulted on the head with a rifle butt by a young Sinhalese naval cadet named Vijayamunige Rohana de Silva, while receiving the honour guard. The intended assault on the back of Rajiv Gandhi’s head however glanced off his shoulder. Though the embarrassed Sri Lankan President Junius Richard Jayewardene initially attempted to pass off the bizarre assault as “Rajiv tripped a little and slightly lost his balance”, Rajiv Gandhi while en route to New Delhi asserted to J.N. Dixit ”Of course, I was hit.” Rajiv’s government also suffered a major setback when its efforts to arbitrate between the government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE rebels backfired^{[citation needed]}.

With his speech while addressing the Joint Session of the US Congress and India, he famously said, “India is an old country, but a young nation; and like the young everywhere, we are impatient. I am young and I too have a dream. I dream of an India, strong, independent, self reliant and in the forefront of the front ranks of the nations of the world in the service of mankind.”^[18]

Controversies

Anti Sikh riots

This refers to the statement of Rajiv Gandhi as Prime Minister at a Boat Club rally 19-days after the assassination of Indira Gandhi, which read as “Some riots took place in the country following the murder of Indiraji. We know the people were very angry and for a few days it seemed that India had been shaken. But, when a mighty tree falls, it is only natural that the earth around it does shake a little.”^[19]

This statement sent a wrong signal to the authorities, who adopted a callous approach of not allowing the truth to come out despite the government setting up probe panels one after the other, including two full fledged judicial commissions, the first headed by retired Chief Justice of India Ranganath Misra and the second by a former apex court judge G.T. Nanavati. According to the authors of the book titled – “When a Tree Shook Delhi” written by senior advocate H.S. Phoolka and co-author, journalist Manoj Mitta (who have based the details of the book mainly on evidence produced before the nine panels and trial courts and high courts in the form of sworn affidavits by hundreds of witnesses). Based on eyewitness accounts the book said that instead of targeting the aggressors the police cracked down on the Sikh victims, who had been defending their properties when they were attacked by hooligans led by local Congress leaders.^[19]

Bofors scandal

Singh’s image as an exposer of government corruption made him very popular with the public^{[citation needed]}, and opposition parties united under his name to form the Janata Dal coalition. In the 1989 elections, the Congress suffered a major setback. With the support of Indian communists and the Bharatiya Janata Party, Singh and his Janata Dal formed a government. Gandhi became the Leader of the Opposition, while remaining Congress president. While some believe that Rajiv and Congress leaders influenced the collapse of V. P. Singh’s government in October 1990 by promising support toChandra Shekhar, a high-ranking leader in the Janata Dal, sufficient internal contradictions existed, within the ruling coalition, especially over the controversial reservation issue, to cause a fall of government. Rajiv’s Congress offered outside support briefly to Chandra Sekhar, who became Prime Minister. They withdrew their support in 1991, however, and fresh elections were announced.

Sri Lanka policy

Then Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa opposed the Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord, but accepted it due to pressure from then President Junius Richard Jayewardene. In January 1989 Premadasa was elected President and on a platform that promised that the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) leave within three months.^[21] In the 1989 elections, both the Sri Lanka Freedom Partyand United National Party wanted the IPKF to withdraw, and they got 95 percent of the vote.

The police action was unpopular in India as well, especially in Tamil Nadu, as India was fighting the Tamil separatists.

Gandhi refused to withdraw the IPKF, believing that the only way to end the civil war was to politically force Premadasa and militarily force the LTTE to accept the accord.

Rajiv had concluded a rather empty visit to Sri Lanka; this was just after the Indian Peace Keeping Force (a contingent of India armed forces sent to Sri Lanka to help with their battle against Tamil insurgents) had been recalled and there was a good deal of resentment that Indian troops had been deployed there.

During the ceremonial send off, he had to perform the usual inspection of the guard of honour at the airport. As he was doing so, a naval rating (sailor), who was part of the guard of honour contingent, reversed his rifle and tried to hit Rajiv on the head with it. Had he succeeded it may well have proved fatal. More than anything else it was Rajiv’s own agility and quick reflexes that saved him. He darted to one side and at the same time the officer in charge of the guard of honour leapt at the man and pushed him aside, an act that caused the blow to lose some of its force. Nevertheless the rifle struck Rajiv a glancing blow on his shoulder. A split second later one of his Special Protection Group (that look after Indian VIP’s security) men grabbed the rating and threw him to the ground.

In December 1989, Singh was elected Prime Minister and completed the pullout. The IPKF operation killed over 1100 Indian soldiers, 5000 Tamil civilians and cost over 10000 crores.^[22][23]

Shah Bano case

Allegations of black money

In November 1991, the Schweizer Illustrierte (Swiss Illustrated) magazine published an article on black money held in secret accounts by Imelda Marcos and 14 other rulers of Third World countries. Citing McKinsey as a source, the article stated that Rajiv Gandhi held 2.5 billion Swiss Francs in secret Indian accounts in Switzerland.^[25][26] Several leaders of opposition parties in India have raised the issue citing the Schweizer Illustrierte article. In December 1991, Amal Datta raised the issue in the Indian Parliament – the then speaker of the Lok Sabha, Shivraj Patil, expunged Rajiv Gandhi’s name from the proceedings.^[27] In December 2011, Subramanian Swamy wrote a letter to the director of the Central Bureau of Investigation which cited the article, asking him to take action on black money accounts of the Gandhi family.^[28] On December 29 2011, Ram Jethmalani made an indirect reference to the issue in the Rajya Sabha, calling it a shame that one of India’s former Prime Ministers was named by a Swiss magazine. This was met by uproar and a demand for withdrawal of the remark by the ruling Congress party members.^[29]

Allegations of funding from KGB

In 1992, two Indian newspapers, the Times of India and The Hindu, published reports alleging that Rajiv Gandhi had received funds from the KGB.^[27][30] The Russian government confirmed this disclosure and defended the payments as necessary for the Soviet ideological interest.^[31] In their 1994 book The State Within a State, the journalists Yevgenia Albats and Catherine Fitzpatrick quoted a letter signed by Viktor Chebrikov in the 1980s, the then-head of the KGB. The letter says that the KGB maintained contact with Rajiv Gandhi, who expressed his gratitude to the KGB for benefits accruing to his family from commercial dealings of a controlled firm, and a considerable portion of funds obtained from this channel were used to support his party.^[32] Albats later revealed that in December 1985, Chebrikov had asked for authorization from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to make payments to family members of Rajiv Gandhi including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.^[27][31] The payments were authorized by a resolution and endorsed by the USSR Council of Ministers, and had been coming since 1971.^[31] In December 2001, Subramanian Swamy filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court, acting on which the court ordered CBI to ascertain the truth of the allegations in May 2002. After two years, the CBI told the Court that Russia would not entertain such queries without a registered FIR.^[31]

Assassination

The stone mosaic that stands at the location where Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in Sriperumbudur

Rajiv Gandhi’s last public meeting was at Sriperumbudur on 21 May 1991, in a village approximately 30 miles from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, where he was assassinated while campaigning for the Sriperumbudur Lok Sabha Congress candidate.^[33] The assassination was carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRUxAvYSx4E

At 10:10 p.m.,a woman (later identified as being named Thenmuli Rajaratnam) approached Rajiv Gandhi in a public meeting and greeted him. She then bent down to touch his feet (an expression of respect among Indians) and detonated a belt laden with 700 grams of RDX explosives tucked under her dress.^[34] The explosion killed Rajiv Gandhi and many others. The assassination was caught on film through the lens of a local photographer, whose camera and film were found at the site. The cameraman himself died in the blast but the camera remained intact.

The Rajiv Gandhi Memorial was built at the site recently and is one of the major tourist attractions of the small industrial town.

The Rajiv Gandhi Memorial at Delhi.

The Rajiv Gandhi Memorial at Sriperumbudur.

The Supreme Court judgement, by Judge Thomas, confirmed that the killing was carried out due to personal animosity of the LTTE chief Prabhakaran towards Mr Rajiv Gandhi arising out of his sending the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to Sri Lanka and the alleged IPKF atrocities against Srilankan Tamils. However, it should be noted that the Rajiv Gandhi administration had already antagonised other Tamil militant organisations like PLOTE for reversing the military coup in Maldives back in 1988.

The judgment further cites the death of Thileepan in a hunger strike and the suicide by 12 LTTE cadres in a vessel in Oct 1987.

In the Jain Commission report, various people and agencies are named as suspected of having been involved in the murder of Rajiv Gandhi. Among them, the cleric Chandraswami was suspected of involvement, including financing the assassination.^[35][36][37] The interim report of the Jain Commission created a storm when it accusedKarunanidhi of a role in the assassination, leading to Congress withdrawing its support for the I. K. Gujral government and fresh elections in 1998. LTTE spokesman Anton Balasingham told the Indian television channel NDTV that the killing was a “great tragedy, a monumental historical tragedy which we deeply regret.”^[38][39] A memorial christened Veer Bhumi was constructed at his cremation spot in Delhi. In 1992, the Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award was instituted by All India Congress Committee (AICC) of the Indian National Congress Party (INC).

The International Airport constructed at Hyderabad has been named after Rajiv Gandhi and was inaugurated by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

Personal details
Born	19 November 1917 Allahabad, United Provinces,British India
Died	31 October 1984 (aged 66) New Delhi, India
Political party	Indian National Congress
Spouse(s)	Feroze Gandhi
Children	Rajiv Sanjay
Alma mater	Somerville College, Oxford
Signature

Contents

• 1 Early life and career
• 2 Legislative career
  • 2.1 War with Pakistan in 1971
  • 2.2 Foreign policy
  • 2.3 Nuclear weapons program
  • 2.4 Green Revolution
  • 2.5 1971 election victory and second term
  • 2.6 Corruption charges and verdict of electoral malpractice
  • 2.7 State of Emergency (1975–1977)
  • 2.8 Rule by decree
  • 2.9 Elections
  • 2.10 Removal, arrest, and return
  • 2.11 Currency crisis
  • 2.12 Operation Blue Star and her death
• 3 Family and personal life

Early life and career

Indira Gandhi with Jawaharlal Nehru inDoon School

Indira Gandhi was born on November 19, 1917 into the politically influential Nehru Family. Indira Gandhi’s father was Jawaharlal Nehru and her mother wasKamla Nehru. Her grandfather, Motilal Nehru, was a prominent Indian nationalist leader. Her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, was a pivotal figure in the Indian independence moveer of Independent India.

In 1934–35, after finishing school, Indira joined Shantiniketan,^[2] a school set up by Rabindranath Tagore. Subsequently, she went to England and sat for the University of Oxford entrance examination, but she failed,^[3] and spent a few months at Badminton School in Bristol, before passing the exam in 1937 and enrolling at Somerville College, Oxford where she never finished her degree. Khushwant Singh, who has personally known Indira Gandhi, has said that she felt uncomfortable around educated people because she had no real education.^[4] During her stay in the UK, she frequently met Feroze Gandhi, whom she knew from Allahabad, and who was studying at the London School of Economics. Indira married Feroz in 1942. Nehru eventually accepted the marriage. She had no relation to Mohandas K. Gandhi, either by blood or marriage.

She returned to India in 1941. In the 1950s, she served her father unofficially as a personal assistant during his tenure as the first Prime Minister of India. After her father’s death in 1964 she was appointed as a member of the Rajya Sabha (upper house) and became a member of Lal Bahadur Shastri’s cabinet as Minister of Information and Broadcasting.^[5]

Then Congress Party President K. Kamaraj was instrumental in making Indira Gandhi the Prime Minister after the sudden demise of Shastri. Gandhi soon showed an ability to win elections and outmaneuver opponents. She introduced more left-wing economic policies and promoted agricultural productivity. She led India as Prime Minister during the decisive victory of East Pakistan over Pakistan in 1971 war and creation of an independent Bangladesh. She imposed a state of emergency in 1975. Congress Party and Indira Gandhi herself lost the next general election for the first time in 1977. Indira Gandhi led the Congress back to victory in 1980 elections and Gandhi resumed the office of the Prime Minister. In June 1984, under Gandhi’s order, the Indian army forcefully entered the Golden Temple, the most sacred Sikh Gurdwara, to remove armed insurgents present inside the temple. She was killed on 31 October 1984 in retaliation for this operation by her bodyguards.

Legislative career

When Gandhi became Prime Minister in 1966, the Congress was split in two factions, the socialists led by Gandhi, and the conservatives led by Morarji Desai. Rammanohar Lohia called her Gungi Gudiya which means ‘Dumb Doll’.^[6] The internal problems showed in the 1967 election where the Congress lost nearly 60 seats winning 297 seats in the 545 seat Lok Sabha. She had to accommodate Desai as Deputy Prime Minister of India and Minister of Finance. In 1969 after many disagreements with Desai, the Indian National Congress split. She ruled with support from Socialist and Communist Parties for the next two years. In the same year, in July 1969 she nationalized banks.

Foreign policy

Gandhi invited the late Pakistani President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to Shimla for a week-long summit. After the near-failure of the talks, the two national leaders eventually signed the Shimla Agreement, which bound the two countries to resolve the Kashmir dispute by negotiations and peaceful means. Due to her antipathy for Nixon, relations with the United States grew distant, while relations with the Soviet Union grew closer.

She was criticized by some for not making the Line of Control (LoC) a permanent border while a few critics even believed that Pakistan-administered Kashmir should have been extracted from Pakistan, whose 93,000 prisoners of war were under Indian control. But the agreement did remove immediate United Nations and third party interference, and greatly reduced the likelihood of Pakistan launching a major attack in the near future. By not demanding total capitulation on a sensitive issue from Bhutto, she had allowed Pakistan to stabilize and normalize. Trade relations were also normalized, though much contact remained frozen (sealed) for years.

Nuclear weapons program

Gandhi contributed and further carried out the vision of Jawarharalal Nehru, former Premier of India, to develop the program. Gandhi gave authorization of developing nuclear weapons in 1967, in response to the Test No. 6 by People’s Republic of China. Gandhi saw this test as Chinese nuclear intimidation, therefore, Gandhi promoted the views of Nehru to establish India’s stability and security interests as independent from those of the nuclear superpowers.

The program became fully mature in 1974, when dr. Raja Ramanna reported to Gandhi that India has ability to test the first nuclear weapon. Gandhi gave verbal authorization of this test, and preparations were made in a long-constructed army base, the Indian Army Pokhran Test Range. In 1974, India successfully conducted an underground nuclear test, unofficially code named as “Smiling Buddha“, near the desert village of Pokhran in Rajasthan. As the world was quiet by this test, a vehement protest came forward from Pakistan. Great ire was raised in Pakistan, Pakistan’s Prime minister Zulfi Ali Bhuttodescribed this test as “Indian hegemony” to intimidate Pakistan. Gandhi directed a letter to Bhutto and, later to the world, describing the test as for peaceful purposes and India’s commitment as to develop its programme for industrial and scientific use.

Green Revolution

Special agricultural innovation programs and extra government support launched in the 1960s finally transformed India’s chronic food shortages into surplus production of wheat, rice, cotton and milk, the success mainly attributed to the hard working majority Sikh farmers of Punjab. Rather than relying on food aid from the United States – headed by a President whom Gandhi disliked considerably (the feeling was mutual: to Nixon, Indira was “the old witch”),^[9] the country became a food exporter. That achievement, along with the diversification of its commercial crop production, has become known as the “Green Revolution”. At the same time, the White Revolution was an expansion in milk production which helped to combat malnutrition, especially amidst young children. ‘Food security’, as the program was called, was another source of support for Gandhi in the years leading up to 1975.^[10]

Established in the early 1960s, the Green Revolution was the unofficial name given to the Intense Agricultural District Program (IADP) which sought to insure abundant, inexpensive grain for urban dwellers upon whose support Gandhi—as indeed all Indian politicians—heavily depended.^[11] The program was based on four premises: 1) New varieties of seed(s), 2) Acceptance of the necessity of the chemicalization of Indian agriculture, i.e. fertilizers, pesticides, weed killers, etc., 3) A commitment to national and international cooperative research to develop new and improved existing seed varieties, 4) The concept of developing a scientific, agricultural institutions in the form of land grant colleges.^[12]

1971 election victory and second term

Indira’s government faced major problems after her tremendous mandate of 1971. The internal structure of the Congress Party had withered following its numerous splits, leaving it entirely dependent on her leadership for its election fortunes. Garibi Hatao (Eradicate Poverty) was the theme for Gandhi’s 1971 bid. The slogan and the proposed anti-poverty programs that came with it were designed to give Gandhi an independent national support, based on rural and urban poor. This would allow her to bypass the dominant rural castes both in and of state and local government; likewise the urban commercial class. And, for their part, the previously voiceless poor would at last gain both political worth and political weight.

The programs created through Garibi Hatao, though carried out locally, were funded, developed, supervised, and staffed by New Delhi and the Indian National Congress party. “These programs also provided the central political leadership with new and vast patronage resources to be disbursed… throughout the country.”^[13] Scholars and historians now agree as to the extent of the failure of Garibi Hatao in alleviating poverty – only about 4% of all funds allocated for economic development went to the three main anti-poverty programs, and precious few of these ever reached the ‘poorest of the poor’ – and the empty sloganeering of the program was mainly used instead to engender populist support for Gandhi’s re-election.

Corruption charges and verdict of electoral malpractice

Gandhi meeting with Shah of IranMohammad-Reza Pahlavi and ShahbanuFarah Pahlavi during the latters’ State visit to India in 1970.

On 12 June 1975 the High Court of Allahabad declared Indira Gandhi’s election to the Lok Sabha void on grounds of electoral malpractice. In an election petition filed by Raj Narain (who later on defeated her in 1977 parliamentary election from Rae Bareily), he had alleged several major as well as minor instances of using government resources for campaigning.^[14] The court thus ordered her to be removed from her seat in Parliament and banned from running in elections for six years. The Prime Minister must be a member of either the Lok Sabha (Lower house in the Parliament of India) or the Rajya Sabha (the Higher house of the Parliament). Thus, this decision effectively removed her from office. Mrs Gandhi had asked one of India’s best legal minds and also one of her colleagues in government, Mr Ashoke Kumar Sen to defend her in court. It has been written that Mrs Gandhi was told she would only win if Mr Sen appeared for her^{[citation needed]}.

But Gandhi rejected calls to resign and announced plans to appeal to the Supreme Court. The verdict was delivered by Mr Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha at Allahabad High Court. It came almost four years after the case was brought by Raj Narain, the premier’s defeated opponent in the 1971 parliamentary election. Gandhi, who gave evidence in her defence during the trial, was found guilty of dishonest election practices, excessive election expenditure, and of using government machinery and officials for party purposes.^[15] The judge rejected more serious charges of bribery against her.

Indira insisted the conviction did not undermine her position, despite having been unseated from the lower house of parliament, Lok Sabha, by order of the High Court. She said: “There is a lot of talk about our government not being clean, but from our experience the situation was very much worse when [opposition] parties were forming governments”. And she dismissed criticism of the way her Congress Party raised election campaign money, saying all parties used the same methods. The prime minister retained the support of her party, which issued a statement backing her. After news of the verdict spread, hundreds of supporters demonstrated outside her house, pledging their loyalty. Indian High Commissioner BK Nehru said Gandhi’s conviction would not harm her political career. “Mrs Gandhi has still today overwhelming support in the country,” he said. “I believe the prime minister of India will continue in office until the electorate of India decides otherwise”.

State of Emergency (1975–1977)

Gandhi moved to restore order by ordering the arrest of most of the opposition participating in the unrest. Her Cabinet and government then recommended that President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed declare astate of emergency, because of the disorder and lawlessness following the Allahabad High Court decision. Accordingly, Ahmed declared a State of Emergency caused by internal disorder, based on the provisions of Article 352 of the Constitution, on 26 June 1975.

more…

• 1 Personal life
• 2 Political career
  • 2.1 2007 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections
    • 2.1.1 Chief Minister, 2007
  • 2.2 2009 parliamentary elections
• 3 Political and legal issues
  • 3.1 Taj corridor case
  • 3.2 Birthdays
  • 3.3 Disproportionate assets case
  • 3.4 Statues
  • 3.5 World Bank criticism
  • 3.6 WikiLeaks allegations
  • 3.7 Other
• 4 Books on Mayawati

Personal life

Mayawati’s father Prabhu Das was a post office employee at Badalpur, Gautam Buddha Nagar.^[2] She was born in New Delhi at Shrimati Sucheta Kriplani Hospital.^[2] The family belonged to the Jatavsubcaste of the Chamar community, at the upper end^[13] of the scheduled castes. The “family’s small income” was spent on sending the sons to private schools while the daughters went to “low-performing government schools”.^[14] Mayawati was a good student and did three degrees – a Bachelors of Arts from Kalindi Women’s College and LLB(LAW) Law faculty, Campus Law Centre under the University of Delhi, Subsequently, she did her B.Ed from VMLG College, Ghaziabad.^[2] She was working as a teacher in Inderpuri JJ Colony, Delhi, and studying for the Indian Administrative Services exams, when Dalit politician Kanshi Ram came to their house in 1977. According to biographer Ajoy Bose, Kanshi Ram said, “I can make you such a big leader one day that not one but a whole row of IAS officers will line up for your orders.”^[14] She was part of Kanshi Ram’s team when he founded the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 1984. In 1989 she was elected to the parliament from Bijnor. At Kanshi Ram’s funeral ceremonies in 2006, Mayawati said they had both been following Buddhist traditions and customs.^[15] Her act of performing the last rites of Kanshi Ram (traditionally done by a male heir) was an instance of their views against gender discrimination.^[15] She has indicated that she may formally convert to Buddhism at some point.^[16]

Political career

In 1984 Kanshi Ram founded the BSP as a party to represent the Dalits and Buddhists.^[17] Mayawati was a key member of this organisation. BSP fielded Mayawati for its first election campaign from the Kairana Lok Sabha (Lower House) seat in the Muzaffarnagar district in 1984, and then again for the Lok Sabha seats of Bijnor in 1985 and Haridwar in 1987. In 1989 she was elected for the Lok Sabha seat of Bijnor, with a total of 183,189 votes.^[18][19] Although BSP did not win, the electoral experience led to considerable activity for Mayawati over the next five years, as she worked with Mahsood Ahmed and other organisers. In the 1989 election, the party won 9% of the popular vote and 13 seats. It won 11 seats in the 1991 election. Because the Dalits are widely spread over the state, Kanshi Ram and Mayawati then adopted a policy of attracting other groups, which continues today. Mayawati won election to the Lok Sabha for the first time in 1989, from Bijnor. In 1995, while a member of the Rajya Sabha (Upper House), she became a Chief Minister in a short-lived coalition government, and validated her position by winning from two constituencies in 1996. She was again Chief Minister for a short period in 1997, and then for a somewhat longer term in coalition with theBharatiya Janata Party from 2002 to 2003. Before that in 2001 her mentor, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Kanshi Ram, named her as his successor. Mayawati has said in an interview that she has no time for family life or romantic relationships because she wants to focus on her political career and this is why she remains unmarried.^[20]

more…

• 1 Early life and career
• 2 Political career
  • 2.1 Youth politics
  • 2.2 2009 elections
  • 2.3 Lokpal bill
  • 2.4 Land Acquisition Protests Arrest
• 3 Political and legal issues
  • 3.1 Comparison of RSS and SIMI
  • 3.2 Sukanya Devi
  • 3.3 13th Jul 2011 Terror Attack remarks

Early life and career

Rahul Gandhi was born in Delhi on 19 June 1970 ^[3] as the first of the two children of Rajiv Gandhi, who later became the Prime Minister of India and Sonia Gandhi, who later became President of Indian National Congress, and as the grandson of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He is also the great-grandson of India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Priyanka Vadra is his younger sister.^[4]

Rahul Gandhi attended St. Columba’s School, Delhi^[5] before entering The Doon School in Dehradun (Uttarakhand), also his father’s alma mater,^[6] from 1981–83. Meanwhile, his father had joined politics and became the Prime Minister on October 31, 1984 when Indira Gandhi was assassinated. Due to the security threats faced by Indira Gandhi’s family from Sikh extremists, Rahul Gandhi and his sister, Priyanka were home-schooled since then.^[7] Rahul Gandhi joined St. Stephen’s College, Delhi in 1989 for his undergraduate education but moved to Harvard University after he completed the first year examinations.^[8] In 1991, after Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by LTTE^[9] during an election rally, he shifted to Rollins College due to security concerns and completed his B.A. in 1994.^[10] During this period, he assumed the pseudonym Raul Vinci and his identity was known only to the university officials and security agencies.^[8][11] He further went on to obtain a M.Phil from Trinity College, Cambridge University in 1995.^[12] After graduation, Rahul Gandhi worked at the Monitor Group, a management consulting firm, in London.^[13] In 2002 he was one of the directors of Mumbai-based technology outsourcing firm Backops Services Private Ltd.^[14]

In 2004, Rahul Gandhi told the press that he has a girlfriend Veronique Cartelli, a Spanish architect who lives in Venezuela.^[15][16] However, there has been little reporting of his personal life by the media since 2004.^[17]

Political career

In 2003, there was widespread media speculation on the issue of Rahul Gandhi’s imminent entry into active politics, which he did not confirm.^[18] Sonia Gandhi, his mother, had joined politics in 1997 after staying away for years despite the demands by Congress party and had become the president of Indian National Congress.^[19] In 1999 General Elections, he appeared with his mother at public events and Congress meetings.^[18] He also traveled to Pakistan on a goodwill visit to watch the first cricket series between the countries in 14 years in a One Day International with his sister Priyanka Gandhi.^[20]

In March 2004, he announced his entry into politics by announcing that he would contest the May 2004 elections, standing for his father’s former constituency of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha, India’s lower house of Parliament.^[21] Before that, his uncle Sanjay held the seat before his death in a plane crash. The seat had been held by his mother until she transferred to the neighbouring seat of Rae Bareilly. The Congress had been doing poorly in Uttar Pradesh, holding only 10 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state at the time.^[22] At the time, this move generated surprise among political commentators, who had regarded his sister Priyanka as being the more charismatic and likely to succeed. Party officials did not have acurriculum vitae ready for the media, such was the surprise of his move. It generated speculation that the presence of a young member of India’s most famous political family would reinvigorate the Congress party’s political fortunes among India’s youthful population^[23] In his first interview with foreign media, he portrayed himself as a uniter of the country and condemned “divisive” politics in India, saying that he would try to reduce caste and religious tensions.^[21] His candidature was greeted with excitement by locals, who had a long standing affinity with the family’s presence in the area.,^[22]

He won with a landslide majority, retaining the family stronghold with a margin of over 100,000 as the Congress unexpectedly defeated the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.^[24] Until 2006 he held no other office.^[25]

Gandhi and his sister, who is married to Robert Vadra, managed their mother’s campaign for re-election to Rae Bareilly in 2006, which was won easily with a margin greater than 400,000 votes.^[26]

He was a prominent figure in the Congress campaign for the 2007 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections; Congress, however, won only 22 seats with 8.53% of votes. The election saw the Bahujan Samaj Party, to become the first party to govern in its own right in Uttar Pradesh in 16 years.^[27]

Rahul Gandhi was appointed a general secretary of the All India Congress Committee on 24 September 2007 in a reshuffle of the party secretariat.^[28] In the same reshuffle, he was also given charge of the Indian Youth Congress and the National Students Union of India.^[29]

In 2008, senior Congress leader Veerappa Moily mentioned “Rahul-as-PM” idea when the PM of India Manmohan Singh was still abroad. Indian Politicians drew own conclusions. Evidently, the Prime Minister also took notice of it.^[30]

Youth politics

In his attempt to prove himself as a youth leader in November 2008 he held interviews at his 12, Tughlak Lane residence in New Delhi to handpick at least 40 people who will make up the think-tank of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC), an organisation that he has been keen to transform since he was appointed general secretary in September 2007.^[31]

Under Rahul Gandhi, IYC and NSUI has seen a dramatic increase in members from a two lakhs to twenty five lakhs.^[32]

Rahul Gandhi participated in an interactive session with students of Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. His party, INC, however, was quick to play up Rahul’s visit to JNU as an “excellent example of youth participation in politics”. Rahul was quizzed by the students on issues ranging from hiearchial politics in India, to his visits to Dalit Houses, economic growth in the country and education reforms. Some papers, however, reported Rahul’s visit to JNU as a political attempt to strengthen the newly constituted unit of NSUI at JNU.^[33]

In various reports it has been proved that Rahul Gandhi has failed in his promise to eliminate family, patronage, money from Youth Congress. It has been seen that an aspiring delegates need to pay a substantial sum as nomination fee. Hence, an aspiring office-bearer with deep pockets sponsors them thereby allowing money power to have a role in the elections.

2009 elections

In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, he retained his Amethi constituency by defeating his nearest rival by a margin of over 333,000 votes. In these elections congress is said to have revived itself in Uttar Pradesh by winning 21 out of the total 80 Lok Sabha seats and the majority of the credit for this turnaround is given to Rahul Gandhi. He spoke at 125 rallies across the country in six weeks.

Lokpal bill

Rahul Gandhi opines that the Lokpal should be made a constitutional body and it should be made accountible to the Parliament, just like the Election Commission. He also feels that Lokpal alone cannot root out corruption. This statement came out on 25 August 2011, on the 10th day of Anna Hazare’s fast. This statement was considered as a delaying tactic by the opposition and Team Anna’s members. It was consequently slammed by prominent opposition leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley.^[38] The Parliamentary Standing Committee led by Abhishek Manu Singhvi tabled the Lok Bill report in the Rajya Sabha on 9 December 2011. Almost all points proposed by Team Anna were ignored while Rahul Gandhi’s wish for Lokpal to be made into a constitutional body was implemented. Anna Hazare believes that Rahul Gandhi is responsible for the weak and ineffective bill proposed by the standing comittee of parliament.^[39]

Land Acquisition Protests Arrest

On 11 May 2011 Rahul Gandhi was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police at Bhatta Parsaul village after he turned out in support of agitating farmers demanding more compensation for their land being acquired for a highway project.^[40] He was released after being held for about three hours and later returned to New Delhi. He was to be presented before a Sub-Divisional Magistrate on 12 May 2011.

Political and legal issues

Comparison of RSS and SIMI

Rahul Gandhi has been critical of nationalist groups like the RSS and compared them to terrorist organizations like SIMI.^[42][43] According to a cable leaked by Wikileaks, in 2009, he allegedly shared concerns with the American ambassador to India Timothy Roemer that radicalized Hindu groups may pose a bigger threat to India than Islamic terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba.^[44][45] His comments on radical Hindu groups were criticized by the opposition party, as well as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.^[46]

Sukanya Devi

It has been alleged that Rahul Gandhi had detained a girl and her parents since 2007 after the family accused the Gandhi scion of raping the girl. On 01st Mar 2011, the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court issued a notice to Rahul Gandhi,^[47] however allegations were found to be false. Allahbad high court not only dismissed the case after the girl in question appeared in the court, but slapped a 50 lakh penalty against the petitioner ordering a CBI inquiry against her and websites publishing the story.^[48]

13th Jul 2011 Terror Attack remarks

On 14th Jul 2011, a day after the serial bombing in Mumbai, Rahul Gandhi gave a statement that “it was very difficult to stop every single terror attack”. The remark resulted in a number of strong criticism from a number of Shiv Sena party members.^[49]

• 1 Early life
• 2 Political career
  • 2.1 Love at first site
  • 2.2 Wife of the Prime Minister
  • 2.3 Congress President
  • 2.4 Leader of the Opposition
  • 2.5 2004 elections and aftermath
  • 2.6 UPA Chairperson
• 3 Personal life
• 4 Honours, awards and international recognition
• 5 Portrayals and coverage in books

1. Early life

She was born to Stefano and Paola Maino in Contrada Màini (“Maini quarter/district”), at Lusiana, a little village 30 km fromVicenza in Veneto,^[11] Italy, where families with the family name “Màino” have been living for many generations.^[12][13][14] She spent her adolescence in Orbassano,^[15] a town near Turin, being raised in a traditional Roman Catholic family and attending a Catholic school. Her father, a building mason, died in 1983.^[16] Her mother and two sisters still live around Orbassano.^[17]

In 1964, she went to study English at the Bell Educational Trust’s language school in the city of Cambridge. She met Rajiv Gandhi, who was enrolled in Trinity College at the University of Cambridge in 1965 at a Greek restaurant (the Varsity Restaurant) while working there as a waitress to make ends meet.^[18][19] Sonia and Rajiv Gandhi married in 1968, following which she moved into the house of her mother-in-law and then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi.^[20][21]

The couple had two children, Rahul Gandhi (born 1970) and Priyanka Vadra (born 1972). Despite belonging to the influential Nehru family, Sonia and Rajiv avoided all involvement in politics. Rajiv worked as an airline pilot while Sonia took care of her family.^[22]When Indira was ousted from office in 1977 in the aftermath of the Indian Emergency, the Rajiv family moved abroad for a short time.^{[citation needed]} When Rajiv entered politics in 1982 after the death of his younger brother Sanjay Gandhi in a plane crash on 23 June 1980, Sonia continued to focus on her family and avoided all contact with the public.^[23]

 2. Political career

2.1 Love at first sight

In 1965, just a year after arriving in England, Sonia met a young Indian student named Rajiv Gandhi (1944–1991), who was studying mechanical engineering at Cambridge University. According to Sonia Gandhi, it was love at first sight. The courtship, however, lasted three years, perhaps because Rajiv was from one of the most famous families in India, if not the world. Sonia’s parents were reluctant to have her become involved in such a different culture, and Sonia herself was nervous about meeting Rajiv’s famous mother, Indira Gandhi (1917–1984), who was considered to be the “first lady” of India. Indira Gandhi’s father, Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964), became the country’s first prime minister after India claimed its independence from Great Britain in 1947, and Gandhi worked closely with him until his death. In 1965 Indira Gandhi was poised to fill Nehru’s shoes.

Sonia’s fears were quickly overcome as she and Indira became fast friends. In 1968, Sonia and Rajiv were married in a simple ceremony in New Delhi, India; Sonia wore the same pink sari her mother-in-law had worn at her own wedding many years before. A sari is a traditional dress that consists of several yards of cloth draped around the waist and shoulders. Following the wedding Sonia and Rajiv moved in with Indira Gandhi, who by this time had become prime minister. Sonia’s relationship with Indira deepened, and ultimately she became the faithful and obedient daughter-in-law, in charge of running the household. This meant that although Gandhi came into the marriage a modern woman of the West, she soon traded her miniskirts for saris and steeped herself in Indian culture. She even learned to speak Hindi, the official language of India.

2.2 Wife of the Prime Minister

Sonia Gandhi’s involvement with Indian public life began after the assassination of her mother-in-law and her husband’s election as Prime Minister. As the Prime Minister’s wife she acted as his official hostess and also accompanied him on a number of state visits.^{[citation needed]} In 1984, she actively campaigned against her husband’s sister-in-law Maneka Gandhi who was running against Rajiv in Amethi. At the end of Rajiv Gandhi’s five years in office, the Bofors Scandal broke out. Ottavio Quattrocchi, an Italian business man believed to be involved, was said to be a friend of Sonia Gandhi, having access to the Prime Minister’s official residence.^[24] In 1980, her name appeared in the voter’s list for New Delhi prior to her becoming an Indian Citizen, when she was still holding Italian Citizenship.^[25] It was a violation of Indian Laws.^[26] When she did acquire Indian Citizenship in April 1983, the issue cropped up again, as her name appeared on the 1983 voter’s list when the deadline for registering had been in January 1983.^[27][28]

Senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee said that she surrendered her Italian passport to the Italian Embassy on 27 April 1983. Italian nationality lawdid not permit dual nationality until 1992. So, by acquiring Indian citizenship in 1983, she would automatically have lost Italian citizenship.^[29]

2.3 Congress President

After the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and her refusal to become Prime Minister, the party settled on the choice of P. V. Narasimha Rao who became leader and subsequently Prime Minister. Over the next few years, however, the Congress fortunes continued to dwindle and it lost the 1996 elections. Several senior leaders such as Madhavrao Sindhia, Rajesh Pilot, Narayan Dutt Tiwari, Arjun Singh, Mamata Banerjee,G. K. Moopanar, P. Chidambaram and Jayanthi Natarajan were in open revolt against incumbent President Sitaram Kesri and quit the party, splitting the Congress into many factions.

In an effort to revive the party’s sagging fortunes, she joined the Congress Party as a primary member in the Calcutta Plenary Session in 1997 and became party leader in 1998.^[30]

In May 1999, three senior leaders of the party (Sharad Pawar, Purno A. Sangma, and Tariq Anwar) challenged her right to try to become India’s Prime Minister because of her foreign origins. In response, she offered to resign as party leader, resulting in an outpouring of support and the expulsion from the party of the three rebels who went on to form the Nationalist Congress Party.^[31]

Within 62 days of joining as a primary member, she was offered the party President post which she accepted. She contested Lok Sabha elections fromBellary, Karnataka and Amethi, Uttar Pradesh in 1999. In Bellary she defeated veteran BJP leader, Sushma Swaraj. In 2004 and 2009, she was re-elected to the Lok Sabha from Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh.

2.4 Leader of the Opposition

Sonia Gandhi welcomes U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to her residence, 10 Janpath in New Delhi, India, 2009.

She was elected the Leader of the Opposition of the 13th Lok Sabha in 1999. When the BJP-led NDA formed a government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, she took the office of the Leader of Opposition. As Leader of Opposition, she called a no-confidence motion against the NDA government led by Vajpayee in 2003.

She holds the record of having served as Congress President for 10 years consecutively.

2.5 2004 elections and aftermath

In the 2004 general elections, Gandhi launched a nationwide campaign, criss-crossing the country on the Aam Aadmi (ordinary man) slogan in contrast to the ‘India Shining’ slogan of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) alliance. She countered the BJP asking “Who is India Shining for?”. In the election, she won by a large margin in the Rae Bareilly constituency. Following the unexpected defeat of the NDA, she was widely expected to be the next Prime Minister of India. On 16 May, she was unanimously chosen to lead a 15-party coalition government with the support of the left, which was subsequently named the United Progressive Alliance (UPA).

The defeated NDA protested once against her ‘foreign origin’ and senior NDA leader Sushma Swaraj threatened to shave her head and “sleep on the ground”, among other things, should Sonia become prime minister.^[7] The NDA also claimed that there were legal reasons that barred her from the Prime Minister’s post.^[32] They pointed, in particular, to Section 5 of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1955, which they claimed implied ‘reciprocity’. This was contested by others^[28] and eventually the suits were dismissed by the Supreme Court of India.^[33]

A few days after the election, Gandhi appointed Manmohan Singh as prime minister. Her supporters compared it to the old Indian tradition of renunciation,^[34] while her opponents attacked it as a political stunt.^[35]

2.6 UPA Chairperson

Sonia Gandhi speaking at World Economic Forum’s India Economic Summit 2006

On 23 March 2006, Gandhi announced her resignation from the Lok Sabha and also as chairperson of the National Advisory Council under the office-of-profit controversy and the speculation that the government was planning to bring an ordinance to exempt the post of chairperson of National Advisory Council from the purview of office of profit. She was re-elected from her constituency Rae Bareilly in May 2006 by a margin of over 400,000 votes.

As chairperson of the National Advisory Committee and the UPA, she played an important role in making the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the Right to Information Act into law.^[36][37]

She addressed the United Nations on 2 October 2007, Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary which is observed as the international day of non-violence after a UN resolution passed on 15 July 2007.^[38]

Under her leadership, India returned the Congress-led-UPA to a near majority in the 2009 general elections with Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister. The Congress itself won 206 Lok Sabha seats, which was the highest total by any party since 1991.

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Sample Paper – 2012
Class – XII
Subject – Mathematics

SECTION A ( Q1 to Q.10=1M)

(Questions 1 to 10 carry 1 mark each)

1. Let * be the binary operation on N given by a *b = HCF of a and b. Find 20*16
2. What is Sin^-1(Sin 7?/6) ?
3. Find x and y if =
4. If A is a square matrix of order 3 and  = 64 then find .
5. Find
6. Find the adj A of  .
7. Find the value of  ? so that   = ?i + 2j + k is perpendicular to  = 4i – 9j +  2k
8. Find the unit vector in the direction of if
9. Find k if the lines and are perpendicular.

SECTION B(Q. 11 to 22 carry 4 marks each)

1. Show that the relation R on NXN defined by ( a,b) R (c,d) a+d= b+c is an equivalence relation.     (or)

Let f : R R                be a function defined by f(x) = 4 + 3x . Show that f is invertible and find the inverse of f.

1. Prove that   tan^-1 (     -   )/+) = ?/4 – ½ Cos^-1x                   .
2. Using properties of determinants Prove that     = 4.
   1. Test the continuity of the following function at x = 0 ,

If x =  a ( t + Sint ) , y = a ( 1 – Cost ) , show that y’’ = 1/a, at t=   ( or ) If  x^p y ^q = ,Prove that y’ = y/x.

1. Find the intervals where the function f (x) =2x³ – 9x² + 12x + 30 is a) increasing b) decreasing.
2. Evaluate:

(or)

Evaluate as sum of limits

1. Solve the differential equation  x²y’ = x²-2 +xy

( or)

Form the differential equation representing the family of ellipses having foci on x-axis and centre at the origin.

Solve the differential equation   Cos²x y’ + y = tanx.

1. i.
2. Three vectors  ,    satisfying  the condition   ++  = 0 . Evaluate the quantity  +    +   if  = 1 ,  = 4 = 2.
3. Find the shortest distance  between the lines  =   I + j + K ( 2i – j + k ) and  = ( 2i + j  – k ) + p( 3i -5j+2k).
4. In a factory which manufactures bolts, machine A, B and C respectively 25%, 35% and 40% of the bolts, Of their output s 5,4,and 2 percent are respectively defective bolts. A nolt is drawn random from the product and is found to be defective. What is the probability that it is manufactured from machine A?                                                                                                                                 SECTION C ( Each question carries 6 marks)
5. Find the inverse of  using elementary transformation.  ( or)  if  A =  find A^-1 and hence solve the equations  2x+3y+z= 11, -3x+2y+z=4,                                                                                          5x-4y-2z = -9

24 .Find the maximum  area of the isosceles triangle inscribed in an ellipse  x²/a² + y²/b² = 1, whose vertex lies along the major axis. (or)   Show that the maximum value of the cylinder which can be inscribed in a sphere of radius 5 is 500? cm³.

25.Prove that

26. Make a rough sketch of the region given below and find its area using integration.  { (x,y) : 0?y?2x+3,}.

27. Find the foot of the perpendicular and the perpendicular distance of the point (3,2,1) from the plane   2x-y+z +1=0. Find the image of the point in the plane.

28. From a lot of 30 bulbs which includes 6 defective, a sample of 4 bulbs is drawn at random with replacement. Find the mean and variance of the number of defective bulbs.

29. A furniture firm manufactures chairs and tables each requiring the use of three machines A,B and C . Production of the chair requires 2 hrs on machine A, 1 hr on machine B, and  1 hr on machine C.Each table requires  1 hr on machine A, 1 hr on machine B and  3 hrs on machine C. The profit obtained   by selling one chair is Rs. 30 while by selling one table Rs. 60. The total time available per week on machine A is 70 hrs,  machine B 40 hrs, and on machine  C 90 hrs. How many chairs and tables should be made per week so as to maximize profit? Formulate the problem as LPP and solve it graphically.