When Rajiv Gandhi Visited Odisha Eight Hours Before Assassination

Bhubaneswar: It is the 77th birth anniversary of the youngest Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi. The day is also observed as Sadbhavana Diwas, promoting national integration, and peace among various communities.

Let’s walk down memory lane remembering the last Prime Minister from Gandhi-Nehruvian family and his trips to Odisha. 

A reluctant novice in politics, Rajiv Gandhi was never set out to become a politician. A pilot with Indian Airlines, flying was his passion and also his desired career. But only after the death of his younger brother Sanjay Gandhi in a plane crash (1980) did he enter politics and contested from the former’s seat in Amethi.

In 1984, Rajiv had visited Amlapali village (now in Nuapada district, but then in undivided Kalahandi district) to meet Phanus Punji, who had sold her sister-in-law Banita for Rs 40 and a saree.

He rubbed shoulders with about 1 million villagers travelling 1,500 km through the Keonjhar, Mayurbhan, Dhankanal, Cuttack, Puri and Balasore during his four-day visit to the state the same year. His day started at 7 am and ended past midnight.

He attended over 200 way-side receptions and addressed about 100 impromptu meetings against the scheduled 48, the India Today reported.

An estimated Rs 80 lakh to Rs 1 crore was spent on the programme with the state decked up with welcoming arches all along his route, the report added.

Rajiv Gandhi became the Prime Minister of India at the age of 40 with a majority of more than 400 seats after his mother, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was assassinated on October 31, 1984.

Incidentally, Rajiv was assassinated just about eight hours after he addressed an election rally at Gunpur in Odisha’s Koraput district on May 20 in 1991.

He had spent the night at the state guesthouse in Bhubaneswar.

Prof. Manmath Nath Das, former Vice-Chancellor of Utkal University who was then the Congress Lok Sabha candidate from Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha seat, has mentioned this trip in his autobiography ‘Jibana Ra Patha Prantey Diganta Ra Drushya’. “Rajivji was in a jolly mood,” he wrote.

Rajiv had handpicked him to contest the elections from the constituency. When Das asked him as to why he wanted him the enter the election fray, Rajiv said he had his reasons. “I know some of our own men are not happy with your nomination. But I shall see to it,” he said.

Rajiv’s campaign trail ended abruptly at Sriperumbudur when he was assassinated by a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) suicide bomber the following day.

He also had a passion for photography. His wife Sonia Gandhi, after his death, came out with a book ‘Rajiv’s World: Photographs by Rajiv Gandhi,’ in 1995, which was a collection of photographs clicked by him, of all his interests and especially – family. 

Rajiv was conferred with the highest civilian award Bharat Ratna in 1991 posthumously.