Rajiv Gandhi on a live TV show said of the carnage, " When a big tree falls, the earth shakes.

Firstly, her younger son Sanjay had been her chosen heir ; but after his death in a flying accident in June 1980, his mother persuaded a reluctant elder son Rajiv Gandhi to quit his job as a pilot and enter politics in February 1981.

Over a decade later, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated.

* 1987 – Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi and President of Sri Lanka J. R. Jayawardene sign the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord on ethnic issues.

He was the father of Indira Gandhi and the maternal grandfather of Rajiv Gandhi, who were to later serve as the third and sixth Prime Ministers of India, respectively.

Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi immediately dispatched 1, 600 troops by air to restore order in Malé.

* 1991 – Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a female suicide bomber near Madras.

Rajiv Ratna Gandhi (; 20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991 ) was the sixth Prime Minister of India ( 1984 – 1989 ).

Rajiv Gandhi was the eldest son of Indira and Feroze Gandhi.

Following the death of his younger brother Sanjay Gandhi in 1980 Rajiv entered politics.

Rajiv Gandhi remained Congress President until the elections in 1991.

Rajiv Gandhi was posthumously awarded the Highest National Award of India, Bharat Ratna ( 1991 ), joining a list of 40 luminaries, including Indira Gandhi.

Rajiv Gandhi was an active amateur radio operator, and used the callsign VU2RG.

Rajiv Gandhi was born into India's most famous political family.

Rajiv Gandhi was not related to Mahatma Gandhi, although they share the same surname.

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.

Rajiv 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.

Commenting on the anti-Sikh riots in the national capital Delhi, Rajiv Gandhi said, " When a giant tree falls, the earth below shakes "; a statement for which he was widely criticised.

Rajiv Gandhi also officially became the President of the Congress party.

On October 22, 1999 ( when National Democratic Alliance government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party was in power ) the Central Bureau of Investigation ( CBI ) filed the first chargesheet against Quattrocchi, Win Chadha, Rajiv Gandhi, the defence secretary S. K. Bhatnagar and a number of others.

Several rounds of discussions with successive governments in New Delhi led to the signing of the Assam Accord on August 15, 1985 between the AASU and the government, with prime minister Rajiv Gandhi standing witness to it.

A similar coalition, led by VP Singh was swept to power in 1989 in the wake of major allegations of corruption by the incumbent Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi.

That article led the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to pay a visit to the district and brought the district to the attention of the national stage for its acute poverty and famine.

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 her Sikh bodyguards.

In 1992, the Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award was instituted by All India Congress Committee ( AICC ) of the Indian National Congress Party ( INC ).

* November 29 Rajiv Gandhi resigns as Prime Minister of India after his party, the Indian National Congress, loses about half of its seats in the Indian general election.

In a reply to a question, she said she had neither personally approached the Congress nor did it offer to make her its candidate for the 2009 election, however in the past she had received many offer from the Congress to contest election, the first being in 1984 from Rajiv Gandhi.

A fourth-generation scion of the politically powerful Nehru – Gandhi family, Gandhi is the son of Rajiv Gandhi ( 6th Prime Minister of India ) and incumbent Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and the grandson of Feroze Gandhi and Indira Gandhi ( 3rd Prime Minister of India ).

Rahul Gandhi was born in Delhi on 19 June 1970 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.

The Bofors scandal was a major corruption scandal in India in the 1980s and 1990s, initiated by Congress politicians and implicating the prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi and several others who were accused of receiving kickbacks from Bofors AB for winning a bid to supply India's 155 mm field howitzer.

Following a number of high-profile raids on suspected evaders – including Dhirubhai Ambani and Amitabh Bachchan – Rajiv was forced to sack him as Finance Minister, possibly because many of the raids were conducted on industrialists who had supported the Congress financially in the past.

On 11 October 1988, the birthday of the original Janata coalition's spiritual leader Jayaprakash Narayan, the Janata Dal was formed by merger of Jan Morcha, Janata Party, Lok Dal and Congress ( S ), in order to bring together all the centrist parties opposed to the Rajiv Gandhi government, and V. P. Singh was elected the President of the Janata Dal.

In June 1988, Prime Minister of India and Congress President Rajiv Gandhi decided to induct then Maharashtra Chief Minister Shankarrao Chavan into Union Cabinet as Finance Minister and Sharad Pawar was chosen to replace Chavan as chief minister.

* 29 December-Sonia Gandhi, Italian-born widow of Rajiv Gandhi, announces her decision to join the Congress election campaign.

It first came to power in 1989, after allegations of corruption, known as the Bofors scandal, caused Rajiv Gandhi's Congress ( I ) to lose the elections.

Priyanka Vadra ( née Priyanka Gandhi ) is the second of two children of late Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, current President of the Indian National Congress, and the Chairperson of the ruling United Progressive Alliance.

During his lifetime he was widely expected to succeed his mother as head of the Indian National Congress, but following his early death in a plane crash his older brother Rajiv became their mother's heir, and succeeded her as Prime Minister of India after her death.

Kannoth Karunakaran (; July 5, 1918 – December 23, 2010 ) was a senior stalwart politician from Kerala, India belonging to Indian National Congress party and was a close lieutenant of former Prime Ministers of India Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.

This, allegedly, came from the Congress government, headed by Rajiv Gandhi, which tried to balance the favor shown to the Muslims in Shah Bano controversy.

Goa Rajiv Congress Party, splinter-group of Indian National Congress in Goa.

In 1991, after Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by LTTE during an election rally, he shifted to Rollins College due to security concerns and completed his B. A.

During the course of election campaign, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated.

In 21 May 1991 Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai in an election campaign meeting.

* 21 May-Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi: Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a LTTE Suicide Bomber in Sriperumbudur near Chennai in Tamil Nadu during the election campaign.

Rajiv Gandhi began his election campaign in 1989 from Ram Janma Bhumi ( birthplace of Lord Rama ) in Ayodhya.

He stood for election against Rajiv Gandhi in 1989 and lost, to prove that he is alive.