100-450: [REDACTED] Rajiv Gandhi ( / ˈ r ɑː dʒ iː v ˈ ɡ ɑː n d iː / ; Hindi pronunciation: [raːdʒiːʋ ɡaːndʱiː] ; 20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was an Indian politician who was the prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the assassination of his mother, then–prime minister Indira Gandhi , to become at the age of 40 the youngest Indian prime minister. He served until his defeat at
200-494: A National Policy on Education to modernise and expand higher education programs across India. In 1986, he founded the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya System, which is a Central government-based education institution that provides rural populations with free residential education from grades six to twelve. His efforts created MTNL in 1986, and his public call offices—better known as PCOs—helped develop
300-578: A 1997 Supreme Court decision, the press communique announcing Bose's award was cancelled; it is the only time when the award was announced but not conferred. On 2 January 1954, a press communique was released from the office of the secretary to the President announcing the creation of two civilian awards—Bharat Ratna ( Jewel of India ), the highest civilian award, and the three-tier Padma Vibhushan , classified into "Pehla Warg" (Class I), "Dusra Warg" (Class II), and "Tisra Warg" (Class III), which rank below
400-557: A centered image of the sun on the obverse side. The text "Bharat Ratna", in Devanagari Script, is inscribed on the upper edge in silver gilt with a wreath set along on the lower edge. A platinum State Emblem of India was placed in the center of the reverse side with the national motto, " Satyameva Jayate " in Devanagari Script ( Sanskrit : सत्यमेव जयते ; lit. "Truth alone triumphs"), inscribed in silver-gilt on
500-649: A college classmate of Gandhi's father Feroze, recommended that Gandhi should read engineering, and met with Mark Pryor , the Senior Tutor at Trinity College, Cambridge . Pryor arranged for Gandhi's conditional admission to Trinity, contingent on his passing the Mechanical Sciences Qualifying (MSQ) Examination with acceptable marks. After studying for his A-levels at the sixth form college of Davies, Laing & Dick in London, Gandhi sat
600-477: A degree, though he kept in touch with his former mentor in his retirement. In 1966 he began a course in mechanical engineering at Imperial College London , but also failed to complete it. Gandhi really was not studious enough, as he went on to admit later. Gandhi returned to India in 1966, the year his mother became prime minister . He went to Delhi and became a member of the Flying Club , where he trained as
700-429: 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". According to Verinder Grover, the statement made by Gandhi was a "virtual justification" of the riots. Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar wrote, "Did it constitute an incitement to mass murder?" He also criticised Gandhi for his reluctance to bring the army from Meerut to handle
800-608: A general perception of being free of a background in corrupt politics. Gandhi took his oath on 31 December 1984; at 40, he was the youngest prime minister of India. Historian Meena Agarwal writes that even after taking the Prime Ministerial oath, he was a relatively unknown figure, "novice in politics" as he assumed the post after being an MP for three years. After his swearing-in as prime minister, Gandhi appointed his fourteen-member cabinet. He said he would monitor their performance and would "fire ministers who do not come to
900-539: A meeting of the All India Congress Committee . Vasantdada Patil proposed Rajiv as a candidate for the Amethi constituency , which was accepted by all members at the meeting. A week later, the party officially announced his candidacy for the constituency. He then paid the party membership fees of the party and flew to Sultanpur to file his nomination papers and completed other formalities. He won
1000-478: A person with past and future recipients. It was also contested that the award cannot be conferred to Bose posthumously as the Government had not officially accepted his death on 18 August 1945. The petitioner requested the whereabouts of Bose from 18 August 1945 to date, based on the information collected by the 1956 Shah Nawaz Committee and the 1970 Khosla Commission . Bose's family also declined to accept
1100-416: A pilot. In 1970, he was employed as a pilot by Indian Airlines ; unlike Sanjay, he did not exhibit any interest of joining politics. In 1968, after three years of courtship, he married Edvige Antonia Albina Màino , who changed her name to Sonia Gandhi and made India her home. Their first child, a son, Rahul was born in 1970. In 1972, the couple had a daughter, Priyanka , who married Robert Vadra . Gandhi
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#17327721737941200-415: A prefix or suffix, however recipients may identify themselves as "Awarded Bharat Ratna by the President" or "Recipient of Bharat Ratna Award". The award does not carry any monetary benefits, but the award includes the following entitlements: The Bharat Ratna has been mired in several controversies and award grants have been subject to multiple Public-Interest Litigations (PILs). On 23 January 1992,
1300-402: A press release was published by the President's secretariat to confer the award posthumously on Subhas Chandra Bose . The decision was contested in a public interest litigation, with the petitioner objecting to the conferral of the award and its posthumous mention of Bose, saying that honoring a personality higher than the award is "ridiculous", and it was an act of "carelessness" to classify such
1400-828: A suicide bomber from the LTTE. In 1991, the Indian government posthumously awarded Gandhi the Bharat Ratna , the country's highest civilian award. At the India Leadership Conclave in 2009, the Revolutionary Leader of Modern India award was conferred posthumously on Gandhi. Rajiv Gandhi was born in Bombay (Mumbai) on 20 August 1944 to Indira and Feroze Gandhi . In 1951, Rajiv and his younger brother Sanjay were admitted to Shiv Niketan school, where
1500-682: A telegram from the Indian ambassador in Germany, stating that an Indian agents had received commissions in the HDW submarine deal. He told Rajiv Gandhi about this and instituted an enquiry. This led to differences and V. P. Singh resigned from the cabinet. In his book, Unknown Facets of Rajiv Gandhi, Jyoti Basu and Indrajit Gupta , released in November 2013, former CBI director Dr. A P Mukherjee wrote that Gandhi wanted commission paid by defence suppliers to be used exclusively for meeting running expenses of
1600-457: A thing for the use of the rich, but credit goes to Rajiv Gandhi for taking them to the rural masses". Pitroda also said their plan to expand India's telephone network succeeded because of Gandhi's political support. According to Pitroda, by 2007 they were "adding six million phones every month". Gandhi's government also allowed the import of fully assembled motherboards, which led to the price of computers being reduced. According to some commentators,
1700-517: A violation of the code. Another litigation was filed against then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh , home minister Sushilkumar Shinde and sports minister Bhanwar Jitendra Singh for conferring of the award on Tendulkar, alleging an apparent "conspiracy to ignore" the famed Indian field hockey player Dhyan Chand . The litigation filed against Rao declared that other Indian scientists, such as Homi Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai , had contributed more than Rao, his claim of publishing 1400 research papers
1800-876: A year after his 1998 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences . The awarding of 5 Bharat Ratna awards in quick succession in 2024 have been also been criticised. Critics argue this was done keeping in mind the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections . Awarding of Bharat Ratna to L. K. Advani was also criticised. Editorials of Indian newspapers have observed that the BJP strategically uses the Bharat Ratna to integrate figures like L K Advani , balancing narratives around mandir (temple) and Mandal (social justice). While some view these awards as politically astute, others criticize them for potentially normalizing Hindutva , especially given Advani 's contentious legacy. Though, as per
1900-577: Is a national endeavour. Chanderasekar withdrew the IPKF in 1989. On 30 July 1987, a day after Gandhi went to Sri Lanka and signed the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord, an honour guard named Vijitha Rohana hit him on his shoulder with his rifle; Gandhi's quick reflexes saved him from injury. The guard was then dragged off by his security personnel. The guard said his intention was to kill Gandhi because of "the damage he had caused" to Sri Lanka. Wijemuni
2000-798: Is no formal nomination process, recommendations for the award can only be made by the Prime Minister to the President . The recipient receives a Sanad (certificate) signed by the President and a medallion without any monetary grant. Usage of the title 'Bharat Ratna' as a prefix by the awardee is exempt from Article 18 (1) of the Constitution , as per the Supreme Court's precedent in Balaji Raghavan/S.P. Anand v. Union of India in 1995. Additionally, recipients may either use
2100-655: Is the highest civilian award of the Republic of India . Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is conferred in recognition of "exceptional service/performance of the highest order", without distinction of race, occupation, position or gender. The award was originally limited to achievements in the arts, literature, science, and public services, but the Government of India expanded the criteria to include "any field of human endeavor" in December 2011. The recommendations for
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#17327721737942200-613: Is the very condition of human survival in our age. The foiled bid of India recently to enter the Nuclear Suppliers Group , echoed his policy of non-proliferation to be linked to universal disarmament, which the World Nuclear Association refuses to recognise; non-proliferation being seen by India as essentially a weapon of the arms control regime, of the big nuclear powers as United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France, and China. In February 1987,
2300-535: The 1989 election , and then became Leader of the Opposition, Lok Sabha , resigning in December 1990, six months before his own assassination . Gandhi was not related to Mahatma Gandhi . Instead, he was from the politically powerful Nehru–Gandhi family , which had been associated with the Indian National Congress party. For much of his childhood, his maternal grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru
2400-836: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India . Eminent lawyer and politician, former Law Minister of India Ram Jethmalani said that as prime minister, Gandhi was "lacklustre and mediocre". Prime minister of India Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.133 via cp1102 cp1102, Varnish XID 544562673 Upstream caches: cp1102 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 05:36:13 GMT Bharat Ratna The Bharat Ratna ( Hindi pronunciation: [bʰaːɾət̪ rət̪nə] ; lit. ' Jewel of India ' )
2500-596: The Election Commission indicated that the awarding him was a violation of the model code of conduct as Tendulkar was an Indian National Congress nominated member of Rajya Sabha and the decision to award him would influence the voters of five states where elections were underway at the time. On 4 December 2013, the Election Commission rejected the petition stating that conferring the award on people from non-polling states did not amount to
2600-523: The Gazette , conferral of the award is not considered official. Recipients whose awards have been revoked or restored, both of which require the authority of the President, are registered in the Gazette . Recipients whose awards have been revoked are required to surrender their medals, and their names are struck from the register. The original 1954 specifications of the award was a circle made of gold 1 + 3 ⁄ 8 inches (35 mm) in diameter with
2700-710: The Harmandir Sahib . Later that day, Gandhi was appointed prime minister. His leadership was tested over the next few days as organised mobs rioted against the Sikh community , resulting in anti-Sikh massacres in Delhi. That December, the Congress party won the largest Lok Sabha majority to date, 414 seats out of 541 . Gandhi's period in office was mired in controversies such as Bhopal disaster , Bofors scandal and Mohd. Ahmed Khan v. Shah Bano Begum . In 1988, he reversed
2800-604: The Indo-Sri Lanka Accord in July 1987. The accord "envisaged a devolution of power to the Tamil-majority areas", dissolved the LTTE, and designated Tamil as an official language of Sri Lanka. Gandhi said: The Government of India believe that, despite some problems and delays, many of which were foreseen but unavoidable in the resolution of an issue of this magnitude and complexity, this Agreement represents
2900-598: The Janata Dal . Singh led the National Front coalition to victory in 1989 elections and he was sworn in as prime minister. Though the coalition won 143 seats compared to Congress's 197, it gained majority in the lower house of the parliament through outside support from the Bharatiya Janta Party under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani and the left parties such as
3000-664: The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports forwarded his name again, this time along with 2008 Summer Olympics gold medallist shooter Abhinav Bindra and mountaineer Tenzing Norgay while Bindra had already been recommended for the award in May 2013 by the National Rifle Association of India . In July 2013, the ministry again recommended Dhyan Chand. However, in November 2013, cricketer Sachin Tendulkar became
3100-863: The Operation Black Thunder to clear the Golden Temple in Amritsar of arms and gunmen. Two groups called National Security Guard and Special Action Group were created; they surrounded the temple in a 10-day siege during which the extremists' weapons were confiscated. Congress leader Anand Sharma said, "Operation Black Thunder effectively demonstrated the will of Rajiv Gandhi's government to take firm action to bring peace to Punjab". Gandhi's prime-ministership marked an increase of insurgency in northeast India . Mizo National Front demanded independence for Mizoram . In 1987, Gandhi addressed this problem; Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh were given
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3200-534: The Rajiv-Longowal Accord with Akali leader HS Longowal. Punjab's state assembly election was scheduled in September 1985, but Longowal died and was replaced by Surjit Singh Barnala , who formed the government. After two years, in 1987, Barnala resigned his office because of a breakdown of law and order, leading to the implementation of President's rule in the state. In May 1988, Gandhi launched
3300-528: The coup in Maldives , antagonising militant Tamil groups such as PLOTE , intervening and then sending peacekeeping troops to Sri Lanka in 1987, leading to open conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). His party was defeated in the 1989 election . Gandhi remained Congress president until the elections in 1991 . While campaigning for the elections, he was assassinated by
3400-542: The "whole gamut" of Rajiv Gandhi's foreign policy was "geared towards" making India "strong, independent, self-reliant and in the front rank of the nations of the world." According to Laskar , Rajiv Gandhi's diplomacy was "properly calibrated" so as to be "conciliatory and accommodating when required" and "assertive when the occasion demanded." In 1986, by request of the president of Seychelles France-Albert René , Gandhi sent India's navy to Seychelles to oppose an attempted coup against René. The intervention of India averted
3500-631: The Bharat Ratna. On 15 January 1955, the Padma Vibhushan was reclassified into three different awards; the Padma Vibhushan, the highest of the three, followed by the Padma Bhushan and the Padma Shri . The award was briefly suspended twice in its history. The first suspension occurred when Morarji Desai , who was sworn in as the fourth Prime Minister in 1977, withdrew all personal civil honours on 13 July 1977. The suspension
3600-581: The Code. Indian magazine Business and Economics called it a minority appeasement by Gandhi. Lawyer and former Law Minister of India, Ram Jethmalani , called the Act "retrogressive obscurantism for short-term minority populism". Gandhi's colleague Arif Mohammad Khan , who was then a Member of Parliament, resigned in protest. In his election manifesto for the 1984 general election , he did not mention any economic reforms, but after assuming office he tried to liberalise
3700-616: The Congress party joined opposition parties. Rajiv Gandhi had announced 'Sandesh Yatra' at the plenary session of AICC in Mumbai in 1985. The All India Congress Seva Dal ran it across the country. Pradesh Congress Committees (PCCs) and party leaders made four simultaneous trips from Mumbai, Kashmir, Kanyakumari and the Northeast. The yatra, which lasted for more than three months, concluded at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan. In 1990, Rajiv Gandhi undertook Bharat Yatra through different modes – padyatra,
3800-463: The Congress party signed a proposal and went to Indira, urging Rajiv to enter politics. Indira told them it was Rajiv's decision whether to enter politics. When he was questioned about it, he replied, "If my mother gets help from it, then I will enter politics". Rajiv entered politics on 16 February 1981, when he addressed a national farmers' rally in Delhi. During this time, he was still an employee of Air India. On 4 May 1981, Indira Gandhi presided over
3900-402: The Congress party. Mukherjee said Gandhi explained his position in a meeting between the two at the prime minister's residence on 19 June 1989. In May 2015, Indian president Pranab Mukherjee said the scandal was a "media trial" as "no Indian court has as yet established it as a scandal". Opposition parties Lok Dal, Indian National Congress (Socialist) and Jan Morcha united under Singh to form
4000-493: The Indian physicist C. V. Raman , who were honoured in 1954. Since then, the award has been bestowed upon 53 individuals, including 18 who were awarded posthumously. The original statutes did not provide for posthumous awards but were amended in January 1966 to permit them to honor former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri , the first individual to be honored posthumously. In 2014, cricketer Sachin Tendulkar , then aged 40, became
4100-887: The MSQ Examination in March 1962 but was unsuccessful. He passed on his second attempt in June, and was admitted to Trinity on 4 September 1962, joining the college in October. While at Trinity, he joined the Cambridge University Boat Club . During Gandhi's time at Cambridge, his mother and D'Rozario remained concerned about his well-being. D'Rozario, who along with his wife Sophy often hosted Gandhi at their Finchley home, took Gandhi to task for his inattention towards his studies. Despite his support, Gandhi failed end-of-year exams and left Trinity in 1965 without
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4200-498: The Pakistani president Zia-ul-Haq visited Delhi, where he met Gandhi to discuss "routine military exercises of the Indian army" on the borders of Rajasthan and Punjab . Gandhi reciprocated, in December 1988, by visiting Islamabad and meeting the new prime minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto , to reaffirm the 1972 Shimla agreement . The Sri Lankan Civil War broke out with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which
4300-525: The Parliament of India passed The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act 1986 , which nullified the Supreme Court's judgment in the Shah Bano case. The Act diluted the Supreme Court judgment and allowed maintenance payments to divorced women only during the period of Iddah , or until 90 days after the divorce, according to the provisions of Islamic law. This was in contrast to Section 125 of
4400-477: The Supreme Court was formed, which restored the awards and delivered a judgement that the "Bharat Ratna and Padma awards are not titles under Article 18 of the Constitution" on 15 December 1995. Following the announcement, in November 2013, that C. N. R. Rao and Sachin Tendulkar were to be awarded the Bharat Ratna, multiple litigations were filed challenging the awards. The litigation against Tendulkar to
4500-523: The Swedish arms company Bofors through Italian businessman and Gandhi family associate Ottavio Quattrocchi , in return for Indian contracts. Upon discovering the scandal, Singh was dismissed from office and later resigned his Congress membership. Gandhi was later personally implicated in the scandal when the investigation was continued by Narasimhan Ram and Chitra Subramaniam of The Hindu newspaper, damaging his image as an honest politician. In 2004, he
4600-626: The anti-Sikh riots in Delhi, Rajiv Gandhi said, "When a giant tree falls, the earth below shakes"; a statement for which he was widely criticised. Many Congress politicians were accused of orchestrating the violence. Indian politics got the youngest ever Prime minister in Rajiv Gandhi. This phenomenon attracted attention the world over. . . his winsome smile, charm and decency were his valuable personal assets. . . A senior opposition member, while talking to me, conceded that . . . he could not conceal his feeling that Rajiv Gandhi would be invincible for
4700-671: The award are made by the Prime Minister to the President . The recipients receive a Sanad (certificate) signed by the President and a peepal leaf-shaped medallion. Bharat Ratna recipients rank seventh in the Indian order of precedence . The first recipients of the Bharat Ratna were: the former Governor-General of the Union of India C. Rajagopalachari , the former President of the Republic of India Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan ; and
4800-403: The award for the independence activist Vinayak Damodar Savarkar stating that he had been "deliberately neglected by previous governments" but his family clarified that they are not making such demand and that the freedom fighter is known for his contribution towards independence movement and did not need an award for recognition. Per the original statutes, sports-persons were not eligible for
4900-515: The award. The Supreme Court formed a special two-judge division bench to adjudicate the case. The Solicitor General noted that to confer the award per the appropriate regulations pertaining to the Bharat Ratna, the name of the recipient must be published in The Gazette of India and entered in the recipients register maintained under the direction of the President. It was noted that only an announcement had been made by press communique, but
5000-401: The award; however, a revision of the rules in December 2011 made eligible "any field of human endeavour". Subsequently, several sports-persons' names were discussed; amongst them were field-hockey player Dhyan Chand and former world chess champion Viswanathan Anand . In 2011, 82 members of parliament recommended Chand's name for the award to the Prime Minister's Office . In January 2012,
5100-542: The center of the Sun. The words "Bharat Ratna" on the obverse side remained the same as the 1954 design as did the emblem of India and "Satyameva Jayate" on the reverse side. A 2-inch-wide (51 mm) white ribbon is attached to the medal so it can be worn around the neck. In 1957, the silver-gilt decoration was changed to burnished bronze. The medals are minted at Alipore Mint in Kolkata . Bharat Ratna can not be used as
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#17327721737945200-516: The clock" on the 1982 Asian Games . He was one of 33 members of the Indian parliament who were part of the Games' organising committee; sports historian Boria Majumdar writes that being "son of the prime minister he had a moral and unofficial authority" over the others. The report submitted by the Asian Games committee mentions Gandhi's "drive, zeal and initiative" for the "outstanding success" of
5300-738: The country's economy. He sought to liberalise India's trade policies but faced stiff opposition to the proposed reforms. He did so by providing incentives to make private production profitable. Subsidies were given to corporate companies to increase industrial production, especially of durable goods . It was hoped this would increase economic growth and improve the quality of investment. Rural and tribal people protested because they saw them as "pro-rich" and "pro-city" reforms. Gandhi increased government support for science, technology and associated industries, and reduced import quotas, taxes and tariffs on technology-based industries, especially computers, airlines, defence and telecommunications. In 1986, he announced
5400-548: The coup. This mission was codenamed as Operation Flowers are Blooming . In 1987, India re-occupied the Quaid Post in the disputed Siachen region of the Indo-Pakistani border after winning what was termed Operation Rajiv . In the 1988 Maldives coup d'état , the Maldives president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom asked for help from Gandhi. He dispatched 1500 soldiers and the coup was suppressed. On Thursday, 9 June 1988, at
5500-481: The decision by then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi (1984–89) to confer the award posthumously on former chief minister of Tamil Nadu, M. G. Ramachandran was criticized to have been aimed to influence voters prior to the Tamil Nadu assembly elections in 1989. The decision was also criticized for awarding Ramachandran before prominent independence activists B. R. Ambedkar and Vallabhbhai Patel , who were bestowed
5600-510: The existing convention against the military use of biological weapons. The ambit of our concern must extend to all means of mass annihilation . This was based on his prior historic speech before the Japanese National Diet on 29 November 1985, in which he said: Let us remove the mental partitions which obstruct the ennobling vision of the human family linked together in peace and prosperity. The Buddha's message of compassion
5700-548: The expression "Awarded Bharat Ratna by the President" or "Recipient of Bharat Ratna Award" to indicate that they have been honored with the award. The holders of the Bharat Ratna rank seventh in the Indian order of precedence . As with many official announcements, recipients are announced and registered in The Gazette of India , a publication released by the Department of Publication, Ministry of Urban Development used for official government notices; without publication in
5800-565: The fifteenth special session of the United Nations General Assembly , held at Headquarters, New York, Gandhi made vocal his views on a world free of nuclear weapons, to be realised through an, 'Action Plan for Ushering in a Nuclear-Weapon Free and Non-Violent World Order.' He said: Alas, nuclear weapons are not the only weapons of mass destruction. New knowledge is being generated in the life sciences. Military applications of these developments could rapidly undermine
5900-509: The first sports-person to receive the honour and this garnered much criticism for the government. In 2012, a litigation was filed in the Karnataka High Court requesting the court to issue a direction to the Ministry of Home Affairs to confer the Bharat Ratna upon Mahatma Gandhi . On 27 January 2014, a counsel appearing for the petitioner noted that after multiple representations from the petitioner, they were provided with
6000-430: The games. On 31 October 1984, the prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi's mother, Indira Gandhi, was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards, which led to violent riots against Sikhs. Sources estimate the number of Sikh deaths to be between 8,000 and 17,000. At a Boat Club rally 19 days after the assassination, Gandhi said, "Some riots took place in the country following the murder of Indiraji. We know the people were very angry and for
6100-441: The government had not proceeded to confer the award by publishing the name in the Gazette and entering the name in the register with the president having not conferred a Sanad (certificate). On 4 August 1997, the Supreme Court delivered an order that since the award had not been officially conferred, it cannot be revoked and declared that the press communique be treated as cancelled with the court declining to pass any judgement on
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#17327721737946200-811: The honor later in 1990 and 1991 respectively. Later, then prime minister V.P. Singh was criticized for posthumously honoring B. R. Ambedkar, apparently in a bid to please the Dalit voters. Later, Ravi Shankar was accused of lobbying for the award. The posthumous conferments of the award on the recipients who died before the Indian independence in 1947 or before the award was instituted in 1954, have been criticized by various authors and historians, stating that such conferments could lead to more demands to honor people like Maurya emperor Ashoka , Mughal emperor Akbar , Maratha emperor Shivaji , poet Rabindranath Tagore , Hindu spiritualist Swami Vivekananda , independence activist Bal Gangadhar Tilak , and father of
6300-399: The honour. Dhondo Keshav Karve was the oldest living recipient when he was awarded on his 100th birthday on 18 April 1958. As of 2024 , the award has been conferred upon 50 people with 15 posthumous declarations. The Bharat Ratna is conferred "in recognition of exceptional service/performance of the highest order", without distinction of race, occupation, position, or gender. The award
6400-418: The information under RTI that the recommendations to confer the award on Gandhi have been received multiple times in the past and were forwarded to the Prime Minister's Office. A Division bench consisting of the Chief Justice and another judge, dismissed the petition stating that the subject is not amenable to any adjudication process and the nominations and conferment process is stated to be informal and in
6500-406: The leaders of the Akali Dal who had been imprisoned since 1984's Operation Blue Star during Indira Gandhi's prime ministership. He lifted the ban on All India Sikh Students Federation and filed an inquiry into the 1984 Anti-Sikh Riots . He also held a closed-door meeting with senior Akali Dal leaders to find a solution to the Punjab problem. Despite Akali opposition, in January 1985, Gandhi signed
6600-421: The litigation. There is no formal provision that recipients of the Bharat Ratna should be Indian citizens. It has been awarded to a naturalised Indian citizen, Mother Teresa in 1980, and to two non-Indians, Abdul Ghaffar Khan of Pakistan in 1987 and the former South African president Nelson Mandela in 1990. Sachin Tendulkar , at the age of 40, became the youngest person and first sportsperson to receive
6700-535: The lower edge. A year later, the design was modified. The current medal is in the shape of a peepal leaf, approximately 2 + 5 ⁄ 16 inches (59 mm) long, 1 + 7 ⁄ 8 inches (48 mm) wide and 1 ⁄ 8 inch (3.2 mm) thick and rimmed in platinum. The embossed sun burst design, made of platinum, on the obverse side of the medal has a diameter of 5 ⁄ 8 inch (16 mm) with rays spreading out from 5 ⁄ 6 inch (21 mm) to 1 ⁄ 2 inch (13 mm) from
6800-413: The mark". From the Third Indira Gandhi ministry , he removed two powerful figures; Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Railway Minister A. B. A. Ghani Khan Choudhury . Mohsina Kidwai became the Minister of Railways; she was the only female figure in the cabinet. Former Home Minister PV Narasimha Rao was put in charge of defence . V. P. Singh , who was initially appointed as the Finance Minister ,
6900-560: The media for appointing many old boys to his administration. His inner circle was labelled a "Doon Cabinet" or "Dosco Mafia", and Washington Post reported, "The catch phrase around Delhi these days is that the 'Doon School runs India,' but that is too simple an analysis for a complex, chaotic country with so many competing spheres of influence." Gandhi's reliance on Doon alumni for political advice later led Prime Minister Morarji Desai to remark, "If I had anything to do with this place, I'd close it down". Gandhi's first action as prime minister
7000-415: The mob. Rajiv Gandhi was in West Bengal on 31 October 1984 when his mother, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh , to avenge the military attack on the Golden Temple during Operation Blue Star . Sardar Buta Singh and President Zail Singh pressed Rajiv to succeed his mother as prime minister within hours of her murder. Commenting on
7100-409: The nation Mahatma Gandhi . In 1991, then prime minister P. V. Narasimha Rao was criticized for bestowing the award upon Sardar Patel in 1991, 41 years after his death in 1950; and upon Subhas Chandra Bose in 1992, who purportedly died in 1945. In 2015, the prime minister Narendra Modi 's decision to award Madan Mohan Malaviya , who died in 1946, close to the local body elections in Uttar Pradesh
7200-646: The only way of safeguarding legitimate Tamil interests and ensuring a durable peace in Sri Lanka. Some have chosen to criticise the Agreement. None has shown a better way of meeting the legitimate aspirations of the Tamils in Sri Lanka, restoring peace in that country and of meeting our own security concern in the region. We have accepted a role which is difficult, but which is in our national interests to discharge. We shall not shrink our obligations and commitments. This
7300-568: The opposition. — Satyendra Narayan Sinha Soon after assuming office, Gandhi asked President Singh to dissolve Parliament and hold fresh elections, as the Lok Sabha had completed its five-year term. Gandhi officially became the president of the Congress party, which won a landslide victory with the largest majority in history of the Indian Parliament, giving Gandhi absolute control of government. He benefited from his youth and
7400-775: The posthumous mention of Bose and his death. In 1992, two PILs were filed in the High Courts; one in the Kerala High Court on 13 February 1992 and another in the Madhya Pradesh High Court on 24 August 1992. Both petitions questioned the civilian awards being "Titles" per an interpretation of Article 18 (1) of the Constitution . On 25 August 1992, the Madhya Pradesh High Court issued a notice temporarily suspending all civilian awards. A special five-judge division bench of
7500-509: The seat, defeating Lok Dal candidate Sharad Yadav by a margin of 237,000 votes. He took his oath on 17 August as Member of Parliament . Rajiv Gandhi's first political tour was to England, where he attended the wedding ceremony of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer on 29 July 1981. In December the same year, he was put in charge of the Indian Youth Congress . He first showed his organisational ability by "working round
7600-687: The second class carriage of an ordinary passenger train. He chose Champaran as the starting point for his 'Bharat Yatra'. Rajiv Gandhi started the Sadbhavna Yatra from Charminar in Hyderabad on 19 October 1990. In 1985, the Supreme Court of India ruled in favour of Muslim divorcee Shah Bano , declaring that her husband should give her alimony . Some Indian Muslims treated it as an encroachment upon Muslim Personal Law and protested against it. Gandhi agreed to their demands. In 1986,
7700-551: The seed for the information technology (IT) revolution was also planted during Rajiv Gandhi's time. Rajiv Gandhi's finance minister, V. P. Singh , uncovered compromising details about government and political corruption, to the consternation of Congress leaders. Transferred to the Defence Ministry, Singh uncovered what became known as the Bofors scandal, which involved millions of US dollars and concerned alleged payoffs by
7800-739: The state between 1951 and 1961 were given full citizenship but those who arrived there between 1961 and 1971 did not get right to vote for the next ten years. Gandhi employed former Rockwell International executive Sam Pitroda as his adviser on public information infrastructure and innovation. During Gandhi's time in office, public sector telecom companies MTNL and VSNL was developed. According to Pitroda, Gandhi's ability to resist pressure from multi-national companies to abandon his plan to spread telecommunication services has been an important factor in India's development. According to news website Oneindia , "About 20 years ago telephones were considered to be
7900-584: The status of states that were earlier union territories. Gandhi also ended the Assam Movement , which was launched by Assamese people to protest against the alleged illegal migration of Bangladeshi Muslims and immigration of other Bengalis to their state, which had reduced the Assamese to a minority there. He signed the Assam Accord on 15 August 1985. According to the accord, foreigners who came to
8000-414: The statutes for the Bharat Ratna, the recommendations for the award can only be made by the Prime Minister to the President, there have been several demands from various political parties publicly to honor their leaders. In January 2008, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L. K. Advani wrote to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recommending Singh's predecessor Atal Bihari Vajpayee for the award. This
8100-475: The teachers said Gandhi was shy and introverted, and "greatly enjoyed painting and drawing". He then studied at the St. Columba's School, Delhi . Thereafter, he was admitted to the preparatory Welham Boys' School and then moved to The Doon School , Dehradun in 1954, where Sanjay joined him two years later. At Doon, Gandhi's senior was Mani Shankar Aiyar , who later became a prominent member in his inner circle. Gandhi
8200-521: The telephone network in rural areas. He introduced measures to significantly reduce the Licence Raj after 1990, allowing businesses and individuals to purchase capital, consumer goods and import without bureaucratic restrictions. According to Rejaul Karim Laskar , a scholar of Indian foreign policy and an ideologue of Congress party , Rajiv Gandhi's vision for a new world order was premised on India's place in its front rank. According to Laskar ,
8300-538: The youngest recipient, while social reformer Dhondo Keshav Karve was the oldest recipient when he was awarded on his 100th birthday. Though usually conferred on India-born citizens, the award has been conferred on one naturalized citizen, Mother Teresa , and on two non-Indians: Abdul Ghaffar Khan (born in British India and later a citizen of Pakistan ) and Nelson Mandela , a citizen of South Africa . The Bharat Ratna, along with other personal civil honours ,
8400-447: Was "physically impossible" and Rao had proven cases of plagiarism, hence the announcement should be annulled. The High Courts rejected all the petitions raised against Rao and Tendulkar. In 1977, the decision by then prime minister Indira Gandhi to posthumously honor former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu K. Kamaraj was criticized to have been aimed at placating the voters before the Tamil Nadu assembly elections in 1977. In 1988,
8500-489: Was a friend of Amitabh Bachchan , and was familiar with Bachchan even before he launched his acting career. Rajiv, Sanjay and Bachchan spent time together when Bachchan was student in Delhi University and a resident of New Delhi . In the 1980s, Bachchan entered politics to support Gandhi. On 23 June 1980, Rajiv's younger brother Sanjay Gandhi died unexpectedly in an aeroplane crash. At that time, Rajiv Gandhi
8600-699: Was also educated at the Ecole d'Humanité , an international boarding school in Switzerland. He left the Doon School in 1961 with a second-class certificate, having performed well in his final subjects apart from a pass mark in chemistry. During Gandhi's final year at Doon, his mother and Albert D'Rozario, the scientific attaché at the Indian High Commission in London , arranged his application to Cambridge University . D'Rozario, who had been
8700-483: Was also met with criticism. A few of the conferments have been criticized for honoring personalities only after they received global recognition. The award for Mother Teresa was announced in 1980, a year after she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize . Satyajit Ray received an Academy Honorary Award in 1992 followed by the Bharat Ratna the same year. In 1999, Amartya Sen was awarded the Bharat Ratna,
8800-475: Was briefly suspended from July 1977 to January 1980, during the change in the national government; and for a second time from August 1992 to December 1995, when several public-interest litigations challenged the constitutional validity of the awards. In 1992, the government's decision to confer the award posthumously on Subhas Chandra Bose was opposed by those who had refused to accept the fact of his death , including some members of his extended family. Following
8900-745: Was demanding an independent Tamil state in Sri Lanka. Gandhi discussed the matter with the Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa at the SAARC meeting in 1986. In that year, the Sri Lankan army blockaded the Tamil majority district of Jaffna ; Gandhi ordered relief supplies to be dropped into the area by parachute because the Sri Lankan navy did not allow the Indian Navy to enter. Gandhi signed
9000-570: Was given the Defence Ministry in 1987. During his tenure as prime minister, Gandhi frequently shuffled his cabinet ministers, drawing criticism from the magazine India Today , which called it a "wheel of confusion". The West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu said, "The Cabinet change reflects the instability of the Congress (I) Government at the Centre". He also administered and created the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change . Gandhi, an alumnus of The Doon School , drew criticism from
9100-481: Was immediately followed by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) lobbying for their leader, Jyoti Basu , former Chief Minister of West Bengal though Basu himself said that he would decline the honour, even if awarded. Similar demands were made by Telugu Desam Party , Bahujan Samaj Party , and Shiromani Akali Dal for their respective leaders N. T. Rama Rao , Kanshi Ram , and Parkash Singh Badal . In September 2015, regional political party Shiv Sena demanded
9200-418: Was imprisoned for 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 years for the assault. Gandhi later said about the incident: When I was inspecting the guard of honour and as I walked past one person, I saw through the corner of my eye some movement. I ducked down a little bit in a reflex action. By my ducking, he missed my head and the brunt of the blow came on my shoulder below the left ear. Soon after assuming office, Gandhi released
9300-401: Was in London as part of his foreign tour. Hearing the news, he returned to Delhi and cremated Sanjay's body. As per Agarwal, in the week following Sanjay's death, Shankaracharya Swami Shri Swaroopanand, a saint from Badrinath , visited the family's house to offer his condolences. He advised Rajiv not to fly aeroplanes and instead "dedicate himself to the service of the nation". Seventy members of
9400-410: Was made general secretary of the Congress party and given significant responsibility in organising the 1982 Asian Games . On the morning of 31 October 1984, his mother (the then prime minister) was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards Satwant Singh and Beant Singh in the aftermath of Operation Blue Star , an Indian military action to remove Sikh separatist activists from the Golden Temple of
9500-409: Was originally confined to the arts, literature, science, and public services, as per the 1954 regulations. In December 2011, the rules were amended to "any field of human endeavour". The 1954 statutes did not allow posthumous awards, but this was subsequently modified in the January 1966 statute, and Lal Bahadur Shastri became the first recipient to be honored posthumously in 1966. Although there
9600-413: Was passing the anti-defection law in January 1985. According to this law, an elected Member of Parliament or legislative assembly could not join an opposition party until the next election. Historian Manish Telikicherla Chary calls it a measure of curbing corruption and bribery of ministers by switching parties so they could gain majority. Many such defections occurred during the 1980s as elected leaders of
9700-606: Was posthumously cleared of this allegation. In an interview in July 2005, V. P. Singh explained that his fall out with Rajiv Gandhi was not due to the Bofors deal, but rather due to the HDW deal . Courtesy a contract signed with the German company HDW in 1981, the Indian government had agreed to purchase two ready submarines built in Germany by HDW and two submarines in CKD form to be assembled in Mazagaon docks. V. P. Singh had received
9800-463: Was prime minister and his younger brother Sanjay an MP ; despite this, Gandhi remained apolitical. After Sanjay died in a plane crash in 1980, Gandhi reluctantly entered politics at the behest of his mother. The following year he won his brother's Parliamentary seat of Amethi and became a member of the Lok Sabha , the lower house of India's Parliament . As part of his political grooming, Rajiv
9900-530: Was prime minister. Gandhi attended The Doon School , an elite boarding institution, and then the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. He returned to India in 1966 and became a professional pilot for the state-owned Indian Airlines . In 1968, he married Sonia Maino ; the couple settled in Delhi for a domestic life with their children Rahul and Priyanka . For much of the 1970s, his mother
10000-413: Was rescinded on 25 January 1980, after Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister. The award was suspended again in mid-1992, when two Public-Interest Litigations were filed, one in the Kerala High Court and another in the Madhya Pradesh High Court , challenging the "constitutional validity" of the awards. The awards were reintroduced by the Supreme Court in December 1995, following the conclusion of
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