A recall: On the occasion of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s 35th death anniversary

 

I asked Rajiv Gandhi a pointed question. He was not unwilling to answer it. He did not feel it was a question that could be dismissed or ignored. After all, what I asked him was for his insight and analysis on things that had happened.

This was at 10 Janpath, New Delhi.

I will come to what I asked him and what he said later in this write-up, but let me first narrate an experiment that I conducted at the former Prime Minister’s house. As a visitor, I was curious about his security. I wondered whether his security was good enough.

I was prompted to think about this for two reasons: his mother, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was assassinated on October 31, 1984. She was staying at 1, Safdarjung Road, which was the official residence of the Prime Minister. From her residence she was walking to her office at No. 1, Akbar Road, which was interconnected. One of her security personnel opened fire and killed her.

Some years later, I visited the Indira Gandhi Memorial Museum at 1, Safdarjung Road and saw the place where she was shot. Indira Gandhi was an iron lady. As a child, I saw her twice during her visits to Hyderabad — once in the 1970s and again in the 1980s.

Newspapers had brought out special editions when she was assassinated. I was an Intermediate first-year student then. We got all the newspapers and read the shocking news of the assassination.

Rajiv Gandhi was sworn in as Prime Minister the same day. During his visit to Sri Lanka on July 30, 1987, Rajiv Gandhi escaped an assassination attempt. In Colombo, when he was inspecting the guard of honour, a soldier tried to hit him with his rifle butt. Rajiv Gandhi ducked at the very moment in a quick reflex and escaped the attempt.

Indira Gandhi had been assassinated. There had been an assassination attempt on him.

The Indian National Congress got a landslide victory in the 1984 Lok Sabha elections following the assassination of Indira Gandhi. The polls were actually scheduled to be held in 1985, but Rajiv Gandhi chose to go for polls that very year and the party won a huge majority. Rajiv Gandhi became Prime Minister again. He was firmly established in power.

In the 1989 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress party did not get a majority, though it emerged as the single largest party with 197 seats. The Janata Dal got 143 seats. V. P. Singh became Prime Minister as the National Front candidate with outside support from other parties. Subsequently, V. P. Singh lost power as the Bharatiya Janata Party decided not to support the government. Chandra Shekhar, who broke away from the Janata Dal, got support from the Congress and became Prime Minister. In March 1991, the Congress withdrew support to Chandra Shekhar and the government fell.

The issue that triggered the fall of the government was that two policemen from Haryana were allegedly keeping an eye on Rajiv Gandhi’s residence. Congress leaders felt that 10 Janpath was under constant watch and that this amounted to nothing less than spying.

As a journalist since 1988, I had closely watched and followed all political developments. They had become part of my work as well.

But it was not on work that I went to 10 Janpath. During 1989-90, I was a student of Arts College, Osmania University. The entire batch of communication and journalism students was taken to Delhi on a study tour. We stayed at a place called Tourist Home. We were taken to many places by our faculty member Shyam Sunder. We also went to Parliament House.

For me, the visit to 10 Janpath was significant. I was a curious visitor.

I was curious about the security provided to Rajiv Gandhi. Though the Congress party had emerged as the single largest party and met the criteria for Rajiv Gandhi to be given Leader of the Opposition status, there were procedural wrangles in granting him that status.

How tight and impregnable was Rajiv Gandhi’s security? I did a small experiment. The outcome of my experiment may not mean anything significant, but it did answer a small question that I had.

The security appeared tight.

The experiment was this. I broke away from my group of students in the waiting area. I aligned myself with a group of farmers, who I think came from Rajasthan. I was identified with this group and let in.

The question that I had was this: if the security people had a list of names or at least the number of people visiting as a group, they would have had to count and send them in. Did they check the number of students on the list, if one had been given to them? It probably was. It should have been. So the security must have had the number. Out of that number, there was one less. This should have been noticed. If, at the very entry into 10 Janpath, I had been counted as one among the student group, why was it not realised inside, where we were actually to meet Rajiv Gandhi in an open area?

The second question was this: if I was part of the Rajasthan group, why was there an extra member who passed through the channel? Were numbers checked at all? Were they verified at all?

My experiment was not to raise larger questions about security but simply to understand what it was like. Far be it from me to suggest any major security lapse.

For example, when N. T. Rama Rao was Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, and I was already a journalist, I would go to his house at Abids unhindered. There were only a handful of reporters then. All of them would be recognised by the police, especially one ACP who knew everyone well enough not even to ask their names when they showed up again. NTR would hold National Front meetings at his Abids residence.

I remember that on one occasion, a journalist friend of mine, Rama Rao, spent several hours at the house. We would interview all the leaders there.

Having such free access to NTR’s house did not mean it should have been the same at Rajiv Gandhi’s house.

From my small experiment, the security was not as good as it should have been. This is not a judgmental statement but a mere observation from my experiment.

While face to face with Rajiv Gandhi, I could not help but ask him a question. In fact, I genuinely wanted to know the answer. During his tenure as Prime Minister, Doordarshan would devote a lot of time to showing him, his speeches, his addresses and the various programmes he attended during 1984-89.

“Do you think your party lost the 1989 Lok Sabha polls because of your overexposure on television?” I asked him.

This probably was not the right occasion to ask him. Not the right place either. That is because I had gone to 10 Janpath as one of the journalism students and not as a journalist. But Rajiv Gandhi was not unwilling to answer the query.

“There were many factors,” he said.

What stayed with me was his willingness to answer the query.

It was election time once again in 1991. The Congress party had pulled out support to Chandra Shekhar, who had formed the government after V. P. Singh. Rajiv Gandhi was seeking a mandate from the people again. That was how he was at Peddapalli Lok Sabha constituency in the then Andhra Pradesh.

I attended that public meeting. I rushed back to the office to file a news report. I made sure it did not read like a repeat of the same thing he would say at every meeting because it was election time. I captured the mood, the excitement of the people at seeing his helicopter land and take off, the enthusiasm and the activity that surrounded the political public meeting.

Rajiv Gandhi took off in his helicopter. That was the last time I saw him alive.

On May 20, 1991, that was the last public meeting that he addressed. From there he flew to Visakhapatnam for a campaign engagement, though not a public meeting. He then went to Madras and headed to Sriperumbudur where he was assassinated on May 21, 1991.

That night, violence broke out in Hyderabad. I had reached home late after completing my office work. Information had already spread late in the night that something had happened to Rajiv Gandhi, but confirmation was yet to come. I did not hear it myself, but BBC broke the news at 11 pm.

My office called me. I was back at work again.

Right from the stretch from Musheerabad towards Tank Bund via Kavadiguda, there were tyres in flames in the middle of the roads. There was stone pelting. Anger and anguish were expressed this way. Theatres belonging to NTR’s family were targeted by mobs.

The day stretched late into the night for all reporters who were on the job covering the aftermath of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination.

As for me, little did I imagine, when I was covering Rajiv Gandhi’s public meeting on May 20, 1991, that it would be the last one he would ever address.

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Rajiv Gandhi was Prime Minister. Surely, if he asked for something, it would not have been too difficult for someone to get it for him. And most certainly, would he ask for something that was impossible to get?

Dr P. M. Bhargava narrated this incident to me during a conversation we had. Dr Bhargava was the founding director of Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology from 1977 till 1990. The distinguished scientist and Padma Bhushan awardee passed away in 2017 at the age of 89.

On one occasion, I called up Dr Bhargava. Our conversation took us back to the time when the CCMB building at Habsiguda was inaugurated. Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had not only come, but had also felt at home with the scientists. He was at ease and kept everyone else at ease. He was one among them and wanted to be one with the guests too. There were guests even from the US on that day. It was mentioned that people in the US were celebrating Thanksgiving Day.

It was November 26, 1987. Thanksgiving Day is celebrated in the United States on the fourth Thursday of November every year. It is an important family occasion when people gather for a traditional meal and express gratitude. It has been an American tradition for centuries.

When it was mentioned that it was Thanksgiving Day, Rajiv Gandhi asked: "Where is the turkey?"

Turkey is the traditional centrepiece of a Thanksgiving meal in the US. Though Dr P. M. Bhargava had ensured that the dinner on the occasion would cater to every palate, he had not hazarded a guess as to what the Prime Minister would ask for. For Rajiv Gandhi, it was simple: if it was Thanksgiving Day and if there were guests from the US, there had to be a turkey on the table. It was a given for him.

As he recalled the incident, Dr Bhargava said he wondered how he could fulfil the Prime Minister's request. Of course, it was not an order. The Prime Minister had merely mentioned the idea of a turkey to him.

"There was no turkey at CCMB. I wondered what we could do," he recalled.

Then he remembered that though there was no turkey at the institution, he himself had one at home. By dinner time, the turkey would have to be ready on the table. That was what the Prime Minister expected. After all, he wanted the US guests to feel at home and not miss the traditional Thanksgiving meal.

Dr Bhargava spoke to his staff. They went to his house. The turkey was there. And the turkey was ready on the dinner table in time. Thanksgiving would now be complete with it.

Pushpa Mittra Bhargava was pleased. The Special Protection Group was not.

Rajiv Gandhi's security personnel stood their ground.

"No, it cannot be served to him," they told Dr Bhargava.

What was the hassle? What was the issue?

"There is a protocol and that has to be followed," the SPG said.

It had to be adhered to, come what may. The turkey was not part of the menu that had been cleared by the SPG in advance. Nothing other than what had already been vetted could be placed on the table for the consumption of the Prime Minister. 

No turkey for Rajiv Gandhi. But he made no fuss of it anyway.