Rajiv Gandhi is a FALSE icon!

 Nostalgia is a strange thing. When we put on Nostalgia goggles, one tends to forget the evils gone by. The nostalgia also exists among those who vehemently hate the ruling party. The Modi tenure has liberals longing for the days of yore when Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee etc. was PM.

One wonders if someday Yogi Adityanath, becomes the PM, will there be the same level of hand-wringing for the ‘liberal era of the Modi govt?- Freepress Journal

Rajiv Gandhi is a FALSE icon

Reason 1: When Big tree (Indira Gandhi) falls Earth 'shakes a bit' *and smiles*

He explicitly justified the Sikh Genocide which happened aftermath of Indira Gandhi assassination. the 1984 Anti Sikh pogrom and justifying a pogrom that took anything between 8,000 and 20,000 lives across the country over 5 days (October 31 to November 4 in 1984). 

If you still don't get the magnitude let me tell you. 2002 riots lasted for three days span with an estimated casualty of 1500-2000 people. (This comparison is by no mean to underestimate or belittle the 2002 victims and incidents) What I am trying to tell you is INC did what BJP is doing now much more efficient and on a large scale! Rajiv knew it and defended it! During the night of 31 October and the morning of 1 November, Congress Party leaders met with local supporters to distribute money and weapons. Congress MP Sajjan Kumar and INC trade union leader Lalit Maken handed out ₹100 notes and bottles of liquor to the assailants.. In 2011, Human Rights Watch reported that the Government of India had "yet to prosecute those responsible for the mass killings". According to the 2011 WikiLeaks cable leaks, the United States was convinced of Indian National Congress' complicity in the riots and called it "opportunism" and "hatred" by the Congress government, of Sikhs.

Reason 2: Letting Warren Anderson go

I don't think most of you would be knowing this name, but most of you know this picture in the next slide. (Trigger warning for next slide - baby death)

While millennials would’ve grown up on tales of Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya, Warren Anderson’s great escape was a story through the mid & the late 80s. In 1984, the Bhopal Gas tragedy took place which claimed thousands of lives. Union Carbide’s CEO Warren Anderson had arrived in India after assurances were made that he’d not be arrested, he was taken into custody. Warren Anderson reportedly managed to get in touch with contacts in the US Govt who ostensibly put pressure on New Delhi. Later the call records were erased by the PMO & CMO. Recent RTI question revealed this, there is no such records/minutes of the meeting.

Reason 3: Intimidation of the Press

Rajiv Gandhi actually went a step further than ‘fascist’ Modi but failed when he tried to pass an anti-defamation bill to muzzle the press in 1988. It was precipitated by severe criticism of India’s first proper defence scam – Bofors. 

Reason 4: Laid foundation for Temple politics 

As if appeasing Muslim fundamentalists (Shah Bano Case) wasn’t enough, Rajiv Gandhi returned the favour by doing the same for Hindu ones. Looking to counter BJP’s accusations of ‘pseudo-secularism, Rajiv Gandhi’s actions lay the foundation for the temple politics that would wreak havoc and lay waste in the country, killing thousands.

Then Union Home Secretary accused Rajiv Gandhi of trying to use the Hindutva plank to get some voters. He wrote in his book: "Rajiv Gandhi remained focused on pleasing the fundamentalists among the Muslims and the Hindus; the Muslims by getting the Muslim Women's Divorce Act enacted, and later, the Hindus, by getting the locks of the 'temple in the mosque' in Ayodhya opened, permitting shilanyas (foundation stone-laying) of the new temple, and even starting the Congress party's Lok Sabha election campaign from Ayodhya to usher in Ram Rajya. I would unhesitatingly call Rajiv Gandhi the second most prominent kar sevak, after Nayar, the district magistrate of Faizabad, who encouraged the clandestine placement of the Ram Lalla idol in the Babri Masjid on December 22, 1949."

The communal genie was out of the bottle and there’d be riots in faraway places, leading to thousands of deaths that scarred the nation’s psyche and tore apart what some used to believe was the nation’s secular fabric.

Yet the Indian National Congress appears hellbent on continuing with the belief that the dynasty can help them win again, even avoiding giving the spotlight to anyone who might make Rahul Gandhi look inferior in comparison.