Just go back in history and see what another mother did to her son. Indira Gandhi made Rajiv general secretary of the Congress party on February 2, 1983. His only real experience till then was in running aircraft. His sycophantic partymen, however, believed that he was capable of running the country. On October 30, 1984, a tragedy became the pretext for making him, at age, 40, the prime minister of India.

How did Rajiv Gandhi govern India? Do not base your answer on the countless institutions, buildings, chowks and governmental schemes that have been named after him. Look at the truth behind the propaganda.

Look at the anti-Sikh carnage in Delhi that took place within days of his being sworn in as prime minister, and which he later tried to rationalise in a most unbecoming way; at the IPKF fiasco for which he was primarily responsible and which proved to be tragic in more ways than one; at the much-trumpeted Punjab and Assam accords, both of which are still not implemented; at how the Assam accord, which was meant to stop illegal infiltration from Bangladesh, has in fact become a legitimiser of the menace; at how he started the cover-up operation on the Bofors scandal, converting, in the process, a four-fifths majority in the Lok Sabha in 1984 into an abject defeat for his party in 1989; and look also at how the Bofors cover-up is continuing even today.

After seeing this truth behind the hagiography about Rajiv’s rule, ask yourself: Should India take the risk yet again with immaturity and inexperience? Has India’s oldest political party covered itself with glory by projecting Rahul Gandhi as its “Dhoni”? Has Dhoni earned his captainship on the strength of his performance, or because he is his father’s son? Above all, should the powerful mothers and fathers in our political establishment be allowed to practise nepotism? If you are agitated by these questions, I wholeheartedly recommend that you watch Gandhi My

... contd.