This Day In History: India's Rajiv Gandhi Assassinated 35 Years Ago

2026-05-21 02:45:09

(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) This day, 35 years ago, former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated at an election meeting near the southern city of Madras (now Chennai). Up to 20 people, including three policemen and three women, also died that day, May 21, 1991, when a powerful bomb exploded at Sriperumbudur, about 50km southwest of Madras, the capital of Tamil Nadu state.

A spokesman for Mr Gandhi's Congress (I) party said the bomb that killed the former prime minister was hidden in a bouquet of flowers handed to him as he began an election campaign meeting.

Recommended For You

As reported by Khaleej Times, Pranab Mukherjee said the bomb exploded as Gandhi was heading for the dais at the rally. He said Gandhi was accepting garlands of flowers and bouquets offered by supporters as he approached the dais during the rally for the week's three-phase elections, which began on May 20.

“Fourteen people were killed and it's difficult to tell precisely right now if he was also blown up because the bodies were badly mutilated,” he said, adding it was not clear if the assassin was also killed in the blast.

Gandhi, grandson of India's first premier, Jawaharlal Nehru, had ruled India for five years after the 1984 assassination by Sikh bodyguards of his mother, Indira Gandhi, and was bidding for a second term.

The blast occurred as a crowd of 10,000 assembled to hear a speech by Rajiv Gandhi, whose Congress (I) party was the front-runner in the poll, although not expected to gain an absolute majority.

"Where is Rajiv, where is Rajiv"

The explosion blew Mr Gandhi's head off and the body, recognisable only from the clothes he wore, lay for several minutes in a pool of blood. The panicked crowd ran helter-skelter, asking“Where is Rajiv, where is Rajiv?”

Former Congress (I) MP Jayanti Natarajan and former journalist Suman Dubey, a close Gandhi aide, were injured, Jayalalitha, an ally of Mr Gandhi in Tamil Nadu, was not among the casualties.

Gandhi had just placed a garland on a statue of his later mother and was walking towards a platform from which he was to address the crowd, accepting garlands from admirers and supporters, when the bomb went off, eyewitnesses said.

Rajiv Gandhi was identified by a senior police officer, who turned the mutilated body over His clothes were torn and he was lying face down in his own blood.

Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president Vazhapadi Ramamurthi and Congress candidate from Sriperumbudur constituency Maragatham Chandrasekhar, escaped unhurt. GK Moopanar, who came to the spot a few seconds after the blast, covered Mr Gandhi's body and removed it from the scene. Two security personnel and three women were among those killed in the blast.

The venue of the public meeting was an open area just by the side of the main road. An unpaved road linked the main road to the dais and a red carpet had been laid for the Rajiv Gandhi.

The Cabinet met in emergency session as Mr Gandhi's Italian-born wife, Sonia Gandhi, flew to Sriperumbudur in a special military helicopter to take the body back to New Delhi for the funeral.

Seven-day mourning

As news of the assassination spread, more than 4,000 weeping supporters gathered outside Mr Gandhi's New Delhi residence. Police at one moment had to beat back the crowd that was swelling by the minute, chanting slogans against the US Central Intelligence Agency and opponents of Congress (I) in the elections.

The crowd forced President Ramaswamy Venkataraman's car to retreat as he arrived to the residence at 10, Janpath Road, witnesses said.

The government proclaimed a public holiday on May 22 to mourn Mr Gandhi as Mr Venkataraman, 80, condemned the killing as a“heinous” act, adding:“This savage act should lead us all to resolve to fight the cult of violence in our public life.”

The caretaker government of Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar cancelled all official functions and declared a week's mourning for Gandhi.

Then US President George Bush called the assassination of Gandhi a tragic loss and said,“I just don't know what the world is coming to.”