Horrors to Rajiv Gandhi , Ranking Indian Prime Ministers

Ranking Indian Prime Ministers
Of the Indian Prime Ministers - "day dreamer" Nehru can be excused for building the nation and acquiring the various territories. The "urine drinking" Morarji Desai, who messed up the RAW can be excused for cleaning up the administration and Constitution repealing the mess that Indira brought during Emergency. The "sleeping beauty" Dewe Gowda could be excused for bringing one of the best budgets in the only year he ruled.



Shastri was very honorable, "non-smiler" Rao heralded the economic reforms, "slow talking" Vajpayee strengthened the defense, foreign policy and economy. "Muted man" Manmohan despite being a silent spectator didn't commit big blunders outside of the scams, "invisible" IK Gujral was good in foreign policy. VP Singh was bad, but didn't commit a big blunder outside of Mandal.

Indira is a strong contender for the worst PM, but somewhat excused for winning the 1971 war, nuclearizing India and standing strong against the superpowers.

 Indian Army has a very honorable record. It had barely lost in any operation it planned and it was never misused fighting random wars elsewhere. However, in a Bush-like action, Rajiv sent 100,000 armed men to Sri Lanka that was widely hated as an occupying force and thrown out in ignominy. Overall 1200 armed men died and plenty more of both Tamils & Sinhalese lost lives. It was VP Singh who finally brought the army home after he won the elections, ending the shame. However, when Rajiv threatened to bring shame 2.0 for the Army, the LTTE lost its cool and assassinated the leader. indiatimes.com

In 1987, the Kashmir valley was a fairly peaceful one - much more peaceful than Punjab or Assam. The state's residents were quite excited by the upcoming 1987 assembly elections. Even the separatists were actively engaged in the elections. But, they were horribly disappointed in one of the worst Indian elections. Internationally it is agreed that the Congress rigged that elections to favor its ally - National Conference. The people were so disappointed that it brought the rise of Mujahideen in the valley and marked the start of its violent phase. economist.com

A poor 60 year old Muslim woman went to the court seeking Rs. 200/month from her husband, for supporting her 5 children after the lawyer husband deserted her, uttering Talaq three times. Both the High Court and Supreme Court ruled in the woman's favor. However, Rajiv overruled the court with a new legislation and took away the basic rights of Muslim women in India to appease the conservative clergy. He also banned Salman Rushdie's classic work - Satanic Verses [even before any Islamic nation did]. As BJP brought nationwide riots, he tried to throw them a few - opening the gates of Babri Masjid and permitting construction near the Masjid [eventually leading to the controversial Mosque's destruction. wikipedia.org

Sonia Gandhi and her Italian contacts allegedly led to India's biggest scam of the time - Bofors scandal [Ms. Gandhi then broke her own record in the 2004-14 regime with 2G]. It involved getting large kickbacks in buying guns from a Swiss firm Bofors. Whether he did the crime or not, handling such a matter of national security in such a non-transparent way once again showed his greenhorn attitude. wikipedia.org

In almost every aspect, Rajiv's rule was one of the most disastrous periods of India. He was the Prime Minister when Bhopal Gas tragedy (world's worst industrial disaster) struck. He had the chief of Union Carbide in India. But, Rajiv let him go free. The disaster was once again mismanaged.  intoday.in

Rajiv's party presided over the biggest pogrom in India's history - 8000 Sikhs were murdered right around the national capital as a vengeance for the assassination of his mother - Indira Gandhi. This is 10x the size of 2002 riots and led to further assassinations as Sikh militants claimed their own vengeance by bombing several trains in Ludhiana and bombing an Air India plane from Canada. wikipedia.org