India remembers Rajiv Gandhi on his 26th death anniversary

On the 26th death anniversary of India’s former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi National Herald has compiled anecdotes, recollections and posts from social media and other sources:

That Fateful Night May 21, 1991

It was a Tuesday. I had just returned home after a day of covering Lok Sabha elections in Bihar. It was hot and humid evening in Patna. I took a shower and settled down with a peg of scotch with my friend and colleague Padmanand Jha, who had come from Delhi to cover the polls.

Suddenly, a girl in my neighbourhood shouted and asked my wife to cross-check with me, because I am journalist, the news about Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. I was shocked and refused to believe this. I put my glass on the table and rushed to call Shyamal Dutta, a friend of mine who was then posted as the joint director of Intelligence Bureau in Patna. He confirmed the information. I was crestfallen. Just ten days ago, Rajiv Gandhi had been in Bihar campaigning and I had gone to Muzaffarpur to cover the rally. I had come back to Patna to file my copy. At around 10 pm, I received a call from a Congress leader who said that Rajiv Gandhi would be meeting some journalists at Raj Bhavan, where he was staying for the night. I drove down and chatted with him for more than half-an-hour. Rajiv was always smiling and had pleasant expression even while replying to some uncomfortable questions from journalists. He had a sore throat because he had been addressing a series of election rallies in Bihar that day. I had the opportunity of meeting and interacting with Rajiv Gandhi earlier too on several occasions when he was General Secretary of the Congress and as Prime Minister of India after he had lost his mother Indira Gandhi in 1984. But it was my last meeting with Rajiv Gandhi at the Patna Raj Bhavan.

The scenes and conversation that I had with Rajiv Gandhi at Patna Raj Bhavan flashed before my eyes. My eyes became moist. I, slowly, picked up my glass of whisky, only to pour it down the wash basin in the living room. It was a sleepless night.

— Mohan Sahay, Journalist