Stand Off Pluralism

Stand Off Pluralism

Indian HOLOCAUST My father`s Life and Time- One Hundred and Fifty Nine

Palash Biswas

http://www.rediff.com/news/punjab.htm?zcc=rl

Stand off sharpens in Dera issue.The Akal Takht - the highest political institution of the Sikhs - has called for a shutdown in Punjab on Tuesday. The protest call comes after the leader of the Dera Sacha Sauda sect appeared in an advertisement dressed like Guru Gobind Singh, which sparked violence last week.The Akal Takht has issued an ultimatum to the Punjab government to shut down facilities of the Dera sect in the state by May 27 and rejected a statement of regret by its chief Baba Ram Rahim.

On the other hand,The CPI on Monday came down heavily on those who created disturbances at Singur in West Bengal yesterday and said this was an attempt to create obstacles in the way of the all-party meeting on May 24 to start the peace process in Nandigram. Maintaining that the state administration has to start functioning in Nandigram, Bardhan said those families which have been "forcibly evicted by Trinamool Congress and other elements have to return to their hearths and homes.

The CPI, Bardhan said, welcomed the initiative of the left front to restore peace and normality in Nandigram and expressed hope that the May 24 meeting would yield "positive results".

West Bengal's ruling Left Front will meet tomorrow in Kolkata to formally endorse the decision for the all-party meeting. Forward Bloc state secretary Ashok Ghosh was authorised by the front to mediate with the opposition parties to decide on the date and the agenda of the meeting. These were decided after talks between him and Trinamool Congress Chief Mamata Banerjee.
Mamata holds rally at Haldia
Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee held a massive rally at Haldia in east Midnapore district on Monday. The rally was held as the countdown to an all party meeting on Nandigram issue, scheduled for May 24, began.

The CPI (M) strongman in the area is its MP, Lakshman Seth, who was also responsible for the land acquisition notice at Nandigram.The notice had sparked off violence in the area in January and culminated in police firing on March 14.

By holding a rally in his territory Mamata clearly hopes to send out a strong message to the CPI (M) - while the peace process in Nandigram is on track, those responsible for the violence in Nandigram should be brought to book.

Communal violence will not be tolerated: YSR
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy today called for joint efforts to fight communal forces and terrorism. Addressing a rally of Congress workers on the occasion of the 16th death anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi at historic Charminar, Reddy said Friday's explosion in Mecca Masjid was the "handiwork of some fundamentalists to create a rift among various religions and disturb the peace."

Singur still tense
A day after violence erupted in Singur, the site of Tata Motor's small car plant project, the situation there was quiet but tense today. Additional police forces were deployed around the factory site as a precautionary measure, IGP (Law and Order) Raj Kanojia told PTI.


In Punjab,Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal's backchannel mediation between the two sides have failed. Badal cannot go against the wishes of the Akal Takht because that would antagonise his vote bank.At the same time to maintain peace in the state is important for his government.

''As the Chief Minister I can't say something like this. But he should see what mistake he has made. I don't say an apology will help but he should do whatever he can to solve the problem,'' Chief Minister Badal said.

''I request all political parties like the Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP to maintain peace. We will not allow anyone to create problems.''

''The Punjab government is determined to maintain calm,'' Badal said.

Baba Ram Rahim is accused of sexually exploiting a girl at the sect's headquarters in Sirsa in Haryana in 2003.

He is also linked to the murder of journalist Ramchandrsa Chattrapaty who exposed the story.

The Dera has hinted legal recourse.

''We have expressed our sincere and heartfelt regrets on several occasions in front of the media,'' spokesman for the sect Dr Aditya Arora said of the issue.

''If an effort is not made to understand whatever we have tried to convey, and it is transformed into a battle of semantics, then I think we are not being understood.''

''We expect the government to act responsibly under the law of the land, if the situation demands, legal option is also open to us,'' Dr Arora said.


Dera chief should apologise: Badal

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has said the chief of Dera Sacha Sauda should apologise, if that is what it will take to restore order in the state.Addressing a press conference in Chandigarh, Badal said he is committed to bringing back peace at all costs in Punjab.

Talks fail

Badal's remarks came soon after the state government's attempts to broker a truce between Sikh religious leaders and the Dera Sacha Sauda failed to make any breakthroughs on Monday.Instead, top Sikh clerics hardened their stance and the Dera sect has refused to apologise.

BSP invited to PM's dinner
Hindustan Times - 49 minutes ago
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's celebratory dinner for UPA allies and supporting parties will provide an occasion to present a line-up for the presidential elections with the Bahujan Samaj Party also being invited for the function on Tuesday.
Advani's Charge-sheet against the UPA Government Daijiworld.com
Mid-term results Daily News & Analysis

Pluralism is now at the mercy of the global Mansmriti order and MNC power! Ram Guha pin points Pluralism as the Sustenance Force of Indian nation but the Ruling Hindu Zionist Class undermines it. Muslim League is blamed for partition of India. Who will be blamed for Stand Off Pluralism?

Pluralism as an important factor that has shaped India's identity,it is claimed so often! It is always suggested that that the notion of nationalism should be celebrated as the commonality of major differences as India stood on the cusp of four important debates at the beginning of the 21st Century including bread vs freedom, centralisation vs federalism, coca colonisation and pluralism vs fundamentalism!But, in fact, the ultimate Truth is that challenges for the future were not so much for secularism and pluralism but those facing the ordinary man confronted with everyday problems.

The scale of the victory this week by a political party championing India's lowest, poorest caste took both its supporters and its opponents by surprise. But the significance of the win was not limited to the elevation to power of what was formerly India's most marginalized social group, as necessary and important as that was.

Panel for religious & linguistic minorities gives report

The National Commission for linguistic and religious minorities on Monday submitted its report on the criteria for identifying socially and educationally backward classes among minorities to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Commission Chairman Justice Ranganath Misra and members professor Tahir Mahmood and Mohinder Singh met the PM and formally presented him the two-volume report. The commission had begun its work in March 2005 and its mandate was to suggest criteria for identifying socially and educationally backward classes among the minorities and recommend possible welfare measures, including reservation in educational institutions and government employment. It was also supposed to give its views on the demand of Muslims and Christians for the inclusion of their backward sections among the schedules castes.

Though the commission`s term expired on May 15, the report could not be submitted on time as the Prime Minister could not give time for its earlier due to his pre-occupation in Parliament, an official release today said.

nowRunning.com
I can never be guilty of insulting anybody: Himesh
Daily News & Analysis - 11 hours ago
MUMBAI: Singer-composer Himesh Reshammiya is in trouble...again! This time it's over objections to the words "asalaam walequm" in a song in his debut film "Aap Ka Suroor".
HC turns down Mallya's plea
Times of India - 3 hours ago
NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday turned down the plea of liquor baron and Rajya Sabha member Vijay Mallya seeking quashing of criminal proceedings in a trial court for alleged "wilful" disobedience of summons issued by the Enforcement ...
Brand India is shining as Sensex tells the Growth Story well!

It is a historic day for the markets because it does not happen everyday that the key Index in this country hits an all time high. That is what the Nifty has done today, it has been edging close to it but has been consolidating, pausing but today there was no pause or no hesitation about the way the Nifty moved. Decisively, it started this morning by taking out that old high of 4245 and kept on going; very steady day and finally closed at 4260, which is the highest ever closing for the NSE Nifty. Just to put in perspective, the last high was hit on the February 8 at 4245 and after that the Nifty went into a slump; March 16, it hit a low of 3573 and then from that level, in the last couple of months, it has actually rallied nearly 20% from 3573 to all the way to 4260 today. So it is completely v-shaped kind of a recovery that we have had in Nifty today. The Sensex still has not gone there, it will probably get there if things carry on like this, it still has got 300 points to cover to its high of 14,700 but that has not happened yet. What has happened is that the CNX midcap index first hit a high then the Nifty has got into a high and let us see if the Sensex follows next.

The breadth today was not entirely convincing though not too bad, 600 odd advancing stocks to just under 500 declining stocks. So not huge positive breadth but on the futures market, you can see that the action is clearly trained on individual stocks.

The Nifty futures has been trading volumes over the last few days continuously but individual stocks have been coming to the fore and today it was stocks like Cairn Enegery, Chennai Petro, United Spirits, Bombay Rayon, Reliance Energy, those were the kind of stocks, which have seen the big volume pileups on the F&O market.

RBI notifies ECB guidelines for real estate sector
Reserve Bank today issued a notification banning real estate companies from raising funds through the ECB route for developing integrated townships, while revising interest rate limits for those who are allowed to tap the overseas markets. "It has now been decided to withdraw the exemption accorded to the 'development of integrated township' as a permissible end-use of external commercial borrowings (ECB)," RBI said in the notification.

Hitherto, real estate companies were allowed to raise funds through the ECB route for developing integrated townships -- those that come up on over 100 acres of land.

Mr Rupee refuses to cool down.The rupee on Monday, ended at 40.67/68 against the US currency after hitting a fresh nine-year high of 40.53/55 in early trade, following China's revision of trading band for yuan versus dollar.Strong demand for steel, market-driven product mix, higher value-added special steel production and improved techno-economic parameters helped state-run Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) to achieve a record turnover of ...Sun Pharmaceuticals has bought out Taro Pharmaceutical Industries, the Israeli manufacturer of low-cost medicines, for $454 million (Rs 1845 crore).The officials in the telecom ministry, which makes telecom policy have been told to shut up on the issue of spectrum by the officials in the defence ministry, who are sitting on most of the spectrum in the country.Around 8,00000 books as well as manuscripts from the Mysore University in Karnataka, India will soon be digitized by Google. The Mysore University library has around 100000 manuscripts that are written both on paper as well as palm leaves.BCCI Secretary Nirajan Shah has said that Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and South Africa are supporting Pawar. The Cricket Board (BCCI) today claimed that it had enough support to get its President Sharad Pawar elected as the head of International Cricket ...


In general term, pluralism means the affirmation and acceptance of diversity. The concept is used in a wide range of issues like religion, philosophy, science, politics, etc. In science, the concept of pluralism often describes the view that several methods, theories or points of view are legitimate or plausible. This attitude may arguably be a key factor to scientific progress. In politics it is popularly known as political pluralism.

Political pluralism is the affirmation of diversity in the interests and beliefs of the citizenry. It is one of the most important features of modern representative democracy.Political pluralism is a participatory type of government in which the politics of the country are defined by the needs and wants of many. Political pluralism is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. In a politically pluralistic society there is no majority or minority and the basic ideas of government are seen through the ideas of individuals and groups to ensure that all the needs and wants of society are taken care of. Thus in a politically pluralistic society a tolerance and mutual respect for divergent thinking tends to develop easily as a way to accommodate the differences in aspiration.

Do we enjoy this political Pluralism?

Islamic groups warned police in southern India on Monday that there would be a violent backlash if they arrested innocent Muslims while investigating a mosque bombing in Hyderabad that killed 11 people.Meanwhile, an attack was foiled when police in the eastern city of Calcutta found four bombs on a train set to depart for a Hindu pilgrimage site Monday, police said.

In Hyderabad, investigators continued to search for clues into Friday's blast at the 17th century Mecca mosque and were waiting for forensic reports on two unexploded bombs found at the scene. Eleven people died in the blast, while another five were killed when clashes erupted between security officials and Muslim protesters after the blast and police opened fire on stone-throwing crowds.
"If innocent Muslims are arrested in the name of an investigation into the blasts the situation might explode," warned Maulana Hamiduddin Auquil Hussami, a cleric who heads the United Action Committee, an umbrella organization of Muslim groups.

Hyderabad, a city of 7 million people, about 40 percent of whom are Muslim, has long been plagued by communal tensions — and occasional inter-religious bloodletting.

Police said they had some leads, but declined to speculate on the identity of the bombers.

Third alternative

The CPI-M senior leader Sitaram Yechuri has said there was need for a third alternative at the centre with the support of people. Addressing a public meeting organised here last night on the occassion of 22nd death anniversary of Puchalapalli Sudnaraiah, Yechuri said that people should launch agitations against the communal forces and Congress to enable the formation of a third alternative. He said the party has decided to support the presidential candidate who has a political background and secular outlook.

"The presidential candidate should have a political background who could take all the parties with him," the politburo member said. He claimed that left parties would play a key role in the selection of the President. He said the gap between 'Shining India' and 'Suffering India' was widening. He rubbished claims that the purchasing power of the people had increased.

The claims that purchasing power has increased is made at a time when number of suicides were being reported among farmers as they fail to get Minimum Support Price (MSP) to their produce, he said.

In Exile
Aishwarya Pillai
May 21, 2007

The Ugly Kashmiri (Cameos in exile). (Cover: Allied Publishers)

In 1990, over 200,000 Hindus fled their homes in the Kashmir Valley in India, under dire threat from Islamic terrorists. Forced to leave their ancestral lands and property, the displaced Kashmiri Pandits, as they are known, were rendered 'migrants,' — refugees in their own country.

Their plight remains on the sidelines of the more public spectacle of the Kashmir issue. Many of them remain in camps, awaiting justice and a possible return to the place they called home. Others, scattered and settled across India, carry the scars of the tragedy within.
http://www.worldpress.org/Asia/2795.cfm
Passionate about history



Bala Chauhan meets up with well-known historian, Ramchandra Guha, who talks about his new book on Indias history after 1947.

By the time you finish writing your first sentence, he is winding up his third sentence and is on to the fourth. It’s difficult to match his pace. The best thing is to listen to him as he unravels the sheafs of history of world’s largest democracy, post Independence.

Ramchandra Guha historian, academician, biographer and orator extraordinaire is unstoppable. His oration is compelling; not tiring. He cleverly takes you through free India’s six-decade old history with anecdotes, wit and humour and leaves you wondering why history was always a matter of dates and periods mummified in records least visited.

Guha’s latest book India after Gandhi, is the “first serious” book on India’s history after 1947. It is voluminous but comprehensive. A work of eight-year-long research that saw him travel through the country and abroad, digging into records and documents has been an arduous and painful journey but well worth it.

Having gone through the length of the history of one of the world’s most complex countries, Guha remains optimistic. “Never before such an extraordinary experiment has taken place in the world and never again will it be. The history of free India is about this unique democracy which was shaped by great leaders like Pundit Nehru, Sardar Patel, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr Ambedkar,” he said.

Guha spoke to Sunday Herald about India after Gandhi. The book is published by Picador.
http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/May202007/artic200705192599.asp


Centre plans to free forest land for SEZ
21 May, 2007 l 0002 hrs ISTlNitin Sethi/TIMES NEWS NETWORK


NEW DELHI: After controversies ran the SEZ policy into the ground, the government is planning "forest SEZs". In a move couched in politically correct jargon - "multi-stakeholder partnership" - the government intends to give degraded forest land to industry to produce raw material like paper pulp. The environment ministry proposal will contract government-owned forest lands for growing plantations. Called "multi-stakeholder partnership for degraded forest lands", the proposal has been shared with key ministries and a review of the proposition along with other ideas for increasing forest cover is expected soon. The government intends to invite bids for degraded forest land, areas with a tree cover of less than 10%, under a contract to industries to "farm" trees which can be used as raw material. The proposal has been framed in the backdrop of hectic lobbying by the paper pulp industry which has been seeking to access forest lands.

On previous occasions, industry has requested the government to open up 1.2 million hectares of degraded forest land to such "partnerships".

On the face of it, the proposal has been presented as a win-win deal. The ministry believes it will help generate investment in increasing India's forest cover to 33% by 2012. The industry is looking at an assured source of raw material. Those who live off the land are expected to benefit from being employed as labour by industry and whatever else they can negotiate with the industry.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Centre_plans_to_free_forest_land_for_SEZ/articleshow/2063210.cms


HINDUTVA, RELIGIOUS AND ETHNOCULTURAL MINORITIES, AND INDIAN-CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY 0

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sathianathan Clarke a1
a1 United Theological College, Bangalore
In India the term “minorities” refers to religious communities present in much smaller numbers than Hindus—Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, and Parsis/Zoroastrians. According to a 1991 census of India, out of the total Indian population of 846 million, there are 687.6 million Hindus of various sects, 101.6 million Muslims, 19.6 million Christians, 6.3 million Buddhists, 3.3 million Jains and 3.1 million adherents of other traditions. Christians are thus less than 3 percent of the total population whereas Hindus number about 83 percent. “Minorities” may also allude to those communities that have traditionally been kept outside the Hindu-based caste system—Dalits and Adivasis (or Tribals). Dalits number between 180 and 200 million and Adivasis number between 85 and 90 million in a population that has now crossed the one billion mark. While they are now included into the general category of Hinduism, these groups have been treated with overt hostility and repression, and have been the target of concerted and calculated attacks from the majority community. Christianity is also targeted violently and systematically in contemporary India, especially Christians who have been identified as Dalits and Adivasis. An analysis of the ideology and agenda of Hindu nationalism in an historical perspective will reveal the way in which the Dalits and Adivasis are perceived to present a threat to the fulfilment of this nationalist agenda. The Hinduization of India manifests itself with a propensity to eradicate all forms of variant plurality.
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract;jsessionid=7C2EC0F57C8CFB508659443765EC8B59.tomcat1?fromPage=online&aid=106969

The Hindi translation of V.T. Rahshekar’s international award winning hit book, Caste — A Nation Within the Nation, published in 2006 was formally released on April 8, 2007 at the Dalit Voice silver jubilee function in Delhi.The book (pp.120) translated by Rajendra Singh Jatav of Himachal Pradesh was released by V.B. Rawat, a long-standing admirer of DV, who hosted the silver jubilee session.

Two DV family members from Lucknow said the thesis of the book was in full operation in UP, now facing the Assembly election. All the national parties started dying and only caste-based parties were in full swing. The future belonged to caste-based parties as predicted by the author, they said
UN-ELECTED JUDICIARY
Caste contradictions killing India
OUR CORRESPONDENT
Bangalore: Is the unelected judiciary accountable to any one? Can 2-3 judges, who are mere individuals, decide the fate of millions? Why the micro-minority upper castes ruling India, now dancing over the Supreme Court’s anti-reservation verdict, are ruining the future of the billions who have not yet opened their eyes? Does democracy mean the rule of the minority meritocrat? Dalit Voice has taken up these questions very seriously. We have even brought out a booklet on this subject. The country’s higher judiciary has become the only hope of the upper castes who stand washed out in the current surge of the havenots through democratic process. The constitution framed by Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, the Father of India, is all-out in their favour. But despite being a massive majority they remain as voiceless slaves.

Even the slaves do get angry. But India has the world’s only specimen. Here we have not only the slaves but slaves enjoying their slavery.

Hindu drug lulled them to sleep: Upper caste rulers have adopted a two-pronged attack on the slaves. They do their best to crush them and break their back at every stage. At the same time they also go to them selling the hindutva poison to the non-Hindu slaves (SC/ST/BCs). The Hindu terrorist party BJP’s sole single policy is to hinduise these non-Hindu slaves. Hinduisation (enslavement) has had tremendous effect on these people. That is why India has seen no revolution.

Had they been mere slaves they would have by now exploded in anger and made India shake but the Hindu drug has lulled them to sleep and made them enjoy their slavery. The country is thus caught in this serious caste contradiction between the 15% upper caste rulers and the 85% slaves. That is how India is silently dying. We congratulate Speaker Somnath Chatterji for speaking on behalf of the slaves by questioning the anti-people actions of Supreme Court judges. He said:

New Dehi: “Is the judiciary accountable to anyone for the discharge of functions of executive nature and what are the constitutional and legal sanctions behind such orders made and directions given by courts, by way of judicial activism? Discharge of executive responsibilities by any other authority, howsoever highly placed, but non-accountable, is anathema in a democracy”. “One has to admit that in many instances the judiciary (without attributing any fault to it) is not able to cater to the needs of the people of the country”. (Hindu April 27, 2007).
http://www.dalitvoice.org/Templates/may_a2007/reports.htm
See also:
http://www.le.ac.uk/pluralism/vol6no3.pdf

History of Social Relations in India

Caste and gender equations in Indian history
http://india_resource.tripod.com/social.htm

No aspect of Indian history has excited more controversy than India's history of social relations. Western indologists and Western-influenced Indian intellectuals have seized upon caste divisions, untouchability, religious obscurantism, and practices of dowry and sati as distinctive evidence of India's perennial backwardness. For many Indologists, these social ills have literally come to define India - and have become almost the exclusive focus of their writings on India.

During the colonial period, it served the interests of the British (and their European cohorts) to exaggerate the democratic character of their own societies while diminishing any socially redeeming features of society in India (and other colonized nations). Social divisions and inequities were a convenient tool in the arsenal of the colonizers. On the one hand, tremendous tactical gains could be achieved by playing off one community against the other. On the other hand, there were also enormous psychological benefits in creating the impression that India was a land rife with uniquely abhorrent social practices that only an enlightened foreigner could attempt to reform. India's social ills were discussed with a contemptuous cynicism and often with a willful intent to instill a sense of deep shame and inferiority.

Strong elements of such colonial imagery continue to dominate the landscape of Western Indology. A liberal, dynamic West embracing universal human values is posed against an obdurate and unchanging East clinging to odious social values and customs.

It is little wonder, therefore, that India's intellectuals have been unable to either fully understand the historic dynamics and context which gave life to these social practices or find effective solutions for their cure. Many historians and social activists appear to have tacitly accepted the notion that caste divisions in society are a uniquely Indian feature and that Indian society has been largely unchanged since the writing of the Manusmriti which provides formal sanction to such social inequities.

But caste-like divisions are neither uniquely Indian nor has Indian society been as socially stagnant as commonly believed. In all non-egalitarian societies where wealth and political power were unequally distributed, some form of social inequity appeared and often meant hereditary privileges for the elite and legally (or socially) sanctioned discrimination against those considered lower down in the social hierarchy.

In fact, caste-like divisions are to be found in the history of most nations - whether in the American continent, or in Africa, Europe or elsewhere in Asia. In some societies, caste-like divisions were relatively simple, in others more complex. For instance, in Eastern Africa some agricultural societies were divided between land-owning and landless tribes (or clans) that eventually took on caste-like characteristics. Priests and warriors enjoyed special privileges in the 15th C. Aztec society of Mexico as did the Samurais (warrior nobles) and priests of medieval Japan. Notions of purity and defilement were also quite similar in Japanese society and members of society who carried out "unclean" tasks were treated as social outcasts - just as in India.


Please Read:

UNHOLY ALLIANCES FOR DEMOCRACY: ELECTIONS IN UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA
Joshua Castellino


Joshua Castellino is Professor of Law at the Law School and Transitional Justice Institute, University of Ulster, Northern Ireland, and Adjunct Professor of Law at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland, Galway. He is an Academic Director on the European Masters in Human Rights and Democratisation, Italy and has held visiting positions in Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and the Universidad Carlos III in Madrid, Spain.His researches interests lie in international law, human and minority rights.

Joshua is the founder and director of the Annual Summer School on Minority Rights & Indigenous Peoples hosted in Galway, Ireland every June.

May 21, 2007
Uttar Pradesh is a State in India that very few would have heard about, yet with its 170 million people, it would be the world’s sixth most populous country were it a separate nation. It is a State that struggles with problems of entrenched social attitudes against the Dalits –formerly known as Untouchables, and is beset by problems of illiteracy and debilitating poverty.

The State went to polls last week, and the result has been startling: the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)– a party premised on the need for Dalit emancipation and led by India’s most prominent Dalit leader, Mayawati, – has won a decisive victory. In a State that has not always given its political parties a clear mandate to rule, this is a significant victory indeed, since it means that Mayawati will be able to form a government in the 403 member legislative Assembly without any outside support.
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=27624


India remembers Rajiv Gandhi on 16th death anniversary
India has fondly remembered former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on his 16th death anniversary and rich tributes offered to Gandhi amid singing of hymns at 'Vir Bhumi', the memorial to the departed leader on the banks of river Yamuna.Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, her children Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra offered floral tributes at the memorial.
http://www.huliq.com/22229/india-remembers-rajiv-gandhi-on-16th-death-anniversary
Rajiv Ratna Gandhi (Devanagari: ????? ???? ??????, IPA: [ra?d?i?v ga?nd??i?]) (August 20, 1944 – May 21, 1991), the eldest son of Indira and Feroze Gandhi, was the 9th Prime Minister of India (and the 3rd from the Gandhi family) from his mother's death on 31 October 1984 until his resignation on December 2, 1989 following a general election defeat. Becoming the Prime Minister of India at the age of 40, he is the youngest person to date to hold that office.

Rajiv Gandhi worked as a professional pilot for Indian Airlines before coming into politics. He was married to Edvige Antonia Albina Maino (Sonia Gandhi) , an Italian national he met while in college. He remained aloof from politics despite his mother being the Indian Prime Minister, and it was only following the death of his younger brother Sanjay Gandhi in 1980 that Rajiv was convinced to enter politics. Upon the assassination of his mother in 1984 due to her involvement in Operation Blue Star, Congress party leaders convinced him to become the new Prime Minister. Rajiv Gandhi led the Congress to a major election victory in 1984 soon after, amassing the largest majority in Parliament. He had the public image of being young, modern and Mr. Clean - an honest leader free of machine politics and corruption[citation needed]. He began dismantling the License Raj - government quotas, tariffs and permit regulations on economic activity - modernized the telecommunications industry, the education system, expanded science and technology initiatives and improved relations with the United States.