Rajiv Gandhi 30th Death Anniversary: Rahul, Priyanka and others pay tribute to former prime minister

Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra paid tribute to their father and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi on his 30th death anniversay on Friday. The former prime minister was assassinated by a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) suicide bomber on 21 May, 1991 during an election campaign in Tamil Nadu’s Sriperumbudur town. Today is his 30th death anniversary. Earlier in the day, Rahul also paid homage to his father at the memorial Veer Bhumi in New Delhi. The Congress party tweeted a video of the same on its Twitter handle.

Rahul also shared an image of his father with the caption “Truth, Compassion, Progress”, on his personal Twitter handle.

The former prime minister’s daughter Priyanka also shared a photo of her father on the microblogging site saying: “There is no greater strength than love, no greater courage than kindness, no greater power than compassion and no greater teacher than humility.”

The Congress party also paid tribute to the fomer prime minister, higlighting some of the principles he stood for. “A visionary who understood where the world was heading, Shri Rajiv Gandhi steered India accordingly so that one day she could lead the world like she is destined to,” the party said in a tweet.

Besides Rahul and Priyanka, several other leaders from Congress also paid tribute to Rajiv Gandhi on his 30th death anniversary.

National President of the Indian Youth Congress, Srinivas BV said that without Rajiv Gandhi’s vision of progress, India would not have been the same. The Youth Congress leader caled Rajiv Gandhi the true architect of modern India. Bihar’s leader of opposition and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav also paid his “sincere and humble tribute” to the former Prime Minister.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal also paid tribute to Rajiv Gandhi on his death anniversary.

Paying respect, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar shared a picture of Rajiv Gandhi along with a message, appreciating his efforts in making India technologically advanced. He said:

Rajiv Gandhi took over as Congress president in 1984 after the assassination of his mother (and then prime minister) Indira Gandhi. At the age of 40, he became India’s youngest prime minister to take charge of office. After becoming the Prime Minister of India, between 1984 and 1989 , Rajiv Gandhi took several initiatives. He is credited with strengthening the Panchayati Raj system in India and for inspiring a telecom and information technology revolution in the country.