(7 of 10)
As a first step toward dealing with the situation, Rajiv Gandhi talked with Pakistan's President Mohammed Zia ul-Haq Thursday evening. At the news of Mrs. Gandhi's death, Zia had expressed his "horror" and declared a period of national mourning. On the telephone, Zia told the new Prime Minister: "Pakistan is offering its every assurance that we are not only bereaved but we have no intention or design to make your role as Prime Minister difficult. We want peace. Here and now I assure you that Pakistan's hand is open and offered in friendship and good will." Rajiv replied, "Mr. President, my profound thanks, and my genuine heartfelt assurances that India wishes to resume talks with your country for a solid, lasting, peaceful relationship between our two countries, which share so much in common." Later they agreed that Zia should make a brief trip to New Delhi on the weekend.
But for Rajiv Gandhi the immediate crisis is at home. After spending his life in the shadow of his grandfather, his mother and even his late brother, he is suddenly responsible for holding his tormented country together. He spoke with uncharacteristic force after he was sworn in, as he told the nation, "Nothing would hurt the soul of our beloved Indira Gandhi more than the occurrence of violence in any part of the country. It is of prime importance at this moment that every step we take be in the correct direction." But already he must have known that even as the storming of the Golden Temple had produced a wave of Sikh anger that had led to the assassination, so the murder of his mother would precipitate a terrible reaction in Hindu India.
By all accounts, Rajiv was one member of the house of Nehru who never lusted for political power. Born in 1944, he was Indira's first son. After attending the well-known Doon School in the hills to the north of New Delhi, Rajiv studied mechanical engineering at Trinity College, Cambridge. Back in India, he became a commercial pilot and joined Indian Airlines, where he flew Boeing 737s and other aircraft for 14 years.
Flying was his great love, and during those years he was spared the need to train for high political office because of the ambition of his younger brother Sanjay. Arrogant and impatient, Sanjay had an undeniable knack for getting things done; he started an automobile factory, though the plant never got much beyond the prototype stage. He helped run the country during the 1975-77 state of emergency, which his mother had declared in order to control civil unrest and to strengthen her own political position, but was blamed for some of the emergency's worst excesses. Nevertheless, from about 1975 Indira was clearly grooming Sanjay as her successor. Neither mother nor son ever said explicitly that only a Nehru was capable of ruling India, but both obviously believed, with their Brahman sense of entitlement, that a Nehru could simply do it better.