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India is much changed today. Apart from the egregious act of violence that killed Rajiv, the bloody shirt of extremism and communal vengeance has been threatening to supersede all norms of democracy in the nation. Last week's first round of balloting was attended by an unprecedented wave of killings and vote rigging. And yet Gandhi had held out an at least plausible promise that a restoration of his leadership might help bring back stability after 18 months of rudderless rule. His campaign swing through Tamil Nadu, the keystone state of south India, was almost a perfunctory exercise; it was safe territory, and his Congress Party seemed en route to recovering the national government. In the rural temple town of Sriperumbudur, 26 miles southwest of Madras, Gandhi stepped out of his touring car and greeted a crowd of well-wishers. Though the itinerary had been hastily drafted, Sriperumbudur was electric with late-night festivities as a throng of 10,000 turned out to welcome Gandhi. At a far corner of the large, hummocky rally ground was a temporary speaker's platform flanked by VIP and press enclosures, with a barricaded space for photographers in front.
Security was light: a scattering of police, no automatic rifles, no metal detectors in evidence, if present at all. Gandhi had been campaigning with little protection, a marked contrast to his previous style. His mother's assassination by Sikh bodyguards in 1984, the event that catapulted the former airline pilot into the prime ministership, had highlighted his vulnerability. For years he wore a bulletproof vest and surrounded himself with security so tight that opponents had begun ridiculing him.
That proved to be an important factor leading to his defeat in the November 1989 elections. V.P. Singh, a former Congress notable whose opposition bloc went on to win the government, charged at the time that Gandhi, who usually kept out of the crush and was shielded by a phalanx of commandos, "had lost touch with the people." It was a mistake -- as Rajiv saw it -- that he did not repeat. While pressing the flesh in the northern state of Bihar on May 5, he spoke about the change. "I used to campaign like this when I was secretary-general of the Congress, in 1984, but when I was Prime Minister I was hijacked by the system," he said. "There is still a threat, of course; it hasn't come down. But there is no choice. Either you campaign or you look after your security."
So it was that when he arrived in Sriperumbudur, he barely paused before wading into the crowd. A woman, judged to be Tamil and in her late 20s, pushed her way forward to the red-carpeted greeting queue and handed him a garland. As she bent forward deferentially, as if to touch his feet, a sophisticated explosive device went off with a huge blast, triggered by a manual detonator. It killed him instantly, ripping into his torso and mutilating his face beyond recognition. It also killed at least 15 others. A policewoman lay dead with both legs severed. Nearby was a slain photographer, his camera still slung around his neck.