Mon, August 20, 2012
NEW DELHI, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- India paid tributes to late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on his 68th birth anniversary Monday.
The country's ruling Congress party chief and Rajiv's widow Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, President Pranab Mukherjee, and Vice President Hamid Ansari were among the first to pay homage at the memorial at Vir Bhumi, the shrine of Rajiv Gandhi.
The late Prime Minister's daughter Priyanka also attended the occasion though his son and the scion of Nehru-Gandhi family Rahul Gandhi was not present.
Rajiv Gandhi was India's youngest ever Prime Minister at the age of 41, who served from 1984 to 1989. He is famous for heralding the information and communication technology revolution in the country.
Rajiv Gandhi took office after his mother and India's first woman Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination on October 31, 1984. He himself was assassinated by Tamil Tigers in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu on May 21, 1991.
