Rajiv Gandhi represented a certain ideology and principles. These were rooted in India s glorious traditions of international movement as espoused by Mahatam Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and later by Indira Gandhi. It was on these principles that rested the foundation of a democratic, secular and united India. India is today at the crossroasds. Has Rajiv left behind both a fragile nation and a Party split more than every by internal rivalries? Does the Congress party want to get a majority in Parliament by riding a sympathy wave instead of attracting voters of its policies and programmes? There is no alternative to the Congress if secular nationalism has to be safeguarded and the Congress itself revolved around the personality of Rajiv Gandhi. The departed leader in his death has posed a test for the people of India . Do they prefer the legacy which Tilak and Gandhi and Nehru bequeathed or the views of imperialist sociologists which the reactionary parties are advocating as nationalism? Rajiv s reforms could not produce the desired results as his colleagues and bureaucrats failed to understand his world view. His demise provides the opportunity for a new beginning. But the road will be long. The light that the Gandhi-Nehru family lit are shining bright and should lead the masses into the future. Protecting these lights is the task of every Indian.

Rajiv Gandhi, as Prime Minister of India, in 1984-89, brought with him a brightness and hope, as well as a believable vision of the 21st Century-qualities then badly needed to speed up the process of achieving the techno-economic development of India. He projected an image of modernity and infused a new confidence among people; this was marked by a vision largely techno-critic and relying heavily on science and technology. He was stated to be a man in hurry, aspiring to make India a technologically advanced nation by the next two decades, with the inputs of modern science and technology. His name is synonymous with the ushering in of Computer Revolution in India. He gave a clarion call to the nation to take a quantum leap into the 21st century. It was his dream of modernizing India, of bringing her fully technologically, economically and socially into the new millennium. It was a dream of a strong, proud and united India, which march in to the 21st century with courage and confidence. He was a crusader of modern science and technology and elucidated his inspiring vision in clear and confident terms, often contradicting the dominant discourse of his mind and ideology, as well as his frankness and sincere zeal for the effective utilization of science and technology towards the welfare of making. He realized that modern science and technologycan play a useful role in social uplift, in creating a more open society, and in bringing India closer together. He was the creator of a vibrant force of change. He was an innovative mind attempting to redefine India s role in the changing global environment. He believed in the growth of the individual, as well as of the nation. He did not live long enough to see his India of the 21st century, but India lives on to see his dreams. India is happening. The future beckons India to be prosperous.

‘He was their Next Big Hope, after the first one had been dashed to the ground...’ When Rajiv Gandhi became prime minister in 1984 it was for him a baptism of fire. The tumultuous years that followed witnessed the beginnings of economic reform and the stemming of regional insurgency on the one hand, and the drama of the Shah Bano case and the Bofors scandal on the other – events that sent tremors through the country and its political establishment. As a journalist covering politics from the time of Indira Gandhi’s reign, Ashwini Bhatnagar observed at close quarters the consequences of the transition from iron-handed rule to one of earnest naivety, the calculations of the country’s foremost political players, dramatic election campaigns and the unwieldy workings of dynastic politics. In The Lotus Years, Ashwini draws from his field notes to weave a remarkable chronicle that brings together the life of a reluctant prime minister, the inner dynamics of his powerful family and the story of a maturing democratic nation, laying bare the intricacies and dissonances of political life in India.

Now updated with a new chapter on Rahul Gandhi The Congress party has always stayed one step ahead of the opposition by constantly reinventing and re-aligning itself to stay in sync with the political realities of the day. Its president, Sonia Gandhi, pulled off a master-coup in 2004 by declining the prime-ministership, while the incumbent Congress Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh is the first prime minister since Nehru to lead the party into two Union government terms. In 2013, Rahul Gandhi was elevated to the post of Congress vice-president amid much fanfare and optimism. Tasked with reviving the grand old party, the young politician remains, in the minds of many, the best hope to lead the Congress into the next century, marking a new moment in the Congress’s concept of ‘continuity with change’. In his bestselling book 24 Akbar Road, seasoned journalist and veteran Congress watcher Rasheed Kidwai puts together an incisive and engaging account of the Congress’s shape-shifting nature and its tenuous hold at the Centre, providing a dispassionate observer’s glance at affairs within the Congress. Kidwai brilliantly tracks the story of the contemporary Congress in the years after the Emergency, using the Congress seat of power at 24 Akbar Road as his vantage to draw a compelling account of the Congress leadership from Indira, Sanjay and Rajiv Gandhi to Narasimha Rao and Sitaram Kesri, to the present- day trinity of Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi. In this revised and updated edition, Kidwai analyses Rahul Gandhi’s appointment to assess what the Congress needs to do to remain India’s nerve of power in the coming years, and whether the new vice- president can rally the party to a third consecutive victory at the Centre.'