Rajiv Gandhi 71st Birth Anniversary: Inspiring Quotes, Rare and Unseen Photos of 7th Indian PM

Thursday, 20 August marks the 71st birth anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi, the seventh Prime Minister of India.

Gandhi took charge of the office after the assassination of his mother, Indira Gandhi in 1984 and became the youngest Indian PM.

However, Gandhi was assassinated by a suicide bomber Thenmozhi Rajaratnam in Sriperumbudur, Chennai on 21 May, 1991.

Rare and Unseen Photos of Rajiv Gandhi

On Thursday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Pranab Mukherjee, Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Minister for Finance Arun Jaitley paid tribute to Gandhi on his 71st Birth Anniversary.

Remembering Rajiv Gandhi

Check out some famous quotes by Rajiv Gandhi below: 

For some days, people thought that India was shaking. But there are always tremors when a great tree falls.

Women are the social conscience of a country. They hold our societies together.

Thinking of this University [Ambedkar University] today, we are reminded of Mahatma Gandhi because if there was anyone who fought for the weak in India, the first one to raise his voice for Scheduled Castes, that was Gandhiji. There were social workers before him but not any people who raised this matter in the political arena as he did.

India is an old country, but young nation; and like the young everywhere we are impatient. I am young, and I too have a dream. I dream of an India strong, independent and self-reliant and in the front rank of the nations of the world in the service of mankind.'

Education must be a great equaliser in our society. It must be the tool to level the differences that our various social systems have created over the past thousands of years.

When a big tree falls, the ground shakes

She was mother not only to me but to the whole nation. She served the Indian people to the last drop of her blood.