Nation remembers Rajiv Gandhi on 69th birth anniversary

New Delhi: India on Tuesday remembered former Prime Minister and legendary Congress leader Rajiv Gandhi on his 69th birth anniversary. President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Rajiv Gandhi’s wife and Congress President Sonia Gandhi paid floral tributes to the departed leader.

Apart from Sonia Gandhi, her son and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, her husband Robert Vadra and Priyanka Gandhi’s daughter Sonia Gandhi's grand daughter Miraya also laid flowers at the samadhi.

Devotional music played throughout the programme. Scores of National Students Union of India (NSUI), the student wing of Congress, members were also present on the occasion. A group of Congress workers, mostly from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, who were part of the Sadbhavna Yatra to spread the message of national harmony and integration against terrorism, were also present at Vir Bhumi.

Rajiv Gandhi, who heralded the information and communication technology revolution in the country, was born on August 20, 1944 and served as the sixth Prime Minister of India from 1984-1989. He was assassinated on May 21, 1991 at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu while addressing an election campaign.