Rajiv Gandhi became the youngest Prime Minister of India, after his mother Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984. On Rajiv Gandhi’s 82nd birth anniversary on August 20, 2026, here’s a look at the three measures taken during his tenure, including lowering the voting age. At the time, India’s basic infrastructure was crippled, with limited access to telecommunications and increasingly high disparities in education. Despite the roadblocks, the PM pioneered several initiatives that marked a sharp shift from the erstwhile governance. He was also instrumental in setting up C-DOT and introducing the National Policy on Education.
The Sixty-First Amendment Act, 1988, of the Constitution enacted during Rajiv Gandhi’s rule lowered the minimum voting age from 21 to 18 by amending Article 326. Parliament passed the legislation in 1988, and it came into force on March 28, 1989. This catapulted a massive youth population to vote in the November 1989 Lok Sabha election. This move added a 3.57 crore people between 18-21 years of age to the electorate. Gandhi, who served as India’s sixth Prime Minister from 1984-89, was reluctant to step into political arena after his brother Sanjay Gandhi’s death in a plane crash in 1980. Subsequently, he contested from Amethi constituency , secured earlier by Sanjay Gandhi, winning the by-election in 1981. Later, Gandhi assumed the role of general secretary of the Congress party in 1982. His ascension to become India Prime Minister hurtled after his mother Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984, shortly after Operation Bluestar. The Congress clinched 414 of 541 seats in the election. On August 20 every year, Sadbhavana Diwas, also known as Harmony Day, is observed in a bid to commemorate the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
He decided to join politics at the behest of his mother Indira Gandhi and few senior Indian National Congress leaders. After assuming the leadership through the troubled period anti-Sikh riots in Delhi, he drove the party to a thumping victory in elections in December. The day is observed annually to promote national integration, harmony, and social cohesion.
