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Rajiv - A Principled Visionary
Rajiv Gandhi belonged to that rare breed

 of men who live their lives according to certain guiding principles gathered from their experience, education, upbringing and environment. The word 'principles' is bandied about too readily, nowadays. Therefore, it needs defining: 'A fundamental truth or proposition serving as the foundation for belief or action'. A principle is a rule or belief governing one's personal behavior especially morally correct behavior.

Rajiv Gandhi was not merely a visionary, a statesman but also a level headed person with an impeccable, morally correct 'character'.

Rajiv upheld the values of the Nehru--Gandhi legacy, viz. nonalignment and non-violence. He wished to be rewarded as: 'having brought India into the twenty-first century, parallel with the more advanced countries in the world, out of the branding of India as a developing country to the status of a developed country.'

Rajiv Gandhi envisioned a prosperous India, and for that he knew India would always have to work towards establishing a peaceful world order. Rajiv well recognized that peace had to be established both within the country and between nations.

Rajiv was well aware of the fact that an efficient judicial system that quickly dispenses justice to all is a pre-requisite of a successful democratic system: 'In India justice has been an integral, independent
part of life. This is one of the reasons we have remained a democracy while others have not...'

One of the most important principles cherished by Rajiv, that of non-violence, was not a new concept in India, it existed from the times of Buddha, and was given a fresh impetus in the twentieth century, by Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi described it well when he said that nonviolence was just 'not fighting' but 'not even thinking of retaliating,
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