Despite the fact that Rajiv worked very hard to take India into the twenty-first century, he lost the elections in 1989. The opposition came up with undesirable slogans to denigrate him and his family. This was really unfortunate. The left and the right combined with a single point programme: 'get rid of Rajiv.' For various reasons they succeeded. Thereafter, began the reign of the coalition, headed by V.P. Singh. While being interviewed by Vir Sanghvi of 'Sunday', Rajiv said of his premiership, 'Look, if I made you PM tomorrow, youíd make the same mistakes. All of us guys would. We donít understand the system. We donít understand politicians. By the time I learnt it was too late.'

Rajiv and his family were now living at 10 Janpath. Rajiv was still busy with his work in Parliament as Leader of Opposition and as party president, but the pace slowed down. The work was lighter, Rajiv could now give more time to his family. He now relished the fun of being with his family, once again. They drove to Mussoorie for a three-day stay. In 1990 they spent a week at their farmhouse in Mehrauli. It brought back memories of the good times, they had had.

Rahul & Priyanka were now growing into adulthood. Rajiv had written to them: 'Both of you have been living under very difficult conditions for some years now. This is the period in your life when you should have been getting about, meeting others your age, finding out about the world as it really is. Unfortunately, circumstances have been such that we have not been able to give you both a normal life. Your schooling was disturbed and ultimately you have had to study at home. Your movements are severely restricted and you can't even go out.'

Meanwhile, the threat to Rajiv's life grew. The government withdrew the Special Protection Group (SPG) from Rajiv. His security became an area of concern. Two serious attempts had been made at taking his life. Nobody bothered to provide Rajiv adequate security. In effect, Rajiv was a soft target with his name written large on several terrorist hit lists.