Rajiv

SRIPERAMBUDUR, India -- On the way to the rally 25 miles southwest of Madras, Rajiv Gandhi had been riding in the front seat, window open. A special fluorescent light mounted on the --board of the Indian-made Ambassador played on his face so that people could see him.They threw in flowers, their faces frenzied with happiness. At one point, Mr. Gandhi stopped to greet a shy woman being jostled by the crowd. He placed a scarf around her neck and spoke to her.In the previous national election campaign, Mr. Gandhi had been criticized for being too aloof, too insulated from the people he hoped to lead.

Rajiv Chandrasekaran's tips for "further viewing" after "Green Zone" include: "No End in Sight" Charles Ferguson's 2007 documentary argues, persuasively, that the Iraqi insurgency could have been slowed, halted or contained, and daily life made infinitely safer for Iraqis, if the Bush administration listened to American public servants with solid military and Middle East experience. "It's a very powerful documentary," says Chandrasekaran, "and one of the chief reasons for its power is that you hear from the principal players on all policies and from all sides."

NEW DELHI, India -- In a house where Rajiv Gandhi played as a little boy, the mutilated body of the former Indian prime minister was placed on a slab of ice and cloaked by his country's flag yesterday as thousands of mourners stood beneath a blazing sun for at least an hour to catch a brief, last glimpse of him.India's capital was in the first day of a week of official mourning for the 46-year-old Mr. Gandhi, who was slain along with 15 others by a bomb...

IN THE WAKE of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's 1991 assassination, fevered efforts arose to draft his widow as his successor. Sonia Gandhi's Italian heritage made that politically problematic, and in any case she was reluctant to serve. Roughly 13 years later, little has changed: Mrs. Gandhi's foreign roots hand political fodder to the Hindu nationalists just booted from power by her party, Congress, and she's still reluctant to assume the office in which both her husband and his mother, Indira Gandhi, were murdered.

DELHI, India -- Aided by a white-bearded Hindu priest, Rajiv Gandhi's 19-year-old son sprinkled water from the sacred Ganges River on his slain father's funeral pyre.Rahul Gandhi then circled the shrouded corpse seven times with a small burning torch in his hand. Bending over, he gingerly ignited the stack of sandalwood.Black smoke billowed up from what quickly became a roaring fire. Bugles sounded over a stream of Hindi-language prayers. In the distance, tens of thousands of mourners strained against stick-wielding security forces in more than 100-degree heat.

NEW DELHI -- The decision of Sonia Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi's Italian widow, to enter politics by becoming a member of the Congress Party heralds the return of the Gandhi dynasty to Indian politics.After the assassinations of her husband Rajiv and mother-in-law Indira Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi gave the impression that she was not interested in public life. Two factors influenced her change of mind. The first was the conclusion of a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into what is known as the Bofors arms deal, which according to leaked reports had implicated Rajiv Gandhi.

The inconclusive election of November 1989 continues to visit instability on India. But there is little reason to expect an election now to produce a majority mandate. President Ramaswamy Venkataraman was forced by Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar's abrupt resignation either to call new elections or find someone who could command the confidence of this parliament. Neither option was promising.After the fall of Rajiv Gandhi's Congress Party government in 1989, V. P. Singh formed a minority government of Hindu fervor and left-wing support.

THOSE WHO hoped recent elections would usher India into a period of political calm and stability have been disappointed -- again. The new lower house of parliament will be even more splintered. No fewer than 39 parties will divide the 543 seats, making frequent quarrels and stalemates a foregone conclusion.The main Hindu nationalist movement, the Bharatiya Janata Party, is trying to form a government. Since its 179 seats fell short of a majority, it needs to form and maintain a coalition with willing minor parties.

SRIPERUMBUDUR, India -- In a move that her supporters hope will shape Indian politics for years to come, Sonia Gandhi, widow of one assassinated prime minister and daughter-in-law of another, made an emotional entry into public life yesterday."

IN THE WAKE of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's 1991 assassination, fevered efforts arose to draft his widow as his successor. Sonia Gandhi's Italian heritage made that politically problematic, and in any case she was reluctant to serve. Roughly 13 years later, little has changed: Mrs. Gandhi's foreign roots hand political fodder to the Hindu nationalists just booted from power by her party, Congress, and she's still reluctant to assume the office in which both her husband and his mother, Indira Gandhi, were murdered.

THOSE WHO hoped recent elections would usher India into a period of political calm and stability have been disappointed -- again. The new lower house of parliament will be even more splintered. No fewer than 39 parties will divide the 543 seats, making frequent quarrels and stalemates a foregone conclusion.The main Hindu nationalist movement, the Bharatiya Janata Party, is trying to form a government. Since its 179 seats fell short of a majority, it needs to form and maintain a coalition with willing minor parties.

SRIPERUMBUDUR, India -- In a move that her supporters hope will shape Indian politics for years to come, Sonia Gandhi, widow of one assassinated prime minister and daughter-in-law of another, made an emotional entry into public life yesterday."

NEW DELHI -- The decision of Sonia Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi's Italian widow, to enter politics by becoming a member of the Congress Party heralds the return of the Gandhi dynasty to Indian politics.After the assassinations of her husband Rajiv and mother-in-law Indira Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi gave the impression that she was not interested in public life. Two factors influenced her change of mind. The first was the conclusion of a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into what is known as the Bofors arms deal, which according to leaked reports had implicated Rajiv Gandhi.

AMETHI, India -- Only months ago, when Rajiv Gandhi's widow traveled from New Delhi to address a crowd here, this town bubbled with excitement.On that August day, it did not matter that Sonia Gandhi had been born Italian, or that she spoke fractured Hindi, or that her name has been linked to a corruption scandal that tarnished the reputation of her husband, the former prime minister.All that mattered was that the most famous and elusive of the surviving Gandhis had returned.The speech that day, the first political utterances Mrs. Gandhi, 49, has ever made in public, lighted a blaze of hope in this town that was not known for much until it became the parliamentary seat for two sons of Indira Gandhi, India's prime minister for 15 years until her assassination in 1984.

NEW DELHI -- India's longest, hottest, wettest and most troubled election resumes tomorrow with two continuing certainties: The final outcome remains highly unpredictable and whoever ends up leading the nation will immediately face a deepening economic crisis.Before voting was suspended as a result of the May 21 assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, the national election was hailed as a watershed event for India, an election in which substantive issues of caste, religion and social justice were being fiercely debated.

The assassination of Rajiv Gandhi has produced many pessimistic assessments of the future of Indian democracy and even of India's future as a single state.The death of the last member of the Nehru/Gandhi dynasty has been seen by commentators within and outside of India as the breaking of unifying force, of perhaps the only power capable of holding together such a vast, complex and conflicted land. The desperate act by the Congress Party leadership of trying to name Rajiv Gandhi's widow, an Italian woman who became an Indian citizen less than ten years ago, to be head of the party can be seen as a concrete manifestation of this view: that none but a Gandhi could hold the loyalty of the Indian masses.

AMETHI, India -- Only months ago, when Rajiv Gandhi's widow traveled from New Delhi to address a crowd here, this town bubbled with excitement.On that August day, it did not matter that Sonia Gandhi had been born Italian, or that she spoke fractured Hindi, or that her name has been linked to a corruption scandal that tarnished the reputation of her husband, the former prime minister.All that mattered was that the most famous and elusive of the surviving Gandhis had returned.The speech that day, the first political utterances Mrs. Gandhi, 49, has ever made in public, lighted a blaze of hope in this town that was not known for much until it became the parliamentary seat for two sons of Indira Gandhi, India's prime minister for 15 years until her assassination in 1984.

NEW DELHI -- India's longest, hottest, wettest and most troubled election resumes tomorrow with two continuing certainties: The final outcome remains highly unpredictable and whoever ends up leading the nation will immediately face a deepening economic crisis.Before voting was suspended as a result of the May 21 assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, the national election was hailed as a watershed event for India, an election in which substantive issues of caste, religion and social justice were being fiercely debated.

DELHI, India -- Aided by a white-bearded Hindu priest, Rajiv Gandhi's 19-year-old son sprinkled water from the sacred Ganges River on his slain father's funeral pyre.Rahul Gandhi then circled the shrouded corpse seven times with a small burning torch in his hand. Bending over, he gingerly ignited the stack of sandalwood.Black smoke billowed up from what quickly became a roaring fire. Bugles sounded over a stream of Hindi-language prayers. In the distance, tens of thousands of mourners strained against stick-wielding security forces in more than 100-degree heat.

NEW DELHI, India -- In a house where Rajiv Gandhi played as a little boy, the mutilated body of the former Indian prime minister was placed on a slab of ice and cloaked by his country's flag yesterday as thousands of mourners stood beneath a blazing sun for at least an hour to catch a brief, last glimpse of him.India's capital was in the first day of a week of official mourning for the 46-year-old Mr. Gandhi, who was slain along with 15 others by a bomb...