The Mandal Messiah,A Toyota Chariot...

Starting out as Rajiv Gandhi’s high-profile finance minister and later defence minister, V.P. Singh soon becomes a thorn in his side by stoking the Bofors allegations and hiring an American detective agency to investigate kickbacks in the HDW submarine deal. As expected, he is forced to quit the ministry. He rallies the centrist non-BJP opposition with his National Front and takes on Rajiv at the hustings on an anti-corruption plank in November 1989. He outwits Chandra Shekhar and is unanimously chosen prime minister, with outside parliamentary support from the Left and the BJP. Perturbed by Deputy PM ‘Tau’Devi Lal’s machinations,on August 7,1990,he stuns the nation by accepting the Mandal Commission recommendations,lead-ing to nationwide protests and self-immolations. With L.K. Advani’s subsequent rath yatra and arrest in October in Laloo’s Bihar, India’s second anti-Congress government falls. But the Raja of Manda’s Mandal legacy remains.

On September 25,1990,L.K. Advani sets off from Somnath temple in his Toyota rath to solicit support for a Ram temple a t Ayodhya, fomenting communal tension en route. As he is arrested at Samastipur a month later, riots erupt across the country. The hysteria provoked by the rath yatra will culminate in the demolition of the Babri Masjid two years later.

The anti-Mandal agitation evokes popular sympathy but takes a tragic turn with a spate of self-immolations. Delhi University student Rajiv Goswami survives his suicide bid and goes on to win student union elections.

On November 10,1990,supported by Rajiv Gandhi,Chandra Shekhar, with 58 MPs,becomes prime minis-ter.With forex reserves abysmally low and rising oil prices during the Gulf War, India is on the brink of defaulting on debt repayments. The government mortgages gold reserves. In March 1991,Congress withdraws support as two Haryana cops are found snooping outside Rajiv’s house. Elections are ordered.

On May 21, 1991,Rajiv Gandhi’s comeback trail is cut short by an LTTE suicide bomber at Sriperumbudur, near Chennai. A bereaved Sonia is offered the Congress presidentship; she turns it down, but remains an unofficial power centre. A massive manhunt is launched for Sivarasan, the mastermind behind the assassination, but he is found dead.