Original subtitles

October 31st, 1984, New Delhi.

India's Prime Minister walks to her office.

The path passes through a gate guarded by two of her hand -picked bodyguard.

Suddenly, as she approaches, the two men open fire. She is cut down in a hail of

bullets.

Seven years later, her son and successor as Prime Minister is also assassinated.

blown up by a suicide bomber.

Who had wanted to kill two of India's most influential political family, the

daughter and grandson of one of the country's founding fathers?

August 15, 1947, New Delhi.

India is born in blood.

More than a million people die in the ethnic and religious disturbances which

accompany the creation of the separate states of India and Pakistan.

Among them, the founding father of the independence movement, Mahatma Gandhi,

assassinated on January 30, 1948.

Despite this tragedy, India remains the world's largest democracy, but killings

continue to be an unfortunate political tradition.

When Indira Gandhi is born on November 19, 1917, India has been ruled by the

British for more than a century.

Indira is the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, a rising young politician in the

Congress Party, the main organization campaigning for independence.

and the right -hand man of Mahatma Gandhi, the spiritual leader of the

In 1942, Indira marries a Congress Party activist, Feroz Gandhi.

Although he is no relative of the Mahatma, she acquires a powerfully

surname.

In 1947, British India is divided into two independent states.

Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India, of which Indira's father becomes the first

prime minister.

Throughout his 17 years in office, Indira acts as his chief of staff,

manager, and the unofficial first lady.

May 24, 1964, New Delhi.

Nehru Das.

His successor as Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri, urges Indira to get

Parliament.

She's elected in her father's constituency, and Shastri immediately

Minister for Information and Broadcasting.

Indira becomes a nationally respected politician, and when Shastri dies 18

months later, she defeats her right -wing rival, the Raji Desai, to become

minister.

She begins a green revolution to introduce new wheat crops and end

chronic food shortages.

And becomes seen abroad as a strong and decisive leader who makes India one of

the leaders of the third world.

But at home, India antagonizes many people by building up the power of

government. and cutting across the rights of individual states.

By 1969, her arrogance has offended so many in the Congress Party that it

splits. But this does not persuade Indira to be less autocratic.

June 1975, Allahabad.

After a narrow election victory, the state Supreme Court finds Indira guilty

election fraud.

and orders that she should be removed from office.

This decision provokes widespread strikes and riots, both for and against

Prime Minister.

Then her long -term ally, President Fahruddin Ali Ahmed, declares a state of

emergency, and Indira rules by decree for the next 19 months.

This brush with autocracy damages her reputation, and in 1977 she calls

general election to return India to democracy.

In this, the Congress Party is soundly beaten by a coalition led by the Janata

Party, now under Maraji Desai.

Indira loses her seat.

The new government has her arrested and put on trial for fraud and corruption.

This apparent victimization leads to resurgence in support for her.

And this is swelled by widespread sympathy when, on June 23, 1980, Sanjay,

youngest son and political heir apparent, is killed while stunt -flying

aircraft.

Shortly after this tragedy, the Janata coalition collapses.

And in the ensuing election, Indira leads her wing of the Congress Party

power in a landslide.

She moves back into the Prime Minister's official residence at No.

1 Saptarjung Road.

It's a heavily guarded bungalow with a substantial garden in one of the most

exclusive tree -lined streets of Delhi.

Next door is another bungalow, No. 1 Ackbar Road, which is the Prime

office. Between the two is a low wall and a barrier with a guard post.

Indira also brings back into her service many of her previous security

personnel.

Among these are several Sikhs, including Sub -Inspector Dayant Singh, who has

worked for her for nine years.

and been on several trips abroad as part of her protection team.

Following her triumphant return to office, Indira continues with the

centralised and personal style of government which had contributed to her

earlier downfall.

Few within her party or government dare question her decisions, and this leads

her to make one which is to prove fatal.

January 1981, the Punjab, India.

As India restarts her second period of government, she's faced with a

particularly troublesome and unexpected demand for independence from one of

India's many minorities.

Sikh extremists, part of the main religious group in the Punjab, begin

campaigning for a separate theocratic state.

This movement for independence is led by the Sikh fundamentalist Janayal Singh

Bindranwali.

The idea is strongly resisted by Indira's government.

September 1983, Amritsar.

Bindranwali is arrested for terrorism, but has to be released shortly

for lack of evidence.

In response, he moves from his headquarters in the city into the Golden

one of the holiest shrines of Sikhism.

And from here, he steps up his campaign for a separate Sikh state.

Vindranwale's more militant supporters intensify their attacks on the

forces.

And on June the 3rd, 1984,

Acting on Indira's direct instructions, the Indian army mounts Operation Blue

Star to remove Bindranwale and his followers from the Golden Temple.

They resist, and over 700 innocent pilgrims are killed in the fighting,

with Bindranwale and many extremists.

The Golden Temple is severely damaged by gunfire.

Even moderate Sikhs are outraged by the desecration of one of their religion's

holiest sites.

And there is widespread international condemnation of this heavy -handed

Indian security forces now try to remove all Sikhs from Indira's immediate

bodyguard. But several, including Bayan Singh, appeal directly to the Prime

Minister to be allowed to continue.

Confident of their loyalty, She overrules her security advisors.

But what Indira is not told is that the security forces have observed Biant

meeting known Sikh extremists while off duty in Delhi.

October 31, 1984, New Delhi.

At nine in the morning, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi prepares for her first

appointment.

She does not put on her bulletproof vest because she is to be interviewed by the

British playwright, actor and humorist Peter Ustinov, who is making a

documentary.

At the barrier between the residence and the Prime Minister's office, Dayan

Singh and another Sikh, Constable Satwan Singh, are on duty.

The Prime Minister and her aide set out for the 200 -yard walk through the

garden at 9 .18.

Moments later, as she passes him, Bayon Singh fires three shots into her body.

As she collapses, Sapwan Singh empties his Sten submachine gun into her.

Neither man attempts to escape.

Other guards arrest them and march them off to a guardhouse.

There, Bayan Singh is shot while apparently trying to escape, and Sakwan

is severely wounded.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister is rushed to hospital, but is dead on arrival.

For fear of riots, her death is not announced until 2 .20 in the afternoon,

though reports have already been broadcast by the BBC and circulated by

news agencies.

Concern about the possible reaction turns out to be correct.

Anti -Sikh pogroms now engulf New Delhi and other cities.

More than 5 ,000 people are slaughtered.

The result is that many Sikhs who had rejected the violence of the extremists

now become radicalized, and the problem continues to bedevil India.

India's eldest son, Rajiv, is immediately selected as prime minister

party and the nation's president, Zaheer Singh.

But he calls a general election for December and wins this with 415 of the

seats in the Lok Sabha, India's executive house of parliament.

It is the largest majority in India's history.

Born in August 1944,

Rajiv never shows any interest in politics.

He meets his Italian wife, Sonia, while studying mechanical sciences at

Cambridge University in England and becomes a pilot for Indian Airlines.

June 23, 1918, New Delhi.

Only when his brother dies is Rajiv persuaded to stand for politics.

Rajiv presents himself as a much more consensual leader than his formidable

mother.

At home, he cuts bureaucracy and introduces economic reforms to free up

business community.

Abroad, he tries to rebuild relations with the US after his mother's close

friendship with the Soviet Union.

He also has ambitions to turn India into the regional superpower of the Indian

Ocean and begins to build up her armed forces.

Like his mother, Rajiv suddenly finds himself faced with a problem which may

threaten Indian unity.

But this time, it is a problem which has its roots abroad.

In 1983, violence erupts on the island of Sri Lanka, just 90 miles off India's

southeast coast.

A hitherto repressed minority, the Tamils, launches a violent independence

movement.

The three million Hindu Tamils living in the north and west of the island make

up 20 % of Sri Lanka's population.

The rest are Buddhist Sinhalese.

Sri Lanka had become independent from Britain in 1948.

and the Sinhalese majority swiftly increases discrimination against the

In 1983, years of simmering resentment lead to an armed rebellion led by the

Tamil Tigers under Valupilai Prabhakara.

The Sinhalese -dominated Sri Lankan government and army react with

and soon there is full -scale civil war.

The problem for India is that more than 50 million Tamils live in the coastal

state of Tamil Nadu, just across the water from Sri Lanka, and there have

demands for a separate Tamil state there.

The Indian government reacts by condoning, if not encouraging, the

equipping of rebels in Tamil Nadu, while at the same time...

Rajiv offers his help to the Sri Lankan government to achieve a peace settlement

and urges it to offer the rebels some sort of autonomy.

Reluctantly recognizing India as a great regional power, Sri Lanka's president,

Jayawadana, agrees to talk.

But over the next two years, it becomes increasingly obvious that the Sinhalese

-dominated government would prefer a military solution.

It imposes a naval blockade on the Tamil stronghold, the Jaffna Peninsula, which

leads to serious food shortages and steps up its military assault.

June, 1987, Bangalore.

Rajiv's patience finally snaps.

Indian Air Force Antonov 32 transports take off from a coastal airbase.

Escorted by fighters, they drop supplies on the Jaffna Peninsula.

Hailed by many as a justifiable humanitarian act, the sight of Indian

flying unhindered over Sri Lanka emphasizes the fact that India can

will whenever it wants.

Jayawardena's government immediately begins serious talks.

And on July 29, 1987, an Indo -Sri Lankan pact is signed.

India will send a peacekeeping force and mediate between the Tamil Tigers and

the Sri Lankan government.

July 30, 1987, Colombo.

The agreement is widely opposed by the Sinhalese, and Rajiv is assaulted by a

naval rating while inspecting a guard of honor in Sri Lanka's capital.

The new pact fails to stop the fighting, and inevitably the Indian peacekeeping

force soon becomes involved in combating the Tamil Tigers.

Unrest at India's apparent siding with the Sinhalese begins to grow in Tamil

Nadu.

Meanwhile, Rajiv's image as Mr.

Clean is tainted by scandal.

In April 1987, Swedish radio reveals that the Bofors Armament Group has paid

massive commissions to secure orders for its 155mm gun.

Government ministers are implicated.

In a general election in December 1989, Rajiv's Congress Party is defeated by a

coalition led by his former finance minister, V .P. Singh, who now heads the

Janata Dal Party.

The Indian peacekeeping force in Sri Lanka has suffered more than 1 ,500

casualties, and the new government starts pulling it out.

This is completed within four months.

But the fighting goes on with the Sri Lankan army stepping up its assault

against the Tamils.

Some Tamil groups are prepared to settle for limited autonomy to achieve peace.

But the Tigers are even more determined to gain full independence.

They've started using a fearsome new weapon, suicide bombing.

The first comes in 1987, when a truck is driven into a Sri Lankan army base and

explodes, killing 50.

As leader of the opposition, Rajiv makes clear that he still supports a unified

Sri Lanka and still feels that Indian forces should be used to stabilize the

situation. In May 1991, the Janata coalition collapses

and a general election is called.

Prabhakaran is concerned that if Rajiv gets back into power, as seems very

likely, he will again put India's support behind the Sri Lankan

and Tamil groups prepared to accept limited autonomy, the pressure on the

would be greatly increased.

He instructs Tamil Tigers in India to begin planning to kill Rajiv.

The job is put in the hands of the Tigers' head of intelligence in Tamil

Sivarasa.

Early May, Chennai, South India.

Sivarasan brings two young girls, Suha and Danu, over from Jaffna, and lodges

them with an Indian sympathiser named Nalini.

Suha and Danu are both dedicated Tamil tigers, and one of them will be the

bomb that destroys Rajiv Gandhi.

Rajiv is due to be campaigning in the Chennai area during the latter part of

May, and will speak at a rally in Suripurumbudur.

on the evening of May the 21st.

Siva Rasan's plan is that one of the girls, wearing a vest packed with

under her flowing robes, will approach Rajiv to put a garland round his neck.

To add to the subterfuge, she will be accompanied by a local photographer.

May the 20th, 1991, New Delhi.

At three in the afternoon, Rajiv Gandhi leaves on the last leg of his election

campaign. He will be making a whistle -stop tour of South India.

Meanwhile, in Chennai, Sivarathan is finalising Operation Rajiv Gandhi.

Dhanu has been selected as a suicide bomber.

She will wear a flowing green and orange thawakami and about 20 pounds of

explosives.

May the 21st, 1991, Chennai.

At 3 .30 in the afternoon, Sivarasan and his human bomb meet up with a local

photographer.

Together, they get on a bus to Sripurambudur.

May the 21st, 1991, Vishakhapatnam, South India.

6 .30 in the evening, Rajiv pilots his aircraft on a short trip to Chennai.

At the rally, the local photographer catches Dhanu with a group of women

to garland Rajiv as he arrives.

Sivarasan stands nearby, holding a notebook and looking like a journalist.

At ten past ten in the evening, Rajiv Gandhi arrives and is greeted by the

excited crowd.

He begins to push through it.

stopping several times to be given shawls and other traditional tributes.

Then the women with the garlands approach him.

One of them bows as if to kiss his feet.

And suddenly, an explosion rips the crowd apart.

The explosion kills Rajiv and 14 other people.

At first, we thought that the bomb had been a remote control device.

but then wires and remnants of a belt were found on remains of a female torso.

The head of a woman is found.

The gruesome photograph is broadcast on television and issued to the press.

And then a camera is discovered.

The photographer was one of the dead.

On it is a shot of the woman in a group of three with a man who appears to have

nothing to do with them.

When this is publicized, the man is recognized by Tamil exiles as Sivarasan.

The woman is also identified as one of the girls who had stayed in Chennai with

Nalini.

A one million rupee reward is put on Sivarasan.

He is eventually tracked down to a house in Bangalore, and on the morning of

August the 18th, police storm the building.

They find that he has shot himself.

and six other Tamils have taken cyanide.

Having identified the perpetrators, India asks for the extradition of

Prabhakaran. But as of 2007, he is still at large in northwestern Sri Lanka, and

the Tamil Tigers are still fighting.

May the 24th, 1991, New Delhi.

After lying in state at the Nehru house in Teen Murti Mag,

Rajiv Gandhi is cremated by the river Jumla.

Less than seven years earlier, he had lit his mother's funeral pyre.

Now his 20 -year -old son, Rahul, has to do the same for him.

Two generations of the Gandhi family have been assassinated by fanatics

desperate to achieve independence for their people.

In neither case did the murders work.

Neither a Sikh...

nor a Tamil independent state resulted.

Only the deaths of many more innocent people.