india

Updated: Aug 19, 2019 16:32 IST

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday tweeted a video paying homage to his father and India’s sixth prime minister Rajiv Gandhi a day ahead of his 75th birth anniversary.

“This week we will celebrate my father, Rajiv Gandhi Ji’s 75th birth anniversary with memorial events across India. To honour him, each day this week, I will draw attention to one of his many incredible achievements. Today, the Information Technology revolution,” Rahul tweeted.

The video on Rajiv Gandhi, who served as the prime minister from 1984 to 1989, credits him for sowing the seeds of revolution in the IT sector in the country.

The video talks about the role Rajiv Gandhi played in digitizing India – from phone booths to the railways – ensuring that India was ‘equipped for future’.

This week we will celebrate my father, Rajiv Gandhi Ji's 75th birth anniversary with memorial events across India.



To honour him, each day this week, I will draw attention to one of his many incredible achievements. Today, the Information Technology revolution. #RajivGandhi75 pic.twitter.com/qBjIfTVRkj — Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) August 19, 2019

Charting the steps taken by Rajiv government, the video says: “Computers become the symbol of ambitious Indians, entrepreneurs like NR Narayana Murthy, Shiv Nadar and Azim Prem set-up world-class IT companies, through MTNL Indians could connect to 243 overseas countries, digitised telephone exchanges, PCO’s introduced to connect rural and urban India and first Indian Railways introduced Digital reservation for tickets.”

The 55-second video concludes quoting Rajiv Gandhi saying, “India missed the industrial revolution, it cannot afford to miss the computer revolution.”

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot also paid tribute to the former prime minister praising him for ‘bringing the IT revolution and strengthening the panchayti raj institutions in the country’.

Recalling 1970s and 1980s, the Rajasthan CM said, “it used to be a tough task to connect through telephone lines and there were very few colour televisions”.

Things changed, technological developments took place and the computer era started due to the vision of Rajiv Gandhi, the CM said.

“Today you book train, bus or flight tickets on mobile. You need not to stand in queues like people in the past. You can see what is happening around the world and can contact anyone in a short time. This did not happen in just one day,” Gehlot stressed.

Rajiv Gandhi took office after the 1984 assassination of his mother, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, to become the youngest Indian Prime Minister at the age of 40.

In May 1991, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) suicide bomber during an election rally in Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu