Army let down Rajiv, says Mani Shankar Aiyar; defends Sri Lanka intervention

Aiyar conceded, however, that the operation went badly wrong. He criticised shortcomings in planning and execution and accused parts of the Indian establishment of misreading the ground. “The Indian army let him down, Indian intelligence let him down. He persisted with what he thought was necessary and paid a heavy political price,” he said, adding that misjudgments about key Tamil leaders and militant groups compounded the tragedy.

The session, moderated by former Rajya Sabha MP Jawhar Sircar, also turned to the contentious question of the Ramayan television serial and its political fallout. Sircar posed a blunt question about who commissioned the Ramayan at a time when communal tensions were high and the BJP’s rise had been catalysed by the Babri movement.

“I have a dying question I’m dying to ask you… Who on earth commissioned the Ramayan series in 1987–88?” Sircar asked, noting that the serial’s broadcast coincided with a fraught national moment.

Aiyar’s answer was unequivocal: it was Rajiv Gandhi’s initiative. He said the motive was cultural rather than political. With colour television still new to India after its introduction for the 1982 Asian Games, Rajiv sought to bring a major strand of India’s heritage to a mass medium. “Rajiv Gandhi was extremely proud of our heritage. Commissioning the Ramayan was to invoke a major part of our cultural legacy on what was then a very new medium,” Aiyar said. He added that while the epics contain both good and evil, the intent was to celebrate India’s composite culture, not to justify any religious mobilisation.

Sircar also pressed Aiyar on whether Rajiv’s idealism and trust in people made him vulnerable to betrayal. Aiyar agreed that the former prime minister’s faith was both his strength and weakness. “His domestic trusts were the ones that were betrayed,” he said, recalling how misplaced confidence in advisers and allies, at home and abroad, led to damaging outcomes.

Reflecting on Rajiv’s “healing touch” approach, Aiyar said the phrase has disappeared from public life but once defined his politics in Punjab, Assam, Mizoram, Darjeeling and Jammu and Kashmir. Rajiv, he said, inherited several volatile regions from his mother and tackled them through dialogue rather than force.

In Punjab, he risked the Congress’s base by allowing elections that brought the Akali Dal to power. In Assam, the All Assam Students’ Union transformed into the Asom Gana Parishad and swept to office after the accord. In Mizoram, a two-decade insurgency ended when rebel leader Laldenga was made chief minister. “What was common to all these accords was his willingness to sacrifice immediate party interest for national reconciliation,” Aiyar said.

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