India Today @ 50 Part 2: Bofors, Babri and the making of modern India

Key Highlights

• India Today Chairperson and Editor-in-Chief Aroon Purie recalled how Rajiv Gandhi, a young leader with a historic mandate, was seen as a symbol of change.
• But he was a reluctant politician, noting his own words on the uncertainty of power, “When I’m a pilot, when I move a lever I know exactly what will happen.
• As prime minister, when I move a lever, I don’t know what’s going to happen.”Rajiv Gandhi’s first two years in office were the “Camelot years”, said India Today Group Editorial Director (Publishing) Raj Chengappa.
• But they didn’t last due to defining missteps. Senior journalist Shekhar Gupta described how the Shah Bano case and the decision to unlock the gates of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya as “blunders that redefined Indian politics,” angering the Congress’s support base and accelerating the rise of the BJP. The Bofors scandal was the moment when the Rajiv Gandhi government unravelled.
• Despite the fear of retaliation and the possibility of the magazine being shut down, India Today chose to publish the explosive revelations that directly targeted a sitting Prime Minister. The episode also examined the Mandal Commission, which Raj Chengappa termed “the biggest social upheaval India has seen,” fracturing politics along caste lines.