Rajiv Ratna Gandhi was an Indian politician who was the country's 6th Prime Minister from 1984 till 1989. Following the demise of his mother, then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, in 1984, he was India's smallest Prime Minister at the age of 40. Gandhi was a member of the politically influential Nehru–Gandhi family, which was linked to the Indian National Congress party. For most of his upbringing, his maternal grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, was Prime Minister.

Gandhi studied at the University of Manchester in the U.K. In 1966, he returned to Indiaand began working as a professional pilot for state-owned Indian Airlines. He married Sonia Gandhi in 1968, and the pair lived in Delhi with their children Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Even though his mother, Indira Gandhi, was Prime Minister and his brother, Sanjay Gandhi, was an MP for much of the 1970s, Rajiv Gandhi remained apolitical. Following Sanjay's death in an aircraft accident in 1980, Gandhi reluctantly entered politics at Indira's request. The next year, he gained his brother's seat in parliament in Amethi and was elected to the Lok Sabha, India's lower house of parliament. Rajiv was appointed general secretary of the Congress government and assigned substantial responsibilities in planning the 1982 Asian Games as a component of his political knowledge.