The death of Sanjay Gandhi vindicated that death has no friends and can strike at most inopportune moment. The pampered son of India's ex - Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who was groomed as her successor, died when he was at his peak of power. Indira swept back to electoral victory in January, 1980 with a massive majority at the center. Sanjay Gandhi had a free hand in the ticket distribution in multiple Assembly elections held across several Indian states in the following month of May.
Congress won all the elections hands down. All Sanjay's handpicked men, many of them young goons, were made the Chief ministers of various states. Congress was in power in all major states in India with the exception of Kerala and Bengal, apart from having the mandate at the center for the next 5 years to follow. When he died on 23rd June of 1980, Sanjay just short of his 34th birthday was at his zenith of power.
Life can be such a paradox. Death can be unforgiving, chosing a time of its own. The kiss of death doesn't care if the recipient is a prince or pauper, a commoner or powerful. As the day dawned on that typically hot summer morning in late June, Sanjay Gandhi somersaulted his twin Engine plane, manoeuvring his flying toy above the Delhi sky. This time, he could never complete his acrobatics, as he lost control, his plane nose dived, killing himself on the spot in the bushes of Safdarjung.
Indira Gandhi twice visited the spot where the ill fated plane crashed and her son's mangled body was pulled from. Shattered to the core, she was seen trying to retrieve something the site. It was more of a human reflex action out of shock to behave psychologically odd ways. Rather a fallacious desire to gather all that were left off her dreams from the wreckage than the rumor of her trying to find the key to his Swiss Bank locker. She was never the strong, decisive leader she was after her favorite son's untimely death.
Below are excerpts from Sagarika Ghosh's book reflecting the events leading up to Sanjay Gandhi's death. Here you go.....
The news of his death stunned all. On the morning of June 23, 1980, five Sanjay Gandhi took his new Pitts S-2A plane for a joyride, lost control while doing aerobatics and crashed.
Both he and the flying instructor, Captain Subhash Saxena -- who had initially refused to go with him, knowing Sanjay's inexperience at flying this particular plane -- were instantly and gruesomely killed.
Indira had repeatedly warned Sanjay against aerobatics on the Pitts S-2A.
"The evening before he died, we went for a ride on the same plane," recalled Maneka Gandhi. "It was the first time he was going in it."
"In the plane I screamed and screamed for I think two hours and, when we came down, I ran home and told my mother-in-law: 'Ma, I need you to tell Sanjay not to fly this plane. He can fly any plane he wants, but not this one'."
"My mother-in-law said to him in front of me (Dhirendra Brahmachari was also there), 'Maneka's never been so strong about something. If she's saying na jao (don't go), toh na jao tum (then don't go)'."
"She said, 'I'm afraid I have to put my foot down'."
"Then (Indira Gandhi's personal secretary and confidante, R K) Dhawan came in and started saying, 'Arre yeh toh mardon ka jahaz hai. Manekaji aise bol rahi hai kyonki woh aurat hain. (This is a man's plane. Manekaji is saying this because she's a woman)'."
"My mother-in-law asked, 'Sanjay, is it safe?'"
"And I said, 'No, it isn't; it's a horrible plane'."
"Then Sanjay said, 'Do teen din mein theek ho jayega (It'll be fine in two or three days), she'll get used to it'....." - End of the Excerpt.
The next morning, he was dead.
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