Page 2037 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 28 May 1991
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said that at school and at Cambridge University Mr Gandhi was unassertive and unsung. He failed his final examination in engineering at Cambridge and, in fact, went home to India without a degree. Instead, he trained as a pilot with Indian Airlines, but this career was brought to an end in 1980 when his politician brother was killed in a plane accident.
Rajiv Gandhi's involvement in politics over the next four years led to his succession to the leadership of India following the assassination of Mrs Indira Gandhi in 1984. Mr Gandhi's prime ministership can be interpreted in very many different ways. He is credited with a conciliatory approach which resolved regional discontent in some parts of India. His Government liberalised the economy and tackled longstanding problems of corruption. But Mr Gandhi's economic liberalisation has also left a legacy of foreign debt and budget problems. The tough line which he took with Sikhs during his mother's prime ministership has also been questioned.
In the broad scheme of things, I believe that Mr Gandhi will be judged favourably by history. His greatest triumph is the triumph of the Congress Party throughout its history. It is the triumph of a secular leadership and secular policies being implemented in a nation which is so very deeply divided on religious and other communal grounds. It is a triumph that India's democracy is so strong in the face of the many problems which confront the nation. Whatever one might say about the Nehru/Gandhi dynasty, the fact is that Indian democracy does work and that this family and Mr Rajiv Gandhi have contributed to its working. Both Mrs Indira Gandhi and Mr Rajiv Gandhi were voted out of office. Mrs Gandhi returned at a subsequent election and it is widely believed that Rajiv Gandhi would also have won the current election.
The Labor members of this Assembly join in condemning the act of political violence which ended Mr Gandhi's life and we are deeply saddened by the violence which has erupted since. Mr Speaker, our thoughts, and I am sure the thoughts of all in this Assembly, are with Mrs Sonia Gandhi and her children at this very difficult time.
MR COLLAERY (Deputy Chief Minister): Mr Speaker, I rise to endorse the comments by both leaders.
MR HUMPHRIES (Minister for Health, Education and the Arts): Mr Speaker, I want to make a few comments on this motion and to support it, of course. I think that to lead a country like India does require very special qualities. Whether those qualities were endowed by birth, in the sense that Mr Rajiv Gandhi inherited a certain mantle, a name from his grandfather and his mother, or whether they were otherwise gained, in a sense may be hard to judge, given that Mr Gandhi's career has been cut short by assassination.
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