History for the day

On 31 October 1984, Indira Gandhi, then prime minister of India, was assassinated. William Stevens had an article in The New York Times:

So thoroughly had Prime Minister Indira Gandhi dominated Indian politics over the last two decades that even some of her critics said she was what held the fractious country together. Many called her Madam, Madamji, Mrs. G., Indiraji, Amma (Mother), or just 'She'. Not everyone thought of her in kind terms, but all knew who 'She' was, and her assassination leaves an incalculable void in the life of the country. Her sudden disappearance from the public scene represents a considerable challenge to the future of the Indian experiment in democracy.
Hours after her death, her forty-year-old son, Rajiv Gandhi, was sworn in as her successor. It is his abilities and performance that are, perhaps, the biggest uncertainty for many people as the nation tries to adjust to the events of today.
Charan Singh, another former Prime Minister, who failed to hold an opposition Government together in 1979 and 1980, thereby paving the way for Mrs. Gandhi's return from three years out of power, expressed as much horror as anyone else when he heard the news of Mrs. Gandhi's assassination. But when he heard about Rajiv Gandhi's rapid elevation, he said it confirmed his fear that "democracy is being gradually eroded in this country in order to establish a dynastic rule". Whether that interpretation turns out to be correct, or whether Mr. Gandhi's swift installation as Prime Minister will exercise a stabilizing influence, is not clear.
What seems clearer is that Mr. Gandhi, because of his mother's death, appears at the moment to be in an almost invulnerable political position. By law, parliamentary elections should be held by next 20 January, when the five-year life of the present Parliament expires. It was widely expected that Mrs. Gandhi would set the elections for late December or early January. It was also widely believed that her Congress-I Party would win enough seats to keep her in power, even if with a drastically reduced majority or at the head of a coalition government.
Whatever doubt there was stemmed largely from the negative baggage she had acquired during her years in power: for example, the suspicion after the 1975-77 period, when she declared a state of emergency and suspended civil rights, that she was authoritarian at heart; or her apparent acceptance of power politics, as in this year's bald attempts to topple duly elected state governments hostile to her party, or what was commonly perceived as a serious erosion of political institutions, for which she was largely blamed.
Rajiv Gandhi, though he has involved himself as leader of the Congress-I Party at the very lowest levels of power politics, comes to office essentially without such baggage. His image is still mostly that of Mr. Clean, a nickname he won in 1981 when, campaigning for a seat in Parliament, he promised to rid Indian politics of venality and corruption.
More important to the relatively narrow consideration of winning an election, he now wears the mantle both of a martyr's son and of the Nehru dynasty. There are some who think that if an election were called tomorrow, this combination would produce a Congress-I majority larger even than the two-thirds majority won under his mother's leadership five years ago.
It is not known, however, if and when elections will take place. Beyond that, it is an open question whether Mr. Gandhi has either the tough, pragmatic shrewdness of his mother or the idealistic depth of his grandfather, Jawharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India.
The combination of Nehru's idealism and Mrs. Gandhi's adroit use of power on the international scene is credited by some students of Indian foreign policy with having placed this country among the world's most influential nations. During Mrs. Gandhi's tenure, for example, India has solidified its position as a leader of the third world and of the Commonwealth, and become the dominant power in South Asia.
Closer to home and to the moment, Mr. Gandhi must confront the possibility of rioting between Hindus and Sikhs. In his first radio address to the nation tonight, he called for "maximum restraint" on the part of all Indians. Moreover, he must now confront the intractable problem of Punjab, where the Sikhs have been pressing for political autonomy and religious rights. Some say they fear that Sikh terrorism might convert the wealthy but unhappy breadbasket state into a Northern Ireland on the Subcontinent.
If Mrs. Gandhi's assassination is indeed the work of Sikh terrorists, as was commonly believed here today, the Punjab situation has been made just that much worse.

Rico says the son, Rajiv, was assassinated in turn:

Rajiv Ratna Gandhi (20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991), the elder son of Indira Nehru and Feroze Gandhi, was the 7th Prime Minister of India from his mother's death on 31 October 1984 until his resignation on 2 December 1989 following a general election defeat. He became the youngest Prime Minister of India when he took office (at the age of 40).
Rajiv Gandhi was a professional pilot for Indian Airlines before entering politics. While at Cambridge, he met Italian-born Antonia Maino whom he later married. He remained aloof from politics despite his mother being the Indian Prime Minister, and it was only following the death of his younger brother Sanjay Gandhi in 1980 that Rajiv entered politics. After the assassination of his mother in 1984 after Operation Blue Star, Indian National Congress party leaders nominated him to be Prime Minister.
Rajiv Gandhi led the Congress to a major election victory in 1984 soon after, amassing the largest majority ever in Indian Parliament. The Congress party won 411 seats out of 542. He began dismantling the License Raj - government quotas, tariffs and permit regulations on economic activity - modernized the telecommunications industry, the education system, expanded science and technology initiatives and improved relations with the United States.
In 1988, Rajiv reversed the coup in Maldives antagonising the militant Tamil outfits such as PLOTE. He was also responsible for first intervening and then sending Indian troops (Indian Peace Keeping Force or IPKF) for peace efforts in Sri Lanka in 1987, which soon ended in open conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) group. In mid-1987, the Bofors scandal broke his honest, corruption-free image and resulted in a major defeat for his party in the 1989 elections.
Rajiv Gandhi was an active amateur radio operator, and used the callsign VU2RG.
Rajiv Gandhi remained Congress President until the elections in 1991. While campaigning, he was assassinated by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE or Tamil Tigers) group. His widow Sonia Gandhi became the leader of the Congress party in 1998, and led the party to victory in the 2004 elections. His son Rahul Gandhi is a Member of Parliament and the General Secretary of All India Congress Committee.
Rajiv Gandhi was posthumously awarded the Highest National Award of India, Bharat Ratna, joining a list of forty luminaries, including Indira Gandhi.