Tejashwi Yadav pays tribute to Rajiv Gandhi on birth anniversary
Synopsis
RJD leader and Bihar Leader of the Opposition Tejashwi Yadav paid tribute to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on his birth anniversary on 20 August 2026, saluting Gandhi's pioneering role in advancing India's IT and telecom sectors in the 1980s.
Key Takeaways
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav posted a tribute to former PM Rajiv Gandhi on his birth anniversary, 20 August 2026 .
Yadav called Gandhi 'a visionary leader' who made 'remarkable contributions' to India's IT and telecom sectors .
The Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) was established under Gandhi's government in 1984 to develop indigenous telecom technology.
Gandhi's technology push in the mid-1980s preceded India's wider economic liberalisation of 1991 and the subsequent IT boom.
Cross-party tributes to former Prime Ministers on their birth anniversaries are a consistent feature of Indian political culture.
On what would have been his 82nd birth anniversary, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was remembered Thursday for seeding the digital foundations that modern India now stands on — with RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav among the voices marking the occasion on 20 August 2026.
Yadav described Gandhi as 'a visionary leader with a positive progressive approach' who made 'remarkable contributions to the growth of country, particularly in IT and telecom sectors.' The tribute, posted to X, reflects a pattern common across Indian politics: cross-party acknowledgement of leaders whose modernisation push reshaped the republic.
The technology bet Rajiv Gandhi placed in the 1980s
When Rajiv Gandhi assumed office in 1984, personal computers were still a novelty and India's telephone network was a creaking relic. His government moved fast. The Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) was established that same year to build indigenous switching technology — a deliberate break from dependence on foreign telecom hardware. Simultaneously, Gandhi pushed to ease import restrictions on computers and championed software exports as a path to economic self-sufficiency. Those decisions, made a full decade before the landmark 1991 liberalisation, laid the groundwork for the IT and telecom boom that followed. The India that produces global software engineers and runs the world's largest mobile subscriber base traces a direct line back to those mid-1980s policy bets.Why an opposition leader's tribute carries weight
Tejashwi Yadav leads the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and serves as Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Legislative Assembly — a role that places him at the centre of state-level political contestation. His tribute to a Congress-era Prime Minister underscores a broader norm in Indian public life: contributions to national modernisation are acknowledged across party lines, particularly when the legacy is tangible and non-partisan in its benefits. Each year on 20 August, political parties and leaders issue commemorative statements, keeping Gandhi's technology legacy in public discourse. India's IT sector, now a multi-hundred-billion-dollar industry and a pillar of its global identity, remains the most enduring testament to the vision Tejashwi Yadav saluted today.Point of View
Signalling ideological alignment with the broader progressive-secular bloc. Gandhi's IT and telecom push remains one of the few pre-liberalisation policy decisions with a clear, measurable long-term payoff, making it safe — and strategically useful — common ground across party lines. For Yadav, whose RJD operates in Bihar where digital infrastructure gaps remain acute, invoking Gandhi's tech legacy also carries an implicit policy aspiration. Such annual commemorations keep coalition memory alive in an era of intense political fragmentation.
NationPress
20 Aug 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is Rajiv Gandhi remembered for IT and telecom in India?
Rajiv Gandhi's government established the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) in 1984 to build indigenous telecom switching technology and actively promoted computer imports and software exports, laying the policy foundation for India's later IT boom.
When is Rajiv Gandhi's birth anniversary?
Rajiv Gandhi was born on 20 August 1944 . His birth anniversary is observed on 20 August each year.
Who is Tejashwi Yadav?
Tejashwi Yadav is the leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and serves as Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Legislative Assembly. He previously served as Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar.
What was C-DOT and why did Rajiv Gandhi establish it?
The Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) was set up in 1984 under Rajiv Gandhi to develop India's own telecom switching technology, reducing dependence on expensive foreign hardware and building domestic technical capacity.
Do leaders from other parties pay tribute to Rajiv Gandhi?
Yes. Indian political leaders from multiple parties routinely issue public tributes on Rajiv Gandhi's birth anniversary, recognising his contributions to national modernisation as a cross-party legacy.
