On the 71st birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Pranab Mukherjee and other leaders took to micro-blogging website Twitter to pay their tributes to him.

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Rajiv Gandhi took office right after the assassination of his mother Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984. In the following elections, the Congress under Rajiv swept to power winning 424 seats in the Lok Sabha.

Initially considered a people's leader, Gandhi faced many controversies during his tenure - most notably the Bhopal Gas tragedy, the Shah Bano case and the Bofors scandal. The Ram Janmabhoomi issue also began to rear its head during his tenure. Moreover, the anti-Sikh riots that began after Indira Gandhi's assassination led to accusations against some Congress leaders.

Nevertheless, he was a youth icon during his time and is sometimes credited for the advent of the era of computerisation in India.

Rajiv Gandhi's decision to send IPKF to Sri Lanka as a peacekeeping force during its war with the LTTE caused significant controversy. He was assassinated in 1991, two years after leaving office.

On his 71st birth anniversary, various high ranking politicians remembered him on Twitter. Twitterati in general also joined in paying homage.

The National Students' Union of India also remembered the former PM 

The Indian National Congress also paid their tributes to the former party president. 

Other State ministers and officials also posted their tributes on Twitter. 

The former PM was remembered by several other people on Twitter

While a few remembered him in a different way