Of course he was. Normally, all of us have two grandfathers; the paternal and the maternal grandfather. Nehru was the maternal grandfather of Rajiv Rattan Brijesh Nehru Gandhi. The Roberto element was added later. Almost like Lord Louis Mountbatten, Rajiv too had mouthful of a name. Rajiv's paternal grandfather was Nawab Khan, Motilal's family grocer, the supplier of wines and liquors to the Anand Bhavan, formerly known as Ishrat Manzil.
Then how come Rajiv is not called Rajiv Khan? It is a good question. The thing is that just after Indira Nehru married Feroze Khan in England (not the sham Vedic marriage that was set up to fool the gullible public of India), the old Gandhi, immediately called Jawahar and told him to force Feroze and Indira to change their Khan name to a Parsi name. Probably the old crow had a name like Ghandy or Mehta in his mind. But the foolish Feroze chose Gandhi and since then we have a Moslem dynasty ruling India under a pseudonym. Remarkable, isn't it? What is even more remarkable is that no one, but no one, caught up with it! (See K.N. Rao's THE NEHRU DYNASTY)
Writes M.O. Mathai, Nehru's Private Secretary, in his Reminiscences of the Nehru Age (page 94): "For some inexplicable reason, Nehru allowed the marriage (between Feroze and Indira) to be performed according to Vedic rites in 1942. An interreligious and intercaste marriage under Vedic rites at that time was not valid in law. To be legal, it had to be a civil marriage. So, strictly under the law, Indira was only a 'concubine' and her children are 'bastards'."
Both Rajiv and his brother Sanjiv (changed later to Sanjay in the wake of a car-theft committed in Britain) were thus bastards with Moslem fathers (fathers, because Sanjay's real father was Mohammed Yunus, and not Feroze. Mohammed Yunus holds custody of the Netaji Papers.). Both brothers grew up among Moslem family friends. Adil Shahryar, the other son of Mohammed Yunus, used to play with Rajiv when both were young. Later, Adil was arrested in the US on a charge of felony and was sent to prison for 35 years.
Father Mohammed Yunus became very cross and asked Rajiv (he has in the mean time become the prime minister wading through pools of Sikh blood) to find some means, any means, to get Adil Shahryar out of US jail. Otherwise, Mohammed Yunus threatened Rajiv, he would release the Netaji papers to the press. Clearly, that would be a disaster for the entire dynasty. The entire country would know all the foul things Jawahar had done against Netaji. Rajiv hatched a plan, well, he was not bright enough; it was the gang of Funny Shankars, Chidambarams etc. who chalked out the plan for Rajiv to execute.
Rajiv at once started his Festival of India scheme. The country was starving but crores had to be spent in Germany, France, England and above all in the United States to teach the westerners the subtleties of Kuchipudi and Bharatanatyam dancing, etc. etc. through year-long festivals.
In the US, Rajiv was told to choose Mrs. Reagan to become the co-chairperson and the lady politely agreed, not that she had the slightest desire to learn about the intricacies of Odisi or Kathakali or Kathak dancing or the nuances of Dhrupad or Malkaus. Millions were spent and eventually as all things come to an end, the Festival of India too came to its end. On that day or thereabout, Rajiv asked Nancy that he wanted to see President Reagan personally. Nancy is a nice lady. She requested her husband to meet Rajiv.
At the very first meeting with Reagan, Rajiv asked for the release of Adil Shahryar. Reagan was taken by surprise. It is not easy for a president of a democracy like America to free a convicted felon before time. But Reagan finally agreed to release Adil Shahryar under certain conditions, such as he must never ever come to the shores of America. So, Adil was released and pronto all activities of the Festival of India were dropped. Rajiv was relieved that the Netaji Papers still remained hidden from the public eye and Mohammed Yunus was relieved to get back his son. His other son, Sanjay, by Indira, was already dead in that air accident, even before Indira Gandhi (aka Khan) met her end. Quite clearly, Rajiv's Islamic roots cost us an arm and a leg. And that was not all. There is more, much more.
The mad men of the Arab hostage takers attacked the American University in Beirut and kidnapped a number of Americans. By mistake, they took also an Indian professor wrongly thinking that the gentleman was also an American. He had lived a long time in the US, not as a naturalized citizen but with a legitimate green card. The news went out to the world that there was an Indian among the hostages. That the Arabs would even kidnap an Indian, a citizen of India, the self-proclaimed friendly nation to the Arabs and Arab cause, was inconceivable to many. But Rajiv did not toe that line at all. The GOI under his direction said that the professor was an American citizen and therefore the problem of his release devolved on the US government. It showed that Rajiv did not have his facts correct. The man was NOT an American citizen and quite naturally, the US government refused to work for the Indian professor. The US government already had its hands full with so many other bonafide US citizens.
Rajiv was in a jam. Now that it was a clear case of an Indian's being taken hostage, and given the fact that Rajiv was a great friend of the Arabs, theoretically at least, he should have no difficulty at all to get him released from his friends, the Arabs. However, the fact of the matter is that the Arabs had no obligation to Rajiv or (what they consider as his Hindu) India. The Indian professor was not released. Rajiv needed to prove his worth to his people at least. Rajiv's prestige was on the line!
What did this stupid man, who in three years could not pass a single examination in Cambridge but had the gall to let his PR people publicise that he was a qualified Mechanical Engineering Graduate, do then? He went to see Hafez al Asad of Syria. No one knows exactly how much he cried, prayed or wallowed in Asad's office. In the end, Asad, a prime mover of the hostage game, asked the hostage takers to release the Indian professor. The news was released in the fashion of a riddle. Everyone thought, even Ronald Reagan thought, that it was going to be an American who was going to be released first. Lo and behold! It was the Indian professor. Reagan was disappointed and perhaps a little angry even with Rajiv. On that night, Rajiv spoke from the Syrian radio. In the broadcast, to praise Syria, Rajiv said something to the effect that Mohammed bin Qasem was a great man; he brought the message of Islam to the west coast of India, etc. etc. The speech was in English. As soon as it was heard, the All India Radio shut it off. Those who were listening to the radio news from Syria to hear Rajiv's speech were disappointed because after the first announcement by Rajiv on the great things that Mohammed bin Qasem had done in India, they were prevented from hearing the rest of the speech. The Moslem grandson of Nawab Khan was in his elements and he didn't realise, until much later, what kind of a furor would have been caused in India, if his speech had not been shut off!
The Shah Bano case came to the court. A Moslem wife of many years was talaqued by an old Moslem man. He was going to marry a younger woman but would not pay any alimony to the other old lady.
The Supreme Court of India asked the man to pay Shah Bano (that was the newly divorced lady's name) alimony. The entire Moslem India exploded. It was an interference in their religious rights. Moslem men need not pay any alimony or very little, so they said, in accordance with the Koran, which Rushdie named the Satanic Verses, perhaps rightly so. Ruffians like Haji Mastan of Bombay threatened Rajiv Rattan Brijesh Roberto Nehru Gandhi that if the bill was not passed permitting the Moslems to divorce their womenfolk the way they liked, they would slaughter Rajiv and there will be riots in the streets. The not-so-courageous Rajiv got mortally frightened and behold, the bill was passed within thirty-six hours of Mastan's threat. Rajiv had obtained a huge sympathy vote because of the assassination of his mother but now used that vote for such a vile cause! The country is now paying for it and will go on paying unless the wrong done to Moslem women is righted in the country, Islam or no Islam! But Rajiv's Islamic background let him down, once again. He was not fit to rule a truly secular country!
It was in London, soon after he was made the prime minister by the back-door, Rajiv had a press conference. In that press conference, for the first time, he mentioned that he was NOT a Hindu but a Parsi. He was already a converted Catholic but the general public did not know that. One might ask if he was NOT a Hindu then what motivated him and his Catholic wife to go to Hindu temples with big tilaks on their forehead? If not for fooling the gullible, then for what?
But he played the game rather too far. His Italian-born wife Sonia, whose hobby is now to build Catholic convents and in which enterprise she appears to be competing with the Albanian nun Teresa, who has already built more than 500 Catholic convents (as mentioned in Hitchen's HELL'S ANGEL), wanted to invite the Pope to Hindu India. She had perhaps thought that as soon as the Indians will meet the Pope they will abandon their ancestral faith and go for baptism to Christianity!
The PR outfits paid from the people's purse, broadcast the news that Rajiv (who on his own admission was NOT a Hindu but a Parsi, but actually a liar and a Catholic) was going to clean the Ganga. What could be more dear to a Hindu heart? Whatever Rajiv said or did, took on a special flavor. Some projects were mentioned that the GOI under Rajiv Gandhi would undertake to clean the holy river, etc. etc.
And just at that time, it was also announced that India had invited the Pope. It was made clear that the Pope was being invited NOT as the Head of a religious body but as the diplomatic representative of the Vatican. How can secular India invite a religious leader! And the Pope came and went away and behold! The Ganga-cleaning projects were immediately dropped. Once again the Hindus of India let themselves be fooled by the bastard son of the Khans who had changed their name to Gandhi behind the people's back.
There was another incident. Rajiv sent help to sustain the Mohammedan ruler of Maldive Islands, one Gayoom. One wonders what interest did India have to support this island country where non Moslem Indians cannot settle down or go for work. Just because the ruler is a Mohammedan is no reason to send our army there.
When Pakistan's Kahuta atomic station was under development, Israel offered to bomb it out of existence almost like Iraq's Ossirak atomic plant. But Israel needed a refueling station. The Israelis had requested Rajiv Gandhi if India would permit refueling. Israelis did not know of Rajiv's Islamic roots and were diappointed by Rajiv's 'No'. They had thought that Israel was doing a good turn to India by knocking out Pakistan's nuclear capability, which obviously was aimed at Hindu India! But Rajiv did even more than just say 'No' to Israel. He informed Paki-stan of Israel's proposal behind Israel's back!