About the BookA CANDID ACCOUNT OF RAJIV GANDHIS PRIME MINISTERIAL YEARS.On 21 May 1991 Wajahat Habibullah then the commissioner of Kashmir constituting the valley and the two districts of Ladakh had returned home after inspecting a mysterious fire at Dalgate Srinagar. Much to his dismay there had been another fire one that left him devastated an RDX explosion in the south Indian town of Sriperumbudur had taken the life of Indias sixth prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.My Years with Rajivampampnbspis an endearing account of a friendship that turned into an administrative partnership one that gave Habibullah an acute insight into Rajiv Gandhis political life. But equally in this lucid memoir recounting his years in the Indian Administrative Service particularly at the Prime Ministers Office he walks us through the last three decades of the twentieth centuryin many ways the most formative years of Indian history.Habibullah also seeks to demystify the workings of the Indian government and bureaucracy the modernisation of the Nehruvian nation the turbulence of the Khalistan years in Punjab the introduction of grassroots policies aimed at poverty alleviation in rural India the beginning of telecommunications services the Shah Bano case the opening of the locks at Babri MasjidRam Janmabhoomi Indian interventions in Sri Lanka and much else.