‘We shall be bored’: Margaret Thatcher turned down meetings with Rajiv Gandhi
British officials planning the October 1985 visit of prime minister Rajiv Gandhi to London were keen to schedule at least three sessions with his counterpart, Margaret Thatcher, but she turned them down, saying: “Too many - we shall be bored.”
This and other nuggets such as Gandhi’s flowers for the first session with Thatcher are mentioned in a classified file that was long due for release but was retained and made available at the National Archives last week. It contains documents with some redactions on the then sensitive issue of Khalistan.
The file, containing documents marked ‘confidential’ or ‘secret’, presents a detailed account of how officials micromanaged Gandhi’s visit on October 14 and 15, and includes briefs on the sale of Westland helicopters to India, immigration, Sri Lanka, South Africa and other issues.
Officials informed Thatcher that Gandhi was “less sentimentally attached to the UK than Mrs (Indira) Gandhi”, but added, “We are confident that RG shares his mother’s personal regard for you, although this needs to be refurbished in the light of his youth and different chemistry.” She had several meetings with him during the visit.
Thatcher’s eagerness to ensure the visit was a success is evident from a confidential note of a meeting: “The prime minister said that the prime minister of India Mr Rajiv Gandhi was making an official visit to London. Indians were prone to regard the British as still harbouring colonial attitudes and as being interested in India only as an export market. It was therefore important that Mr Gandhi should receive the best possible treatment during his visit.”
Gandhi’s visit took place against the backdrop of tensions in Punjab, the signing of the Punjab Accord and ennui over the Britain allegedly not acting against pro-Khalistan elements.
LONDON: