Rajiv Gandhi, son of Indira Gandhi, served as the sixth Prime Minister of India from 1984-1989 before he was assassinated by the LTTE terrorists in 1991. Rajiv became a professional pilot with Air India in 1966 and stayed away from politics for a long time. He finally entered politics in 1980 after the death of his brother Sanjay Gandhi in a plane crash. He was made the prime minister after his mother was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards and immediately after he assumed the office, anti-Sikh riots broke out in the country. During this time, Rajiv delivered an infamous address in which, referring to the riots, he said: "when a big tree falls, earth shakes." His tenure as the prime minister saw other controversies including Bofors scandal, Shah Bano case and intervention in Sri Lanka. He was posthumously awarded country's highest civilian honour, Bharat Ratna in 1991.