Birthday Extra: Sanjay Gandhi laid the foundation of Maruti in India

New Delhi, December 14, 2019, Saturday

Today is the birth anniversary of Sanjay Gandhi. Indira Gandhi's son Sanjay Gandhi was born on December 14, 1946 in Delhi. Sanjay Gandhi was educated in the Welham Boys and later studied at Doon School in Dehradun. He chose automotive engineering as his career and spent 3 years working for an apprenticeship in Rolls Royce, England. He was very interested in sports cars.

Sanjay Gandhi laid the foundation of Maruti in India. He also obtained a pilot's license. Sanjay Gandhi was seen as the political successor of Indira Gandhi. But he died in a plane crash and four years after Indira Gandhi's death, Rajiv Gandhi took over Indiraji's politics. Sanjay Gandhi died in a plane crash on June 23, 1980.

Sanjay Gandhi laid the foundation of Maruti

In 1971, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi proposed making a 'car' that the common man could buy. He decided to build a "People's Car". Maruti Limited was formed under the Companies Act in June 1971 and Sanjay Gandhi became its first Managing Director.

Sanjay was licensed for this project with no experience, no network. He also tried to create designs for cars in the workshop. Sanjay also spoke to Volkswagen for this work but there was no contract with Volkswagen.

This company was constantly running into losses. After Sanjay Gandhi's death in 1980, Maruti Limited joined hands with Japan's Suzuki Company. Subsequently, the Maruti 800 was produced and was launched on December 14, 1983 in the Indian market.

Sanjay and Manaka's love story

Sanjay Gandhi married Manaka Gandhi 10 years younger than himself. According to a report, Maneka became Miss Lady in 1973 at Lady Shriram College in Delhi. Then he started getting modeling offers.

Manaka made its first announcement for Bombay Dyeing. It was only after seeing this ad that Sanjay Maneka started to choose Gandhi. Sanjay Maneka's cousin was a friend of Vinoo Kapoor. Sanjay and Maneka met in Venu's wedding party in 1973. Then they started to get closer to each other. Sanjay and Maneka were married on September 29, 1974. They were married at the home of Mohammed Yunus, a friend of the Gandhi family.

The first defeat in politics

Sanjay Gandhi stood for the first time since Amethi in the March 1977 general election. For the first time, Sanjay lost badly from this seat.

At this time, Indira Gandhi's Congress party also suffered a bad defeat, but in the general election held in 1980, Sanjay Amethi won the seat. He was appointed Secretary of Congress in May 1980 and died in a plane crash on 23 June 1980.