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Sadbhavana Diwas, or Harmony Day, is observed on 20 August, the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, born on 20 August 1944.
Citizens take the Sadbhavana pledge to work for the emotional oneness of all Indians regardless of caste, religion, region or language.
Rajiv Gandhi became Prime Minister on 31 October 1984 at the age of 40, the youngest person to hold the office in India.
In the December 1984 general election the Congress won 404 of 514 seats, the largest tally any party has won in a Lok Sabha election.
His tenure produced the 52nd Amendment Act, 1985 on anti-defection, the 61st Amendment Act, 1988 lowering the voting age to 18, and the National Policy on Education, 1986.
The anti-defection law. It inserted the Tenth Schedule into the Constitution, providing for the disqualification of members of Parliament and of State legislatures who defect from the party on whose ticket they were elected.
Lowered the voting age for Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections from 21 years to 18. Passed by the Rajya Sabha on 20 December 1988, it received the assent of President R. Venkataraman on 28 March 1989 and came into force that day.
Sought to give constitutional status to panchayati raj institutions. Introduced in the Lok Sabha in July 1989 and passed there in August 1989, it failed in the Rajya Sabha. The idea returned under P. V. Narasimha Rao and became the 73rd Amendment Act, 1992, in force from 24 April 1993.
Reframed school and higher education with an emphasis on modernisation and access; it remained the governing education policy until the National Education Policy, 2020 replaced it.
| Sector | Initiative | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| Computing | Computer Policy, 1984 | Eased import and manufacture of computers and widened access to computing |
| Software | Software Policy, 1986 | Treated software as an industry in its own right and set the base for software exports |
| Telecom | C-DOT, MTNL and VSNL | Indigenous switching technology, plus dedicated corporations for metro and overseas telecom |
| Supercomputing | C-DAC, 1988 | Set up to build indigenous high-performance computing capability |
| Rural connectivity | PCO expansion | Public call offices took telephone access to towns and villages |
| Public welfare | National Technology Missions | Applied technology to water, literacy, health and agriculture |
GS Paper II > Polity - Constitutional amendments and panchayati raj; GS Paper I > Post-independence consolidation
General Awareness > Important Days and Indian Polity - Amendments
General Awareness > Important Days and Static GK
General Awareness > Important Days and Indian Polity
General Knowledge > Indian Polity and Important Days
Goodwill or harmony; the term gives the observance its name and its pledge its theme of emotional oneness.
The schedule inserted by the 52nd Amendment Act, 1985, which sets out the grounds on which a legislator may be disqualified for defection.
Giving local self-government bodies a constitutional rather than merely statutory basis - attempted through the 64th Amendment Bill in 1989 and achieved by the 73rd Amendment Act, 1992.