The Congress, led by Rajiv Gandhi, won an unprecedented victory in the elections. Rajiv Gandhi began a peace initiative in Punjab, Assam and Mizoram and also in the neighbouring country of Sri Lanka. India sent its army to maintain peace between the warring parties (Separatist Tamils and Sinhalese government), but this turned out to be a misadventure as it was not accepted by either the Tamils or the Sri Lankan government and the force was finally withdrawn in 1989. Rajiv Gandhi realised that despite all the attention to development in the country, much of it did not reach the real beneficiaries. In a famous speech, Rajiv Gandhi said that out of every Rupee spent on the poor, barely 15 paise reaches them! It highlighted the fact that despite huge increases in development expenditure,

the story of the poor remained the same. The fact that most people who had been poor and marginalised including women, dalits and tribals were not getting access to the fruits of development. He also realised that there needed to be a sea change in the way things were being done. Rajiv Gandhi felt that the best way to do this was to ensure the participation of the mass, of people in governance by activating the Panchayati Raj Institutions. However, many State governments, especially, those run by