Rajiv Takes Charge

He gently scattered his slain mother's ashes into the thin Himalayan air from the open hatch of an Indian air force transport plane. Then Rajiv Gandhi, 40, returned to New Delhi last week and boldly took Indira Gandhi's place in the oak-paneled Prime Minister's office. His first official act was to assure his fellow citizens, via nationwide radio and television, that he would honor his mother's democratic, nonaligned policies. Rajiv then confidently called parliamentary elections for Dec. 24. One opposition candidate: Maneka Gandhi, 28, the widow of his younger brother Sanjay. The elections will be held in all states but Assam, where disputes over the voting rights of recent immigrants have erupted, and Punjab, which has been the scene of civil unrest.

Rajiv faces two daunting tasks: to quell the sectarian violence that surfaced most recently when Hindus turned upon Sikhs following Indira Gandhi's assassination, and to restore the integrity of his government, which is riddled with corruption. "Mr. Clean," as Rajiv is known by many supporters, did not waver. Said he: "No quarter will be given to the corrupt, the lazy or the inefficient."