Indians know that the Prime Minister of India is the most powerful and important person in India. Prime Ministers have a very important job-they deal with the task of governing this vast country. In a country where there is a huge population and a lot of politics, the job of the Prime Minister is extremely important, and it can be dangerous as well, sometimes. The Prime Minister can make mistakes, and this can lead to people criticizing, threatening and even assassinating the Prime Minister, like in the case of Mrs. Indira Gandhi. So, in this case, the safety of the Prime Minister when he or she is travelling, is extremely important, so, the car that the Prime Minister uses to travel is also important. It is not that the cars that the Prime Minister used were always safe, but then it slowly got safer. Every Prime Minister that this country has seen has had a different approach towards cars. Some made peace with what they got, that is, the HM Ambassador (which I am not going to mention because it is quite a commonly used standard Government car), some had a taste for cars and some left it to the experts to decide and innovate. I am going to write about some cars that the Prime Ministers of India that were not the HM Ambassador and that might surprise you.
You know that Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Prime Minister of India. What you do not know, is that he used a Rolls Royce Silver Wraith! Queen Elizabeth had gifted this car to Lord Mountbatten, the last viceroy of India, and then it was given to Mr. Nehru post-independence. This car was awesome. It had a straight-six, and do I have to repeat that again? It was a Rolls-Royce!
Next up, Mr. Rajiv Gandhi. Mr. Rajiv Gandhi was a true car enthusiast. Mr. Rajiv Gandhi was one of those people who came up with the idea of bringing a modern, affordable and reliable car to the common man of India. You guessed it! He was one of those people who were responsible for bringing the Maruti Suzuki brand, the 800 and all the other cars into existence. When he became the Prime Minister of India, he continued to use the humble Maruti Esteem and ditched the old Ambassador.
That does not mean he did not change. He was a car enthusiast, after all! He switched to a Range Rover Vogue that he received as a gift from the King of Jordan. He also used a Mercedes 500 SEL. And there were many more fast cars in his garage!
After a while later, in the 90s, people in the Government got a bit more serious about the safety and security of the cars in which the Prime Minister travelled, because of the assassinations of two Prime Ministers. Armored vehicles became the norm for the Prime Ministers.
For the last pick, the current Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi, uses a Range Rover Sport. This thing is an off-road luxury beast for the road. It has a 5.0-liter V8 under the hood. The all-wheel-drive system of the Range Rover might help Modi-ji , incase he decides to go off-road.
So, this proves that the Prime Ministers of India, at least some of them, love cars and use some awesome rides. Thank you for reading my blog!!!
