In 1985, the Supreme Court upheld the right to alimony of a Muslim woman in the infamous Shah Bano case. However, the Rajiv Gandhi government overturned the judgment with a new law in1986.
While the Election Commission of that time should have cancelled the polling just on the Amethi seat from where Rajiv Gandhi was contesting, the ECI under TN Sheshan postponed the elections across the country flouting the rules. Thus, giving ample time to the Congress party to benefit from the sympathy wave across the country.
A report in the Economic and Political Weekly stated that Pitroda readily admits that he has little understanding of Indian society and is not even a serious student of the social and political forces at play in India