The President of India Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Union Ministers paid homage to Indira Gandhi at Shakti Ghat at Delhi on her 29th death anniversary. On the occasion they all remembered the service she rendered to the Nation.
Indira Gandhi joined Indian National Congress in 1938 and joined the freedom movement. She was arrested and jailed by the British Government in 1942 that lasted for about 8 months.
Indira Gandhi whose comple name was Indira Priyadarshini was born on 19th November 1917 and died on 31st October 1984 due to the assassination by her own security guards. She was daughter of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who was the first Prime Minister of Independent India. Indira Gandhi became India’s third Prime Minister after the death of Lal Bahadur Sashtry in 1966.
She became Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi after marrying Feroz Gandhi in 1942. She had two sons Rajiv and Sanjay Gandhi.
Before that she worked as the member of Central Working Committee, Central Election Committee, Member of Central Parliamentary Board and President of All India Youth Congress. She became Member of Parliament in 1964 after the death of Nehru and till 1966 held the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
She was re-elected in 1971 after her touring in India and campaigning that drew big crowds. She won the elections with a comfortable margin.
Indira Gandhi was called Iron Lady for her instant and daring decisions and reforms. She made reforms like Nationalization of Banks. The Nationalization led to a rise in savings and investments that helped India’s growth rate. She was only one who could take a daring decision to war with Pakistan in 1971 to liberate Bangladesh from Pakistan that was called East Pakistan before that. In spite of it she could maintain good foreign relations.
When her membership was at threat she formed Congress (I) in 1978 and won the Parliament seat in 1978. As the party of Cong (I) got strengthened and the ruling Janata party at that time had fallen due to dissensions, she came to power again in 1979.
Only major wrong step she had taken was declaration of Emergency in 1975 after the rule of High court of Allahabad against her on the charges of violation of the Election Rules. In the period of Emergency her political opponents were jailed and freedom of the people was restricted. It cost her 6 years of keeping distance from the politics. She accepted her mistake after she regained her power in 1979.
She wanted make her younger son Sanjay Gandhi as her successor but he met with an airplane crash. Then she groomed her elder son Rajiv Gandhi who was a pilot and reluctant to come to politics.
Indira Gandhi conducted Operation Blue Star in 1984 to eliminate Bhindarwala a Sikh militant who chose the Golden Temple at Amritsar as his hideout. 450 sikhs were killed in the operation. The attack was revenged by the Sikhs by getting her killed by her own Sikh bodyguards after 5 months of the operation.
In spite of the warnings from the Intelligence she allowed the Sikh bodyguards to remain in the service. Just before her assassination she said in her speech that she would work for the Country till her last drop of blood.
-SriJa
