New Delhi: Indira Gandhi was, undoubtedly, one of the greatest political leaders of India. She was the first and only woman to be elected as the Prime Minister. She is also regarded as the most controversial political leader of the country for her unprecedented decision of imposing “a state of emergency”. She was also criticized for carrying out the Operation Blue-Star in Punjab that eventually scripted her assassination on 31 October 1984.
Indira ‘Priyadarshini’ Gandhi was born on 19 November, 1917, in Allahabad to Kamala and Jawaharlal Nehru. Indira’s father was a well-educated lawyer and an active member of the Indian Independence Movement. Since the Nehru family was the centre of national political activity, Indira Gandhi was exposed to politics when she was a little child. A leader like Mahatma Gandhi was among the frequent visitors of the Nehru house in Allahabad.
In 1959, Indira Gandhi was elected as the President of the Indian National Congress Party. She was one of the political advisors of Jawaharlal Nehru. After the death of Jawaharlal Nehru on 27 May 1964, Indira Gandhi decided to contest elections and eventually elected. She was appointed as the in-charge of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry under Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri
It was believed that Indira Gandhi was an adept at the art of politics and image-making. This is corroborated by an event happened during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. While the war was going, Indira Gandhi went on a holiday trip to Srinagar.
Despite repeated warnings by the security forces that Pakistani insurgents had entered very close to the hotel, she was staying, Gandhi refused to move. The incident fetched her huge national and international media attention.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted; I join my fellow countrymen & women in remembering our former PM Smt. Indira Gandhi on her birth anniversary. My tributes, tweeted Modi, who is on a visit to Fiji.
President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari and top leaders of the Congress on Wednesday paid rich tributes to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on her 97th birth anniversarybut no one from the NDA government was present at the event.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi, party Vice President Rahul Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were among the Congress leaders who paid floral tributes to the departed leader at her memorial Shakti Sthal on the banks of river Yamuna.
Former TNCC president M Krishnaswamy, former MLAs D Yasoda, U Balaraman, Youth Congress president Vijay Ilanchezhian, AICC member K Chiranjeevi were among those who paid floral tributes at the party headquarters “Satyamurthi Bhavan” here. TNCC president EVKS Elangovan and several others paid tributes to Indira at the temple town of Madurai.
Gandhi was born on November 19, 1917 in the politically influential Nehru family. She was the first woman Prime Minister of India.
Bureau Report
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