Amitabh Srivastava
At a time when communal rhetoric and attempts to polarise India’s population is at its peak it’s time to remember Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi the Iron Lady of India born on November 19,1917.
The most powerful woman of the world during her time had the second largest tenure as Prime Minister (three terne and 350 days) in India before her assassination.
But most of the new generation may not be aware that she had also served as Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Foreign Affairs, Defence Minister,Home Minister and Defence Minister under various Prime Ministers.
This should be a rebuttal to the false narrative being spread of Nehru/Gandhi Dynasty always grabbing the top post of the country in the last 60 years..
In fact when she became the the PM for the first time in 1967 she was controlled and manipulated by a group of leaders of her own party known as the Syndicate.
But in an unexpected move she broke through the chains by breaking her own party into two and carrying the masses with her by her bold revolutionary steps.
She proved that she knew the pulse of the people by announcing popular steps like Nationalisation of banks and withdrawing the privy purses of the remnants of the British Raj, the Kings and Maharajas.
The biggest blot of her career, the Emergency imposed in 1975 was also undone by her when she ordered elections in India even though some of her close supporters including Sanjay Gandhi and VC Shukla were against this step.
The Congress lost the election and Indira Gandhi was also sent to jail. However the misrule and incompetence of the regime of Morarji Desai brought her back to power in the next elections.
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi was the epitome of woman power as she divided Pakistan into two during the 1971 war with a well-planned and executed strategy in full collaboration with the First and only Field Marshal of the country Sam Bahadur Manekshaw who was on first name terms with the Prime Minister (accused of being a dynastic leader by the saffron brigade by the saffron brigade).
It was the same people led by Atal Behari Vajpayee who had hailed her as Durga during the fight with Pakistan.
In sharp contrast with the current practice of calling for a ‘Congress mukt Bharat’ Indira Gandhi took opposition leaders like Atal Behari Vajpayee into confidence.
That is the reason that she dared to have her own way even when the US threatened to send the Seventh Fleet to deter India from dividing Pakistan into two for ever.
She displayed the same grit when she sent the Army to the Golden Temple on June 6,1984 to flush out terrorists led by Sant Bhindrawale who were storing arms and ammunition in a place of worship.
The action of the Army enraged the Sikh leaders in Akal Takht and the Intelligence warned her not to keep Sikh policemen in her security.
But Indira Gandhi would have none of it. She could not compromise with the secular credentials she had inherited from her father Jawaharlal Nehru for her personal safety.
She was brutally assassinated by two of her security personnel on October 31,1984 leaving a grieving Indian National Congress to elect her reluctant son Rajiv Gandhi to be sworn in as Prime Minister in 1984.
India misses it’s Iron Lady today
