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Indira Gandhi.
31 October is the martyrdom day of Indira Gandhi (1917-1984).
Indira was more the daughter of the freedom struggle than merely the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru.
Following the untimely demise of Lal Bahadur Shastri, the Congress Syndicate selected Indira to be Prime Minister, expecting her to continue to be the ” goongi gudiya” ( silent doll – an epithet given by Lohiya) .
Indira became the strongest PM ever, and decimated the opposition within the party and outside. Her fame and power were at their peak when she won the 1971 war against Pakistan with General Manekshaw as Army Chief.
With her decision to storm the Golden Temple Amritsar, the holiest place of the Sikhs, to evict the militants led by Bhindranwala, she had signed her own death warrant. Indira was assasinated by her own Sikh guards.
Her Achilles heel was her son Sanjay, who acted like an extra constitutional authority, and the political nadir was the declaration of the Emergency in 1975, when democracy was subverted. All opposition leaders were jailed and political activities were restricted. Indira Gandhi was responsible for the death of inner party democracy in the Congress. The ire of the people became visible when she and her party were decimated in the 1977 elections. But the divided opposition allowed her to make a comeback in 1980.
She had a stormy relationship with her husband Phiroze Gandhi, who died early.
Several biographies have appeared after her death. I recommend the ones written by her close friend Pupul Jayakar, and by her cousin Nayanatara Seghal, which give some rare insights into the life of a magnificent woman.
– Joy Kallivayalil.
