INDIRA GANDHI

POLITICIAN AND FORMER PRIME MINISTER OF INDIA

• NAME: Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi
• DATE OF BIRTH: November 19, 1917
• PLACE OF BIRTH: Allahbad, India
• DATE OF DEATH: October 31, 1984
• CAUSE OF DEATH: Assassination
• PARENTS: Father- Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru; Mother- Kamala Nehru
• SPOUSE: Feroze Gandhi (1942-1960)
• CHILDREN: Sanjay Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi
• EDUCATION:^[1]   Schools: Modern School, Delhi

                                        St. Cecelia’s Public School, Delhi

                                       St. Mary’s Christian Convent School, Allahabad

                                        International School of Geneva

                                       Pupils’ Own School in Poona and Bombay

• OCCUPATION: Politician
• POLITICAL PARTIES:  Indian National Congress

• POSITIONS HELD:

1. Chairperson, National Integration Council of A.I.C.C (1956)
2. Member for Central Parliamentary Board of Congress (1958)
3. Congress Party President (1959)
4. First Female Prime Minister (1966-77), (1980-84)
5. Member of Rajya Sabha (1964)
6. Minister of Information and Broadcasting (1964)
7. Member of Lok Sabha (1967)
8. Minister of Finance (1969)
9. Minister of Home Affairs (1970)
10. Minister of Defence (1980)
11. Minister of External Affairs (1984)
12. Chairperson- Planning Commission

• AWARDS:
  • 1. Bharat Ratna (1970)
    2. Bangladesh Freedom Honour (2011)
    3. Mexican Academy Award for Liberation of Bangladesh (1972)
    4. 2nd Annual Medal, FAO (1973)
    5. Sahitya Vachaspati (Hindi) by Nagari Pracharini Sabha (1976)
    6. Mothers’ Award, U.S.A. (1953)
    7. Yale University’s Howland Memorial Prize
    8. Isabella d’Este Award for outstanding work in diplomacy (Italy)
• TITLES:
  1. Titled ‘Woman of the Millennium’ in 1999
  2. Time Magazine ‘Top 100 Women who defined the Last century’ in 2020
  3. 1967-68 “The woman most admired by the French” according to a poll by the French Institute of Public Opinion
  4. 1971- “The most admired person in the world” according to the Gallup Poll Survey (USA)
• BOOKS:

1. Indira Gandhi: A Biography by Pupul Jaykar (1988)
2. Indira Gandhi: Return of the Red Rose (1966); That Woman: Her seven years of power (1973); Indira Gandhi: The Last Post (1985) by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas
3. Indira: The life of Indira Nehru Gandhi by Katherine Frank (2001)
4. Indira Gandhi: Tryst with power by Nayantara Sahgal (1982)
5. Mrs. Gandhi by Dom Moraes (1980)

• PUBLICATIONS:

1. ‘The Years of Challenge’ (1966-69)
2. ‘The Years of Endeavour’ (1969-72)
3. ‘India’ (London) in 1975
4. ‘Inde’ (Lausanne) in 1979

• POSTHUMUS HONORS^[2] :

1. The southernmost Indira Point (6.74678°N 93.84260°E) is named after Gandhi.
2. The Indira Awaas Yojana, a central government low-cost housing programme for the rural poor, was named after her.
3. The international airport at New Delhi is named Indira Gandhi International Airport in her honour.
4. The Indira Gandhi National Open University, the largest university in the world, is also named after her.
5. Indian National Congress established the annual Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration in 1985, given in her memory on her death anniversary.
6. The Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust also constituted the annual Indira Gandhi Prize.

Indira Gandhi, commonly known as the ‘Iron Lady of India’ was the third Prime Minister of India and the first and only woman Prime Minister to ever lead India. She was the only daughter of the legend Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Gandhi was the key figure of Indian National Congress and she served the longest term as a Prime Minister after her own father until her assassination on 31 October, 1984.

LEGAL BACKGROUND:

CONVICTION FOR ELECTION FRAUD

Indira Gandhi had won the 1972 elections successfully, but she was convicted by the Allahabad High Court in 1975 for alleged election fraud in those elections. She was convicted of a minor election infringement and banned from politics for a time span of six years.

She was found guilty of dishonest election practices, using Government funds for purposes of her political party and excessive election expenditure. The allegations had been raised by the Socialist Party which led to a national scandal.

She appealed against the above decision in the Supreme Court but the decision of the HC was upheld.

STATE OF EMERGENCY (1975-77)

After the Allahabad High Court verdict, Indira Gandhi recommended the then President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed to declare an emergency throughout India under Article 352(1) of the Constitution. Thoughout the 21-month emergency, she curbed fundamental freedoms of all the citizens of India and imprisoned hundreds of political opponents without due process of law. Not only were the civil liberties of the citizens curtailed, the press was also severely censored. Her authoritarian tendencies also lost her the upcoming elections of 1977.

During the state of emergency, she also conducted forced sterilization of poor people to curb the spurt in population growth of the country.

IMPRISONMENT FOR CORRUPTION

After her defeat in the 1977, Indira and her son, Sanjay were arrested on charges of corruption which led to her direct expulsion from the Parliament. She was arrested on the allegation that she had planned to kill various prominent Opposition leaders in jail during the Emergency period.

Her arrest led to the hijacking of an Indian Airlines jet by her supporters to force her release, which completely backfired. But her arrest and trial gained her immense sympathy and she came into power again in 1980 until her assassination in 1984.

OPERATION BLUE-STAR

During 1983, the Golden Temple had become a refuge for a large number of militants and light machine guns alongwith rifles had been brought into the compound of the temple. In April, 1983 a deputy inspector general was shot in the compound and it was confirmed that the murder involved Bhindranwale.

In June 1984, Gandhi ordered the Indian Army to enter the Golden Temple in order to remove Bhindranwale and his supporters from the Temple. This operation not only led to death of innocent Sikh fighters and pilgrims but also severe damage was caused to the Temple and the Akal Takht Shrine.

Gandhi was accused to have ordered the attack for political gain.

ASSASSINATION

The Operation Blue Star was a trigger for many Sikh patriots across the country and even abroad. On 31 October, 1984 Gandhi was shot by two of her own Sikh bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh in the garden at her residence in Safdarjung Road, New Delhi.

She was brought to AIIMS, Delhi soon after where she died later that day.

Beant Singh was shot the same day in an enclosed room while Satwant Singh was hanged to death alongwith his co-conspirator.

Her death and cremation was followed by anti-Sikh riots throughout the country where millions of Sikhs were displaced and around 3,000 were killed.

Research By -Diksha Mehta

1. Retrieved from https://starsunfolded.com/indira-gandhi/. ↑

2. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indira_Gandhi. ↑