Indira Gandhi: The iron-willed stateswoman

The former prime minister Indira Gandhi was known to be a person who was fiercely ruthless in her policies, and in terms of centralization of power. May be that kind of attitude was necessary when she took charge of the Congress party and changed the party symbol from 'Cow and Calf' to hand. Many old timers used to say that the hand symbolised her nature and true to their belief she proved to be a lady with iron hand.

Her surname 'Gandhi' has nothing to do with the lineage of Mahatma Gandhi. Her original name was Indira Priyadarshini Nehru. She got her orientation in politics right from her young age as daughter of the first prime minister of India Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru. It is a different issue that her family was closely associated with the father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi. She was married to Feroze Gandhi, a native of Bharuch in South Gujarat.

She was a lady who faced many a storm during her office for three separate terms between 1967 and 1971, then 1971 and 1977 and finally between 1980 and 1984 when she fell to the bullets pumped in by her own security guard in her official residence. She so far is the longest serving prime minister of the country and only female prime minister who had taken on many senior stalwarts in her party and withered all storms. She was known to be a sharp woman with clear thoughts and vision. Her body language, her style of wearing sarees, her walking style, her oratory skills were par excellent.

Incidentally, she was one of the most controversial figures in Indian politics. Her ruthlessness in handling political situations was evident when she proclaimed emergency in 1975 and the way she went in for 'Operation Blue Star. It is said that her assassination was the aftermath of operation blue star.

But as prime minister, she would be remembered as a person who had immensely contributed for the growth of the country. She had clear understanding of domestic and foreign policies. It was during her regime the country saw green revolution. In a path breaking decision, she nationalised 14 private sector banks. She is credited for countries victory when it was attacked by Pakistan in 1971 and liberation of Bangladesh. Another important decision was to end privy purse given to royalty since 1947.

When she took over as prime minister, the relationship between US and India was not so good. Her visit to US two months after coming to power and meeting President Lyndon Johnson helped in improving the relations between the two countries and US came to the aid of India in meeting the food shortage. But the decisions taken later by President Johnson and India's refusal to support it during Vietnam war led to some deterioration in relations and food imports declined.

Indira Gandhi turned the crisis into opportunity by adopting Norman Borlaug green revolution ideology. Use of high yielding variety seeds, pesticides and fertilizers, and the adoption of modern technology such as tractors and irrigation facilities was promoted. The credit of success equally goes to the agricultural scientist M S Swaminathan.

With a stroke of pen, 14 major commercial private banks- which controlled 70% of the country's deposits- was transferred to the Central government. Private banks were known to cater to large industries ignoring the common man and agriculture sector.

When Pakistan attacked East Pakistan and about 10 million refugees came to India in 1971, she decided to go in for war with Pakistan and the Indian armed forces (all three services) displayed their supremacy and Pakistan had no option but to surrender Bangladesh after 13 days of war.

Following the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war and the liberation of Bangladesh, an agreement was signed between India and Pakistan at Shimla which paved way for diplomatic recognition of Bangladesh by Pakistan.

Indira Gandhi proposed the 26th Amendment in which Privy Purse given to royalty; all payments and privileges coming with it were abolished. Privy Purse was a payment given to the royal families of erstwhile princely states as part of their agreement to integrate with India in 1947, and later merge with the states in 1949 thereby losing all their ruling rights. The credit of testing India's first nuclear bomb also goes to Indira Gandhi. It was tested on My 18 1974 just two years after Indira Gandhi conceived the idea. It was named as Operation Buddha. It was during her regime that India had sent Rakesh Sharma into space aboard a Soviet spaceship Soyuz T-11

Operation Blue Star was the biggest internal security mission ever undertaken by the Indian Army, in 1984. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered the military operation Sikh Militants from the Harmandir Sahab, or the Golden temple located in Amritsar, Punjab between June 1st and June 8th of 1984. This received lot of backlash as according to official records about 83 soldiers of the Indian army, and 493 civilians died in the operation.

Her strong presence in the international scenario helped establish India's position as an emerging global superpower. She was called by many as the 'Iron Lady of India. After the victory of Indo-Pak war in 1971 Atal Behari Vajpayee called her as Goddess Durga.

Declaring emergency was one of the most wrong decisions she had taken. With a stroke of pen all civil liberties and freedom of press and media was snatched away and all opposition leaders and top journalists who questioned her decisions were put behind bars. Nevertheless, she leaves behind a legacy as one of India's greatest Prime Minister.