Indira Gandhi served as her father’s personal assistant and hostess during his tenure as Prime Minister between 1947 and 1964
Indira Priyadarshani Gandhi born on 19 November 1917, amongst one of the Indias strongest family of Nehru went on slating her name in shaping Counties destiny. Indira Gandhi a Kashmiri Pandit born in Allahabad (now Prayagraj) in Uttar Pradesh. India until now got the only female prime minister in the label of Indira Gandhi. The longest Prime Minister after her father the first Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru.
Upon her father’s death in 1964 she was appointed as a member of the Rajya Sabha (upper house) and became a member of Lal Bahadur Shastri’s cabinet as Minister of Information and Broadcasting.
In her tenure as a Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi created history in all means. She strongly holds on the unprecedented centre Delhi. Gandhi declares war against Pakistan, supporting East Pakistan to gain freedom to form a new country Bangladesh. It rooted as India’s influence to the point where it became the regional hegemon of South Asia.
On 19 July 1969, by means of an Ordinance, the Indira-led Congress government nationalised 14 commercial banks of the country. According to reports, the 14 banks controlled 70% of the country’s deposits, which then directly came under the control of the central government.
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Gandhi conducted India’s first nuclear test Pokhran I in 1974. The first test code named ‘Smiling Buddha’, was called a “peaceful nuclear explosion” to pacify western powers and avoid the threat of attracting sanctions from them.
Gandhi calls for a state emergency from 1975 to 1977 where basic civil liberties were suspended and the press was censored. Widespread atrocities were carried out during the emergency.
In 1980, she returned to power after free and fair elections. After Gandhi ordered military action in the Golden Temple in Operation Blue Star, she was assassinated by her own bodyguards and Sikh nationalists on 31 October 1984. The assailants had fired 31 bullets at her, of which 30 had hit, 23 had passed through her body while 7 were trapped inside her.
Indira Gandhi was termed ‘goddess’ by several political leaders. BJP veteran and former Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in particular, described her as the all-powerful “Goddess Durga” in one of his interviews.
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