Iron lady Indira Gandhi, Symbol of development and champion of foreign policy, creator of Bangladesh

RASHID AZAM INQLABI
Smt. Indira Gandhi on many occasion described herself as Beti of Kashmir , she has great love for Autumn season of Kashmir , she spent at least two or three days in Harwan Kashmir in the month of November- December every year, when the leaf of Chinar turn golden. She meets with the people of Kashmir with open heart even with the tribal’s of Kashmir. She sanctioned a special package of grants for development of Gujjar and Bakerwal and Gojri Language of Jammu and Kashmir.

On the instruction of Smt. Indira Gandhi, Gujjar Bakerwal sub-plan formulated in Jammu and Kashmir.
I got a chance to share the dice with Smt. Indira Gandhi at Nowshera when I was student of 11th class in late seventies. Smt. Indira Gandhi took the hectic tour of Poonch and Rajouri to regenerate the energy among the Congress grass root worker throughout India and also covered the Poonch and Rajouri in this respect.
Smt. Indira Gandhi was India’s third prime minister and the only women prime minister of India till date. She is considered by many to be the strongest Prime Minister India has ever seen. She supported the Bangladesh movement and East Pakistan emerge as independent country, India became the first nation who have given the recognize to Bangladesh as sovereign country. Indira Gandhi belonged to the Indian National Congress and was elected as the PM for the first time in 1966 after Lal Bahadur Shastri died in office.
Born on November 19, 1917 in a Pandit family, Smt. Indira Gandhi was the daughter of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru. She studied at prime institutions like Ecole Nouvelle, Bex (Switzerland), Ecole International, Geneva, Pupils’ Own School, Puna and Bombay, Badminton School, Bristol, Vishwa Bharati, Shantiniketan and Somerville College, Oxford. She was conferred Honorary doctoral degree by a host of Universities globally. With an impressive academic background she also got the Citation of Distinction from the Columbia University.
Smt. Indira Gandhi was actively involved in the freedom struggle. In her childhood, she founded the ‘Bal Charkha Sangh’ and in 1930, the ‘Vanar Sena’ of children to help the Congress party during the Non-Cooperation Movement. She was imprisoned in September 1942, and worked in riot-affected areas of Delhi in 1947 under Gandhi’s guidance.
She got married to Feroz Gandhi on March 26, 1942 and had two sons. Namely Sanjay Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. Smt Gandhi is grandmother of veteran Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
Political Career
Smt. Gandhi became a Member, of Congress Working Committee and Central Election of the party in 1955. In 1958 she was appointed as a Member for Central Parliamentary Board of Congress. She was the Chairperson, National Integration Council of AICC and President, All India Youth Congress, 1956 and Women’s Dept. A.I.C.C. She became the President, Indian National Congress in 1959 and served till 1960 and then again from January 1978.
She had been Minister for Information and Broadcasting (1964- 1966). Then she held the highest office as the Prime Minister of India from January 1966 to March 1977. She was remain the Minister for Atomic Energy from September 1967 to March 1977. She also held the additional charge of the Ministry of External Affairs from September 5, 1967 to February 14, 1969. Smt. Indira Gandhi headed the Ministry of Home Affairs from June 1970 to November 1973 and Minister for Space from June 1972 to March 1977. From January 1980 she was Chairperson, Planning Commission. She again chaired the prime Minister’s Office from January 14, 1980.
Smt. Indira Gandhi also became a Member of Rajya Sabha in August 1964 and served till February 1967. She was the Member of Lok Sabha during fourth, fifth and sixth sessions. She was elected to the Seventh Lok Sabha from Rae Bareli (U.P.) and Medak (Andhra Pradesh) in January 1980. She chose to retain the Medak seat and relinquished the Rae Bareli seat. She was chosen as the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party in 1967-77 and again in January 1980.
SOCIAL ACTIVITIES
Smt. Indira Gandhi was associated with a large number of organisations and institutions, like Kamala Nehru Memorial Hospital, Gandhi Smarak Nidhi and Kasturba Gandhi Memorial Trust. She was the Chairperson of Swaraj Bhavan Trust. She was also associated with Bal Sahyog, Bal Bhavan Board and Children’s National Museum in 1955. Smt. Gandhi founded the Kamala Nehru Vidyalaya in Allahabad. She was also associated with certain big institutions like Jawaharlal Nehru University and North-Eastern University during 1966-77. She also served as a Member of Delhi University Court, Indian Delegation to UNESCO (1960-64), Member, Executive Board of UNESCO from 1960-64 and Member, National Defence Council, 1962. She was also associated with Sangeet Natak Academy, National Integration Council, Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library Society and Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund. Interested in a wide array of subjects, she viewed life as an integrated process, where activities and interests are different facets of the whole, not separated into compartments or labelled under different heads.
Awards
She had many achievements to her credit. She was the recipient of Bharat Ratna in 1972, Mexican Academy Award for Liberation of Bangladesh (1972), 2nd Annual Medal, FAO (1973) and Sahitya Vachaspati (Hindi) by Nagari Pracharini Sabha in 1976. Smt. Gandhi also received Mothers’ Award, U.S.A. in 1953, Islbella d’Este Award of Italy for outstanding work in diplomacy and Yale University’s Howland Memorial Prize. For two consecutive years in 1967 and 1968 she was the woman most admired by the French according to a poll by the Parliamentary elections were held later in 1977, congress party were soundly defeated, whereupon she left office. The Janata Party took over the reins of government, with newly recruited member Desai as prime minister.
In early 1978 Gandhi and her supporters completed the split from the Congress Party by forming the Congress (I) Party-the “I” signifying Indira. She was briefly imprisoned (October 1977 and December 1978) . Despite those setbacks, she won a new seat in the Lok Sabha in November 1978 from Chikmagalur Lok Sabha in by election, and her Congress (I) Party began to gather strength. Dissension within the ruling Janata Party led to the fall of its government in August 1979. When new elections for the Lok Sabha were held in January 1980. Congress (I) swept back into power in a landslide victory. Sanjay Gandhi, who had become her chief political adviser, also won a seat in the Lok Sabha. Sanjay Gandhi’s death in an airplane crash in June 1980 , badly affected the Indira Gandhi, After the death of Sanjay Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, became the leader of congress party. She adhered to the quasi-socialist policies of industrial development begun by her father. In addition, she established closer relations with the Soviet Union which she depended on for support in India’s long-standing conflict with Pakistan.
One day Before the assassination On October 31, 1984, Smt. Indira Gandhi while addressing the huge Gathering said that her last drop of Blood is for the unity of India.
The best way to pay the homage to Smt. Indira Gandhi is to work for the unity and development of the rural India which include the down trodden people from all walk of life.
(The author is former Dy. Commissioner Ramban)