Thursday, October 28, 2010

Mrs.Indira Gandhi

Mrs Indira Gandhi was the first lady Prime Minister of India.She was dynamic leade.She was intelligent and brave. Mrs. Ganhi was born on November 19,1917at Allahabad.She was the only daughter of Jawharlal Nehru.She got her education in Swetzerland ,Oxford and also at Vishwabharti.Mrs.Gandhi was married to Firoz Gandhi in 1941.She had two sons Rajiv and Sanjay.Mrs. Gandhi worked hard to make India properous country.But she was assassinated on 31st October 1984 by her own security Guards.She was a lover of peace and freedom.She is the formidable icon of women empower.Her extraordinary political skills and tencity weakened her foes too their knees.Her charm ,intelligence and charisma made her a powerful statesperson,much loved and admired by her people.
    She was greatly adored by her parents and her grandfather Motilal Nehru,who was famous lawyer and public figure in his own right.Her father had joined the freedom struggle so little Indira or Priyadarshinias she was lovingly called was exposed to politics from the age of 3-4years.Her house was the centre of political activity ,as all important leaders stayed there while visiting Allhabad.Mahatma Gandhi was a frequent visitor to her house and she was greatly affected by his thinking.A visit to the Sabarmati Ashram left indelible mark on her psyche.
     After passing her matriculation exams from Pune University,she was sent to Rabindranath Tagore at Shantiniketan.Here ,she was made to lead a strict and highly disciplned life.From here she went on to study in Switzerland and then to Oxford University in London.After her return to India When Indira's father was in jail,he used to write beautiful,long letters to her about India's legecy and the current political situation.This led her to understand the intricacies of the nation,better than the most.In 1942,she joined the 'Quit India'Movement and was jailed.After India gained freedom,Pandit Nehru was  elected the PM.After his death in 1964,Lal Bahadur Shastri took over.Finally,in 1966,Indira Gandhi was elected the leader of the Congress.But this was not to easy.The nummerous contenders for the position of PM were unable to agree among themselves about the post.They picked Indira Gandhi as a compromise candidate,and each thought that she would be easily manipulable.But she showed extraordinary political skills and elbowed the Congress bigwigs - Kamraj,Morarji Desai,and others-out of power.She held the office of the PM from 1966to1977(the tenure).She was riding the crest of popularity after India's triumph in the war of 1971 aganist Pakistan,and the nuclear explosions in 1974,helped to enhence her reputation among middle-class Indians as a tough and shrewd political leader.However by 1973,Delhi and North India were rocked by the demonstrations angry at high inflation the poor state of the economy rampant corruption and the poor standers of living.In June 1975,the High Court of Allahabad found her guilty of using illegal practices during the last election campaign and ordered her to vacate her seat.There were demands for her resignation.Indira Gandhi's response was to declare a state of Emergency.Under this her political foes were imprisoned constitutional rights abrogated and the press was placed under strict censorship.Meanwhile the younger of her two sons Sanjay Gandhi earned the fierce hatred of many whom his policies had victimized.He ordered the removal of slum dwellings and in an attempt to curb India's growing population he initiated a highly resented programme of forced sterilization.In early 1977 confident that she had strengthened her position Indira Gandhi called for fresh elections and found herself trounced by a newly formed coalition of several political parties.Her party lost the polls.Many declared that she was a spent force.But three years later she returned back to power.
     In the second post-emergency period of her premiership she was pre-occupied by efforts to resolve the political problems in Punjab.In her attempet to crash the secessionist movement of Sikh militants led by Jarnail Singh Binderwale she ordered an assault upon the holiest Sikh shrine in Amritsar the Golden Temple.Operation Bluestar waged in June 1984 led to the death of Binderwale and the Golden Temple was stripped clean of militants.The fallout of this operation was that Indira Gandhi earned the hatred of Sikhs who bitterly resented the sacrilezation at her residence by two of her own Sikh body guards who wrongly claimed to be avenging the insult heaped upon their community.She will be remembered for her commendable efforts in the development and progress of science space exploration irrigation as well as policies like nationalisation of banks and 20-point programme.

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