Key Highlights
- A lesson from childhood: Rahul Gandhi recalled sitting on Indira Gandhi’s lap and repeating the Shanti Mantra from the Yajur Veda after her.
- “Free as the sky”: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra shared a childhood photo and described her grandmother as a woman of remarkable strength.
- Kharge recalls last speech: The Congress President quoted Indira Gandhi’s final speech, given a day before her death.
- 42 years on: Indira Gandhi was assassinated on October 31, 1984. This year marks her 42nd death anniversary.
- Two legacies, one date: October 31 is also Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s birth anniversary, observed as Rashtriya Ekta Diwas.
Tributes to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi usually focus on what she did in office: the 1971 war, the Green Revolution and the nationalisation of banks. This year, on her 42nd death anniversary, two of the most personal tributes did not talk about policy at all. They talked about a grandmother.
On Saturday, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi shared a childhood photograph with his ‘dadi’ on X. He recalled sitting on her lap while she recited one of the best-known prayers in Indian tradition.
“Sitting on your lap. Holding both your hands. Listening to your voice say these words. Repeating them after you,” he wrote, before sharing the Shanti Mantra from the Yajur Veda: “Asato mā sadgamaya, tamaso mā jyotirgamaya, mṛtyormā amṛtaṃ gamaya. Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.”
The prayer asks to be led from untruth to truth, from darkness to light, and from death to immortality. “What a beautiful gift you gave me, Dadi. What a gift. I never imagined,” Rahul added.
Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also shared a childhood photo with her grandmother. “What a beautiful woman she was! Free as the sky, deep as the ocean, resilient as the Earth and brighter than fire,” she wrote.
The Leader Behind the Memories
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge’s tribute focused more on Indira Gandhi as a public figure. Posting in Hindi, he quoted her last speech, given just a day before her death: “As long as there is breath in me, service will not cease, and when my life departs, then I can say that every drop of blood that is mine, every single drop of blood, will keep one India alive.”
He called her “a symbol of indomitable courage, unwavering resolve and visionary leadership” and said her contribution to the making of modern India would always stay in the country’s national consciousness. “Her courage is our inspiration, and her sacrifice is our indelible memory,” he said.
Born on November 19, 1917, in Allahabad, Indira Gandhi was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru and Kamala Nehru. She served as Prime Minister from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 until 1984, when she was assassinated by two of her own bodyguards at her Delhi residence.
Her years in power left a lasting mark on the country. She led India during the 1971 war that led to the creation of Bangladesh, backed the Green Revolution that pushed the country towards food self-reliance, authorised the 1974 Pokhran nuclear test, nationalised 14 major banks and chaired the Non-Aligned Movement. Her tenure also included the Emergency of 1975–77, which is still one of the most debated chapters in India’s democratic history.
October 31 is also Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s birth anniversary, which has been observed as Rashtriya Ekta Diwas since 2014. So on the same date, India remembers two leaders who are both closely tied to the idea of national unity.
For Rahul and Priyanka, though, the day seems less about history books and more about something simpler: a grandmother’s lap, a whispered prayer and a photograph they still treasure.
(With inputs from IANS)