The Moment that Scarred India - 25 Years After Indira's Assassination


By Tarun Basu

New Delhi, Oct 29 (IANS) It was a moment in time; it shook India and stunned the world. As prime minister Indira Gandhi walked briskly up to the picket gate dividing her home from her office that fateful Wednesday morning 25 years ago, a hail of gunfire from two of her Sikh bodyguards sent her crumpling to the ground in a blood-soaked heap.

Her daughter-in-law Sonia Gandhi, still in her nightdress, ran out to the garden as R.K. Dhawan, Gandhi's additional private secretary and shadow of many years, scrambled to help the 66-year-old leader.

But 31 bullets fired into a frail body gave her little chance. Although she was packed off in an Ambassador car in Sonia Gandhi's lap to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), doctors at the operating theatre knew it was a battle they could not win.

Although a police officer who wheeled her in said she was already dead, officially her death was announced several hours later as the Indian establishment tried to come to terms with losing the woman who had ruled for 15 years in two stints, two years less than her father and first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru's unbroken 17 years.







Gandhi had been on her way to give an interview to British playwright and actor Peter Ustinov, who was waiting with his crew in the garden of neighbouring 1, Akbar Road, for the appointed time of 9.30 a.m. The silence of the morning was broken by the death rattle of bullets that sent flocks of birds scurrying into the sky, its echoes reverberating in Delhi's leafy and tranquil Lutyens' Zone and elsewhere in the days following that Oct 31, 1984.

Beant Singh and Satwant Singh, the two bodyguards, surrendered after emptying their magazines into her. The two were taken away to the guardhouse, where Beant was shot dead by other guards when he tried to escape. Satwant Singh was hanged to death five years later in 1989.

Her death - in apparent reprisal for the Indian Army's assault on the Golden Temple in Amritsar in June 1984 to confront heavily armed Sikh extremists - left a political vacuum in the capital. Elder son Rajiv Gandhi, her presumptive successor, was away in Kolkata. So was Pranab Mukherjee, No. 2 man in the cabinet even then. President Zail Singh was away on a visit to Yemen. They all tried to rush back to the capital to deal with a situation for which no one was prepared.

Rajiv Gandhi was persuaded, first by cousin and political aide Arun Nehru and then by Zail Singh, to step into the void and was sworn in as India's prime minister that evening. But by that time violence had already broken around AIIMS and there were reports of Sikhs being targeted in retaliation as extremist Sikh groups abroad hailed her killing.

Gandhi's body was brought in a gun carriage through deserted roads on the morning of Nov 1 to her father's sprawling Teen Murti Road residence and site of the Nehru Museum. Long queues of supporters and opponents filed past her body, while the world mourned the passing of a leader who was equally revered as she was despised.

Riots had erupted in several parts of the city overnight as organised mobs, alleged to be led by Congress party leaders, picked out Sikhs, assaulted them, snipped their locks, vandalised their property, torched their homes and began an orgy of lynching the like of which had not been witnessed since the division of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan in 1947.






For the next three days, as the country mourned, Delhi burned with the anti-Sikh violence spreading to Kanpur, Meerut and Ramgarh, where the Sikh Regimental Centre was based.

Working class neighbourhoods like Trilokpuri, Tilak Nagar, Seemapuri, that were exemplars of close-knit community living, overnight became monuments to hatred. Entire Sikh neighbourhoods went up in flames, their male members dragged out and burnt alive as vendetta-hungry mobs cheered. Even Sikh homes in affluent south Delhi were targeted and their homes razed. Some were even dragged out of buses and trains as they tried to flee the city.

The madness went unchecked for three days before a shell-shocked and paralysed administration called in the army on the evening of Nov 3. By that time, at least 3,000 Sikhs had been killed, thousands injured and brutalised and a community's collective psyche left so badly scarred that it has not healed even after a generation.

A few days later Rajiv Gandhi, at a massive memorial rally for his slain mother at India Gate, sought to extenuate the violence by saying: "When a big tree falls, the earth shakes."

A quarter century later, Mrs Gandhi's legacy endures.

Her Italian-born daughter-in-law Sonia Gandhi, who now leads the ruling Congress, is often compared to her for her style and tight control over the party.

Indira Gandhi's policy of bank nationalisation, which heralded a state control over the country's fiscal policies and public enterprise, has been hailed as far-sighted and instrumental in preventing Indian banks from going the way of Western banks that collapsed in the wake of last year's economic meltdown.

Her muscular foreign policy, which led to the division of Pakistan and the birth of Bangladesh, is still held out as an example of Indian hard power that critics say has been a tough act to follow by successive governments.



The guardhouse from where prime minister Indira Gandhi's Sikh bodyguards sprang out to empty 31 bullets into her. The sheet of plain glass marks the spot where she crumpled to the ground.



The guardhouse from where prime minister Indira Gandhi's Sikh bodyguards sprang out to empty 31 bullets into her. The sheet of plain glass marks the spot where she crumpled to the ground.


But, as her critics say, the imposition of emergency in June 1975 blotted her democratic credentials. Though she lifted emergency 19 months later and called for elections, which she lost, her image took a heavy beating and she never really recovered.

She returned to power in 1980. And, after younger son Sanjay Gandhi's death in an aircrash in June that year, she became a pale shadow of her former self.

She briefly basked in her reputation as a global statesperson when her government hosted both the Non- Aligned Movement Summit and the Commonwealth Summit in 1983. The following years, she bungled badly when she ordered the army into the Vatican of the Sikhs -- and paid with her life four months later.

  

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Comment on this article

  • Janice Taylor, Cardross/Scotland

    Sat, Sep 18 2010

    I remember all those years ago working in a shop in Sharjah Square in the U.A.E. and Indira Ghandi had a State Visit just before she was assassinated and her motorcade passed by me, she waved and as I was the only person standing there I felt truly blessed and I've never forgotten that day. God bless her.

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  • Janice Taylor, Cardross/Scotland

    Sat, Sep 18 2010

    I remember all those years ago working in a shop in Sharjah Square in the U.A.E. and Indira Ghandi had a State Visit just before she was assassinated and her motorcade passed by me, she waved and as I was the only person standing there I felt truly blessed and I've never forgotten that day. God bless her.

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  • Balakrishna Shetty, Yellur, Udupi/Dubai

    Sat, Oct 31 2009

    I missed her during the serial Bombay bombings. All knew that the abeters were in Dubai. She would have sent a squadron of Airforce fighters and a naval ship to Dubai and tell the people in Dubai that 'look these are Indians and are dangerous to your country. We came to pick them up'. But our leaders lacked that guts. Yes things did go wrong during emmergency especially in the forced family planning. But the discipline maintained by the government machineries at that time by the government machinries, as well as general people, it looks like if the Emmergency was to continue for 10 years, discipline would have been an in built thing in us and the corruption we see today would have been far lesser.

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  • Doreen Machado, Mangalore/ Sharjah

    Fri, Oct 30 2009

    Mrs.Indira Gandhi a staunch leader, an iron lady, an icon, a true heroic woman of India. She will always be my hero.

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  • asmath kocchabettu, UAE, Kocchabettu

    Fri, Oct 30 2009

    You are really "DESH KI AMMA" in Dubai all UAE nationnel know you as "NELSON MANDELA" of India. I hope United Nation will launch your names award in near future as INDIRA GHANDI PEACE AWARD"

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  • Nithin Poojary, Mangalore/UK

    Fri, Oct 30 2009

    Today in this recession if Indian Banks are safe that is because of Indira Gandhi.

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  • Borewell Puttaka Laxminagar, uppinangady

    Fri, Oct 30 2009

    very rare pictures.world leader Mrs.Indira gandhi still leaving in our heart.great remembrances.a real spirtual leader of india.we cannot see before or after such a ruler.long live indira.

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  • Rolphy Almeida, Kalmady/Bangalore

    Fri, Oct 30 2009

    Whatever she earned during her rule till 1975 June is lost in one wrong move of declaring emergency. During emergency some industrialists have taken full advantage by depriving poor labourers from their rightful earnings in the name of development. Her son Sanjay acted like goon in UP. I totally opposed Congress government till Rajeev Ghandi came to power. She may be a good lady but a bad decision maker she survived the power in the absence of electronic media, mind you.

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  • STALIN MISQUITH, MANGALORE/BAHRAIN

    Fri, Oct 30 2009

    MRS. GANDHI LIVED AND DIED FOR INDIA, MOST BRAVEST POLITICIAN IN THE WORLD.

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  • Ravi Hemmady, MUSCAT-OMAN

    Thu, Oct 29 2009

    I am proud to be Indian because I born in a country, where greatest political leader like Mrs Indira Gandhi born. India and the world missed her lot.It is very difficult get such a great leader.

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  • shahnawaz kukkikatte, dubai/udupi

    Thu, Oct 29 2009

    Indira was wa good and tough leader. She has left lot of legacies for her party and followers. Unfortunately no one in congress or country is following it. But these qualities are in her grand daughter Priyanka. I am sure the days ahead shall vouch for my statement. Ever since her murder till now there is a unfilled vacuum in our political system.

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  • simon M A, Mangalore

    Thu, Oct 29 2009

    Our Heavenly priministar Indiraji was India's destiny.India grown up in the hands of Indiraji almost 15 years.Like bank nationalisaion, she took strong action in the feild of Idia's development and people must know about her life history and thannks daiji for revealing this in to the people.once again thanks.

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  • Philip D'Souza, Kumta, Karanata

    Thu, Oct 29 2009

    Dr. Haneef,Mr. arif, Mr. dhara,Mr.MSMAIL Mr. Abdul rahman abd Mr. Kiran I do agree with you all, we have not seen such a iron leader, like Late Indira. Our politicians have to learn lot of things like Late Indira particularly the female politicians. Our female politicans raise hand agaist male politicians and their speechs are like hijras. Somehow, they have to learn from Ms. Sonia....

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  • arif bava, kaup/abudhabi

    Thu, Oct 29 2009

    "INDIRA GANDHI (AMMA) HAMAR RAHE", you are the true leader our nation, I hope your daughter-in-law Sonia Gandhi will be in your footstep (PM) one fine day. all the best sonia

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  • Shridhara Achar, Puttur/Bangalore

    Thu, Oct 29 2009

    Here was a lady who as the Prime Minister of biggest democracy in the world, showed her administrative skill with iron-hand for 15 years. Thats why Indira Gandhi was described as the only `man' in her cabinet of ministers. Nationalisation of major banks though criticised by some of her senior colleagues including Morarji Desai, has proved to be the right decision even after 40 years. Her government`s fiscal policies in which Reserve Bank regulations on commercial banks though strict, saved the very same banks during the recent recession period. Only blot in her almost blemishless administration is declaration of emergency.

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  • ISMAIL K PERINJE, PERINJE/YANBU-KSA

    Thu, Oct 29 2009

    Late Mrs Indira Gandhi was IRON LADY OF INDIA.Nobody will replace her in the history of India in near future.In Saudi Arabia Arabs/Saudi femiliar with her name and fame!She was # 1 and will remain # in future also

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  • Dr. Haneef Shabab, Bhatkal

    Thu, Oct 29 2009

    Although she met a tragic and unwarranted end, but there is no that she was really an Iron Lady of India. Her grace and strong will power made her a great leader of great nation. And she proved her capability.

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  • abdul rahman sulaiman, riyadh/euromarche

    Thu, Oct 29 2009

    ***we miss you mam still you are required for india to make mera bhaarat mahaan***you were a great politician which india  has seen. ***indira ghandi amar rahe***

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  • Shankar Shetty, Kuwait

    Thu, Oct 29 2009

    While it is beyond doubt that Indira Gandhi did not adhere totally to democratic principles, she was a very tough & internationally respected leader. She would have dealt with a constantly meddling China in far more robust way unlike our current crop of leaders, who are perpetually demonstrating kind of fear which China exploits to the tilt.

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  • Kiran, Mangalore/Dubai

    Thu, Oct 29 2009

    India will not see a leader of her stature again

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  • Thomas Dsouza, Gorigudda/Israel

    Thu, Oct 29 2009

    We lost our prime Minister Indira Gandhi 25 years ago.we really miss her.Thanks daiji for this more valuble article.

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  • siddarth, mangalore

    Thu, Oct 29 2009

    thanks tarun . nice article

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Title: The Moment that Scarred India - 25 Years After Indira's Assassination



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