Prez, PM, Pranab, Sonia remember Indira Gandhi on birth centenary

Glowing tributes were paid to the country’s first woman prime minister Indira Gandhi on her birth centenary on Sunday with President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi leading the remembrances.

Describing Indira as ‘one of the greatest’ prime ministers, Sonia Gandhi said there was only one religion for the late Congress leader -- that all Indians were equal children of the motherland.

Former president Pranab Mukherjee, ex-prime minister Manmohan Singh, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and his cousin – Bharatiya Janata Party MP Varun Gandhi also remembered Indira Gandhi, often described as the 'Iron Lady of India'.

Tributes were also paid in Parliament's Central Hall, where Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, BJP veteran L K Advani, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge and MoS Parliamentary Affairs Vijay Goel were in attendance.

‘Nation remembers former Prime Minister Smt Indira Gandhi on her birth centenary #PresidentKovind,’ Kovind tweeted.

Taking to the micro-blogging site, Modi said, ‘Tributes to former PM Mrs Indira Gandhi on her birth anniversary.’

The Congress president said Indira Gandhi fought for secularism and against all those forces seeking to divide the people on the lines of religion and caste.

"For her, as the prime minister, there was one religion, a sacred creed passionately held -- that all Indians were equal children of the motherland," Sonia said at a photo exhibition organised in the memory of the late leader at 1, Safdarjung Road.

Indira Gandhi was assassinated at the Safdarjung Road bungalow, her official residence, by her bodyguards on October 31, 1984.

The Congress president said Indira Gandhi took pride in India's rich diversity and its democratic and secular values.

The former prime minister also fought for India’s dignity and independence as a sovereign nation, against the dominance of superpowers, she said.

“And not only for India, but for all countries that resisted colonial and post-colonial forms of hegemony,” Sonia added.

Terming Indira as a leader of "courage and conviction’, Mukherjee listed several of her decisions and stands she took on various issues, including Operation Blue Star and nationalisation of banks as a prime minister.

He also sought to underscore that the late leader was very concerned about promises made to the people and their actual delivery.

“She provided this by emphasising that the Congress must stick to its ideology,” he said during his address.

To drive his point that her memory cannot be erased, Mukherjee invoked late British politician Michael Foot who in 1978 had said, "The Indira Gandhi story has not come to an end after the defeat in general elections of 1977 as many people believe she is doomed forever.

"I can tell them, many more glorious chapters are going to be added in her new innings,” the former president quoted Foot as having said.

Mukherjee said, "In her death, she left a message to the people of this country and to the whole world: a commitment to the people can never be killed by any power, however strong it may be."

Mukherjee, Singh and Rahul paid floral tributes to her early in the morning at her memorial, 'Shakti Sthal', as well.

Rahul described his grandmother as his mentor and guide.

‘I remember you Dadi with so much love and happiness. You are my mentor and guide. You give me strength. #Indira100,’ he tweeted.

Varun also hailed the Congress stalwart, calling her ‘a mother to this nation’.

“‘Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently’. To a lady that was a mother to this nation. Miss you Dadi...I know you always watch over us,” Varun said in a tweet.

He also tweeted a picture in which the former prime minister is seen holding him, then a child, in her lap.

Congress' communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala said on Twitter that she worked tirelessly ‘to shape a new future’ for the country.

Indira Gandhi was born on this day in 1917 in Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh.