'She played politics with the ease of a sleepwalker'

"Rahul has to learn a lot from his grandmother. She was a natural born 24x7 politician who could outpace all her rivals just on sheer physical stamina. She played politics with the ease of a sleepwalker -- she knew the terrain so well, she could do it in her sleep!

She was a constant communicator, a constant traveller, disposed off government files at lightning speed in between rallies, lived on a frugal diet, practiced yoga and never ever missed a political moment.

If Indira Gandhi had been a young politician today, she would have been in the forefront of the Not In My Name protests. As a youth leader, I can see her marching in the Nirbhaya protest rallies.

She was once asked what the secret to political leadership was and she said (it was) the ability to like all kinds of people. I don't think Rahul fundamentally likes people -- that's probably why he can't deal with them and it shows.

Modi's a terrific communicator too, that's why perhaps he's been able to reach out to the youth. Indira Gandhi was cut from a different cloth from Rahul -- as I said, in politics, she was James Bond."

Sagarika Ghose, the author of the biography Indira: India's Most Powerful Prime Minister tells Rediff.com's Nikhil Lakshman that Indira Gandhi may have left India had Lal Bahadur Shastri not died suddenly in Tashkent in January 1966, a death which led the Congress Syndicate to opt for someone they mistakenly assumed was a 'goongi gudiya' (dumb doll) rather than the obstinate Morarji Desai.  Read the second partof the interview here.

And the first part here.