Why Indira Gandhi is special

A quarter of a century has passed since Indira GandhiIndira Gandhi was shot down by assassins who happened to be her bodyguards. She was not the first leader to have lost her life to assassins – two American Presidents Abraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln (1865) and John F KennedyJohn F Kennedy (1963) are best examples. And – Indira Gandhi will not be the last – proof is her son Rajiv GandhiRajiv Gandhi who unwittingly embraced a human bomb. The killing of Indira was in retaliation to her steps to flush out terrorists from the holy precincts of the Golden Temple, Amritsar. And, because her killers were Sikhs, her death set in motion the worst ever carnage in Indian history against the Sikhs. The anger has still not subsided despite an apology from the present Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan SinghManmohan Singh. A memorial to Indira Gandhi is aptly called as the Shakti Sthal – or the Place of Power. During her tenure, she had earned the displeasure of many due to the imposition of Emergency Rule, but even her critics have to agree that the period of Emergency had instilled a sense of discipline and accountability in all walks of life.