Question

What helped to define the legacy of Indira Gandhi?

Answer 1

It is former prime minister Indira Gandhi’s 25th death anniversary on October 31.

What was her legacy?

She was associated with events like the Emergency, which briefly made Gerald Ford head of the largest democracy in the world, and decades of militancy in Pun-jab.

Her policy of nationalising banks was mentioned as a reason why the Indian banking sector weathered the global financial crisis.

She also won a famous military victory in the 1971 war with Pakistan and ordered the Pokhran I nuclear tests three years later.

Going by columns and television discussions around her anniversary, it is safe to say it was contentious.

Over her career and beyond she was compared to a du-mb doll, the goddess ‘Durga’, a lioness and Napolean.