I'm pained to note that the Govt of India could have conducted Mrs Gandhi’s birth centenary celebrations in a big way. It is a fact that she belonged to the rival party, but in my view, she deserves high regard from all, across party lines and if that was the case, neither Sardar Patel nor Subhaschandra Bose, belong to the present ruling dispensation. As a PM, she steered the country out of the state of food scarcity and registered many victories for India. In fact the credit of breaking Pakistan, and creation of a new country, Bangladesh, goes only to her. We resort to chest thumping for a very small routine things like Surgical strikes, which most governments do as matter of routine, and they normally go unnoticed, but whereas breaking a rival country into half much against the very powerful international community, especially America which supports Pakistan even to this day, was not a small affair. Her one and only wrong step being Declaration of Emergency, the consequences of it, had been reaped in the subsequent election. But whatever it is worth, she left behind her legacy as an able leader. Above all Congress has been criticised, by the present ruling dispensation, for its selective approach in honouring the national leaders. If BJP also follows in the footsteps of Congress, and its wrong doings, then there is no point, for it to make hue and cry, about such things. I agree, even the Congress has no moral ground to question BJP, as it has also conveniently forgotten, the services, of a very great PM Mr Narasimha Rao. Therefore it shouldn’t be a role model, for the government, led by BJP to take cue and ignore Indira.
All said and done, she was India’s one of the most charismatic leaders, and very courageous women PM and not celebrating has not gone down well, with many people who I have interacted with, because she was not only known as “Iron Lady” who lead from the front, at critical junctures with a common resolve to build a better India. She was also a women with high secular creed and stature that remains unmatched even to this day. It is pity that Mrs Gandhi, was far removed from fierce political controversy after emergency, yet it remains imperative or all political parties, cutting across party lines, to imbibe her dedication, to the national unit. And her priority to eradicate poverty, communalism and regionalism.