Shashi Tharoor's Tribute to Indira Gandhi: Honoring Her Complex Legacy on 108th Birth Anniversary

Indira Gandhi, born November 19, 1917, served as India's prime minister from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 until her assassination in 1984.

New Delhi:

On Wednesday, prominent Congress leader Shashi Tharoor paid tribute to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's "towering legacy" on her birth anniversary, acknowledging that she was "a figure who left a major imprint, for good and ill, on modern India's history."

Tharoor, who previously served as a Union minister, revealed that despite being critical of the Emergency period, Gandhi's assassination felt like a "personal blow" to him.

Sharing his thoughts on social media platform X, Tharoor wrote, "Honouring the towering legacy of our late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, whose 108th birthday anniversary is today. Much has been (&will be) written about her decisive leadership in redrawing the map of the subcontinent in 1971 and (less admiringly) of the Emergency four years later, so today I will confine myself to the personal."

Tharoor shared an unexpected family connection to the former prime minister, noting, "My late grandmother Mundarath Jayasankini Amma was born on the very same day as Mrs Gandhi, which created a strange kind of affinity in our household."

He recounted his personal interactions with Gandhi, stating, "I met the PM as an 18-year-old Student Union President of St Stephen's College in 1974, & subsequently interviewed her for a Swiss youth magazine."

Following Gandhi's electoral defeat in 1977, Tharoor conducted extensive interviews with her about foreign policy for his doctoral dissertation, which later became his published book "Reasons of State."

Despite his critical stance on the Emergency period, as reflected in his published works, Tharoor admitted that "her assassination felt like a personal blow." He concluded his tribute by acknowledging her complex legacy, saying, "Today, one remembers a figure who left a major imprint, for good and ill, on modern India's history."

Indira Gandhi served as India's prime minister for two terms - from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 until her assassination on October 31, 1984.