Political journey of Indira Gandhi

The republic of India and Islamic republic of Pakistan fought a war in August and  September months of 1965,and finally USSR intervened and both sides agreed to a ceasefire.USSR invited Prime of India Lal Bahadur Shastri and Pakistani General Ayub Khan to Tashkent,capital of Uzbekistan to sigh a peace treaty,and both leaders reached there.On 11th January 1966 ,Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri suddenly died because of massive cardiac arrest in Tashkent.The Congress working party (CWC) met to elect a new leader and Indira Gandhi , daughter of India's first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru emerged as the top contender for the post of Prime Minister of India and on  24th January 1966 then President of India S.Radhakrishnan appointed her as the Prime Minister of World's second most populous country.
During her first few years of her tenure she  maintained a good rapport with senior most leaders of the Congress Party.At that time Indira Gandhi was fifty years old.In the separation-october months of 1967 ,Indian and Chinese troops clashed at Nathula pass of Sikim,at that time Sikim was an Indian protectorate and unlike 1962, Chinese suffered more Casualties than India.India supported Arab states in 1967 Arab Israeli war and USA punished India by delaying supply of wheats to India.India was going through a worst food Crisis and in order to overcome it,the scheme of Green Revolution was launched and both Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi deserve credit for their leadership.In 1969,The Congress party was officially splitted by Indira Gandhi to establish her full control on the party's affairs and after exit of senior most leaders ,Indira Gandhi became the sole leader of the Congress party,only her loyalists remained in the party.The Congress Party's official presidential candidate lost the election and Indira Gandhi's nominee won ,she was expelled from the Congress party and she formed a rebel Congress Party with her supporters only.In 1971 General Election ,Indira Gandhi's faction secured a landslide victory in Lok Sabha election,and She became the most powerful leader of India and other leaders became irrelevant for time being.Her Party's won 352 seats and the rival faction won only 16 seats.The total seats of Lok Sabha were 521 seats.So her opponents were rejected and humiliated by voters.But it was not the landslide victory in general election,the Bangladesh liberation war in December 1971,When Indian army gave a rude shock to the Pakistani army in East Pakistan by compelling surrender of Ninety three thousands Pakistani soldiers before an Indian Lieutenant General, established Indira Gandhi as the Supreme leader both in terms of popularity and her boldness.It seemed that she was invincible.
But like other leaders  she was fallible,on June 25,1971,she committed the terrible blunder of her life by imposing state emergency just to silence voices of oppositions,who were demanding her resignation after a Allahabad High Court verdict ,which disqualified her for misusing her powers in 1971 general election.Emergency lasted for more than one and half years ,that ended on 21march 1977.During that period,India ceased to be democratic state and became  an  authoritarian country.Suddenly the Supreme leader's popularity bit  the dust ,which reflected the 1977 general election,she herself lost and her Party was routed in the North India.For the first time in Indian history ,a Non -Congress Government was formed,though leaders of that political block were former Congressmen. Unfortunately that Government collapsed in 1979  due to internal differences and Indira Gandhi bounced back in 1980 by securing a thumping victory in 1980 general election.She again became Prime Minister of Indira.This was her last tenure,and her last tenure was not so smooth.Unprecedented rise of militancy and bloodshed in Punjab,India's richest state and violent Assam agitation overshadowed all her previous successes.She commited another political blunder by sending Indian army to strome Golden Temple in Amritsar,holiest place of Sikhism to flush out militants ,who were converted the temple into a fortress.Several hundreds died and Akhal Takht was demolished ,which hurted Sikh sentiments badly.And finally she was assassinated by Sikh bodyguards on 31st October 1984.



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