New Delhi - Scores of people attended commemorations and prayer ceremonies across India to pay homage to the country's only woman prime minister Indira Gandhi on Saturday, 25 years after she was assassinated. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and ruling coalition chairwoman Sonia Gandhi, the slain leader's daughter-in-law, were amongst the first to pay tributes at Shakti Sthal in New Delhi where she was cremated. An all-religion prayer was also organized on the occasion.
Senior ministers of the Indian cabinet also attended a function of devotional songs at the Indira Gandhi memorial in the heart of the Indian capital where she was shot dead by her two Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984.
People travelled all the way from different states and queued up early Saturday at the memorial to relive the memories of Gandhi also known as the country's 'Iron Lady'.
"She was a very strong woman, but she had a very gentle side to her. A side that very few people know. She was composed and calm," said Sonia Gandhi told the NDTV network.
Functions were also held in various states where provincial leaders and locals laid garlanded her statues and portraits.
The ruling Congress party held exhibitions on her life and times and organized national integration rallies and blood donation camps across the country.
Indira Gandhi ruled the country for 15 years in two stints before she fell victim to her two bodyguards - Satwant Singh and Beant Singh who pumped 31 bullets into the 66-year-old leader.
The assassination triggered widespread anti-Sikh riots in which 3,000 people were killed over three days in Delhi.
Gandhi's death came as a violent response to her decision of dispatching the Sikhism's holiest shrine, the Golden Temple, to flush out heavily-armed Sikh extremists.
Indira Gandhi has an enduring presence in the minds of most Indians - for manyshe remains a messiah who connected directly to the poor and underprivileged with her social welfare programmes and catchy populist slogans like "garibi hatao" (oust poverty).
Daugther of India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Gandhi, ushered in the green revolution that ensured food security for India. Under her stewardship India won a war against Pakistan for the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971.
For others she is the monster who unleashed the Emergency, the darkest period in India's democratic history when political opposition was put down ruthlessly, opponents jailed and the free media that India is proud of muzzled for 19 months.
Her memorial in Delhi sees 10,000 visitors every day, the highest visited memorial anywhere in India.
"Everytime I see the pathway where she was killed my eyes well up. India needs leaders like Indira today," said Vinod Kalra, a 60-year old visitor.
"Indira Gandhi was Mother India. She cared for the poor and downtrodden," another visitor, Biswas Das said.
