It is national interest that kept Indira going

The conventional way of looking back at the Indira Gandhi era is to do an accounting of her policies and programmes, their successes and failures. Few dispute the success of the Green Revolution, but not all agree that the decision to devalue the rupee in 1966 was beneficial or necessary. 

There is near-unanimity that the 1971 war was the unmatched high of her years in office — but there are those who see the Simla agreement that followed as having left the whole business with Pakistan unfortunately unfinished. Her economic policies — the nationalisation of banks and the grain trade, the high taxes, the emphasis on the public sector against the private sector — all have their supporters and denigrators. Yet there is near-unanimous admiration for her space and nuclear programmes, and gathering respect for her championship of nature and the environment, manifested in ways that no other leader in this country has remotely approached. 

The imposing of the Emergency (1975-77) and the rise to political prominence of her younger son, Sanjay, have few defenders; but her restoration of the democratic process in lifting the Emergency and calling for elections is grudgingly acknowledged. There is widespread admiration for the way she battled her way back to office in just three years and restored the Congress party to pre-eminence. 

Her handling of Punjab and some other domestic issues is criticised, in contrast with her success on the global stage which she strode with confidence. The best way to assess the impact of Indira Gandhi is to witness the thousands who visit her memorial at 1 Safdarjung Road every day, 33 years after her assassination.The Indira Gandhi they see and take away is more than the embodiment of programmes and policies which — if they weren’t necessitated by emerging circumstances — sprang from her deeply held beliefs and values. 

Foremost among them must surely be her fierce pride in her country. “I cannot understand,” she wrote, “how anyone can be Indian and not be proud.” Whether dealing with the likes of US President Richard Nixon, or cementing friendships that would give India an advantage, or handling probing questions during interviews, the strength of her conviction and confidence shines through the years leading up to the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971. Her staunch independence, her determination to act in what she saw to be the national interest, was the rock on which she stood through all her dealings with the outside world.