The nation remembers Indira Gandhi, the only lady  Prime Minister and known as an iron lady, on her 25th death anniversary. People have been flocking to her memorial to pay homage since the early hours of Saturday. Top dignitaries, including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi along with the rest of the Gandhi family, visited her memorial at Shakti Sthal.
An exhibition on the life and times of Indira Gandhi, national integration rallies across the country, blood donation camps and the screening of a short film — Congress has planned a series of events to mark the 25th death anniversary of the former prime minister
Gandhi was assassinated by her bodyguards on October 31, 1984.
An all-religion prayer was also organised on the occasion.
The assassination on October 31, 1984 triggered massive anti-Sikh riots in which 3,000 people were killed in three days in the national capital.
Her death – in apparent reprisal for the Indian Army’s assault on the Golden Temple in Amritsar in June 1984 to confront heavily armed Sikh extremists – left a political vacuum in the capital. Elder son Rajiv Gandhi, her presumptive successor, was away in Kolkata. So was Pranab Mukherjee, No. 2 man in the cabinet even then. President Zail Singh was away on a visit to Yemen. They all tried to rush back to the capital to deal with a situation for which no one was prepared.
Click here for more information on Late Indira Gandhi
