The Biography of Famous Personalities of India will tell you about the controversies, the dark sides of a person that you may have never heard of.
Indira’s Last Term As Prime Minister and World Figure
Indira’s Last Term As Prime Minister
Back in power, Indira started working with fresh zeal. This brief interruption in her career had profound meaning for Indira as she again started shaping politics according to the style of her own. With a comfortable majority in Parliament, she took the task left unfinished by Janata Party boldly and confidently.
When she became Prime Minister for the fourth time, everything in the country was topsy turvy as there was inflation, no law and order was there and there was the scarcity of commodities. Indira promoted the Green Revolution, which was to help farmers in many ways. She helped agriculture with many inputs.
These included modern agricultural machinery tested scientific techniques of farming, better seeds, and better high yielding crops, improved irrigation practices, etc. This helped in increasing the production of food grains which kept steadily rising and reached well over 130 million tonnes in 1984.
The growth of the small industries became sixfold due to the efforts of the Prime Minister that in turn increased the exports. The industries also provided employment on a large scale.
But suddenly Indira faced a great blow when she lost her favourite son Sanjay in a plane crash on June 23, 1980. She was shattered but it never reflected on her face. She embraced this tragedy with incredible calm. She directed her elder son Rajiv Gandhi who was a pilot in Indian Airlines, to quit the job and help her in politics.
Rajiv Gandhi was married to Sonia Gandhi who was reluctant to come to India and let Rajiv enter the politics. But due to sense of duty towards his mother, Rajiv Gandhi entered politics which gave strength to Indira Gandhi and she reverted to her work.
To encourage the feeling of oneness and friendship not only amongst her countrymen but all people of the world, Indira hosted the Ninth Asian Games in New Delhi in November, 1982. Although being criticized by opposition for wasting money, organising of Asian Games was crowned with success and brought fame to India.
Indira As A World Figure
Although Indira Gandhi was wholly Indian, but like Jawaharlal, her heart reached out to the world. Indira’s thoughts were influenced by the teachings of her father who was one of the founders of the world peace movement. She travelled extensively attending world meetings and represented the spirit of tolerance, moderation and understanding for human development.
She was in the favour of the working of UNO and attended its meetings. In Sept. 1970, Indira was one of the speakers at the Silver Jubilee session of the UNO. She also visited U.S.A. who was inclined towards Pakistan and she made her position clear to U.S.A by confirming that she was not in favour of war but earnestly desired peace.
On June 14, 1972 Indira attended the plenary session of the UN Conference on Human Environment where she stressed that life was one and the world was one. The environmental problems were interlinked and she wanted to tackle these problems with the help of other countries.
She was concerned about population growth not just for India but for the world. At the World Health Assemble on May 6, 1981, she appealed to all governments of the world to take serious measures for checking population growth and providing basic health care to the people.
She wanted to be in contact with other countries not just politically but culturally. She always sent cards on the National Days of the small countries as a friendly gesture. She became an integral part of the organisations such as FAO, WHO, NAM and she worked for the downtrodden people.
She had a vision that, “I wish that the world would regard itself as one and not be divided into one, two, three, four.” She knew that the major threat to human race was the global war that could destroy the entire human race so she undertook the task of bringing together all those nations which were in favour of peace.
The non-aligned countries had much faith in Indira and she, on her part, struggled for a better future for people by linking herself to the drive against poverty, hunger and inequality. As long as she lived, she continued struggling for the cause of peace. She considered the non-aligned movement to be history’s greatest peace movement.
She was truly a world figure as she always said that, “No country can afford to take a narrow view of its own interest as it has to live in a world that is closely interlinked.”
In March, 1983, the Seventh Non-Aligned Summit was held in New Delhi and at the concluding session, she said, “Born for the universe, we cannot narrow our loyalties. Belonging to human kind, nothing human can be alien to us.”
On March 7, she was nominated the Chairman of the Non-Aligned Meet. She succeeded President Fidel Castro of Cuba.
She severely criticised the tension created by the superpowers. She told the developed countries that they should remember that they had to depend on the smaller countries for necessary products, so it was better to solve the problems by negotiations rather than by conflicts. She clarified that India’s foreign policy laid stress on the importance of unity.
India’s policy was not rigid but flexible and aimed at world peace and unity. Indira always fought for freedom and human dignity and she strongly condemned the South African government policy which had no regard for human rights. She was in support of the struggle of Namibian people to achieve freedom. Thus Indira was respected by all the other peace-loving nations and she was the embodiment of peace and stability.