Indira and India

An assassin’s bullet has tragically ended the life of Indira Gandhi who dominated the Indian stage for a generation, 16 years as prime ...

An assassin’s bullet has tragically ended the life of Indira Gandhi who dominated the Indian stage for a generation, 16 years as prime minister. She was a strong personality, charismatic and not removed from fierce political controversy.

But her murder is an utterly foul and dastardly act that has horrified and deeply stirred the democratic conscience of the nation and the world. Not since the assassination of the Mahatma has the Indian polity suffered such a traumatic blow.

The attack on Indira Gandhi was an attack on India, its stability and democratic tradition. Yet the politics of assassination and violence cannot and must not be allowed to succeed. It is is abhorrent to all the values to which this country is committed.

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The entire nation, not excluding her worst opponents, has been numbed by the brutal loss of its elected leader and will grieve with the bereaved family.

This is a time for dedication, not anger; dedication to the democratic way of life, to national unity and to the common resolve to build a better India. The crime was committed by some mindless individuals and not the community to elite they belong(ed).

Insensate violence and terror in Delhi and elsewhere are utterly wrong and futile. This terrible blood price must shock and shame the country into restoring the primacy of right means for the attainment of right ends.

Meanwhile, there must be calm and restraint and no thought encouraged of revenge and retaliation. The Head Priest at Amritsar, Akali spokesmen and other leading Sikh personalities have joined all others in strongly condemning the outrage.

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Indira Gandhi herself was a woman of great courage and anything less than a mature and sober reaction would be no tribute to her. Her murderers and those behind them must of course be pursued and brought to justice. This must be by due process of law aided, in this instance, by a commission of inquiry.

That the assailants should be her own security guards and that the hideous deed was enacted in the grounds of her own residence suggests a dreadful security lapse. Whether it was the demanded action of the individuals concerned or whether they were planted in the prime minister’s house is a detail that must be established. Security measures must obviously be tightened all round, and it would diminish the quality of the country’s democratic polity if there is to be a sharp and lasting divide between the nation’s elected rulers and the people.

It so happened that the President was out of the country and that several senior ministers were away from Delhi at the time of shooting. The cabinet could only meet in the afternoon formally to review the situation. But there was again a horrendous information failure in AIR’s inability to break the bare news of the attempt on the life of the prime minister until 11 a.m. while the whole country was agog and to inform the nation that Indira Gandhi was dead until an ‘official announcement’ was made by the authorities many hours later.

This is precisely the sort of information vacuum that must be avoided in moments of crisis when immediate, accurate, and considered announcements are necessary to dispel rumour, ally needless fears and provide assurance of order and continuity…