Tharoor Says Despite Criticizing the Emergency, Indira Gandhi’s Assassination Felt Like a Personal Loss

The senior Congress leader and MP Shashi Tharoor remembered the great legacy of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on her birth anniversary. He wrote in a social media post, "Today we remember a figure who left a deep mark, both good and bad, on the history of modern India."

The former Union Minister said that while he was a critic of the Emergency, Gandhi's assassination was a personal blow. Tharoor said on Christmas Day, "I pay tribute to the great legacy of our late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, whose 108th birth anniversary is today."

He wrote, "Much has been written (and will continue to be written) about her decisive leadership in redrawing the map of the subcontinent in 1971 and the (less complimentary) Emergency four years later, so today I will confine myself to personal matters."

He further wrote, "My late grandmother, Mundrath Jayasankini Amma, was born on the same day as Mrs. Gandhi, which created a special bond between our two families. I met the Prime Minister in 1974 as an 18-year-old student union president of St. Stephen's College. I later interviewed her for a Swiss youth magazine."

Tharoor explained that after Indira Gandhi lost the 1977 elections, he interviewed her again in two hour-long sessions on her foreign policy for his doctoral dissertation, which was later published as his book, "Regions of State."

The Congress leader said, "Although I was a critic of the Emergency, as reflected in my books, her assassination felt like a personal blow. Today, we remember a figure who left a deep mark, both good and bad, on the history of modern India."

Born on November 19, 1917, Indira Gandhi served as Prime Minister from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 until her assassination on October 31, 1984.