Rae Bareli remembers Indira Gandhi on 25th death anniversary - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Rae Bareli, the former constituency of former assassinated Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, remembered her on her 25th death anniversary today. The area is the political bastion of the Nehru-Gandhi family. After independence, the Rae Bareli constituency was won by Jawaharlal Nehru's son-in-law Feroze Gandhi and later by Indira Gandhi. "I still remember, when she came here around 12 to 12.30 in the night and she gave an address here. She promised that when her government will come to power she will provide employment to around 35,000 people and when her government came to power, she fulfilled her promise. She visited Rae Bareli on April 1st 1984 and on 31st October she was assassinated. It was her last visit on April 1st 1984," said Gaya Prasad Shukla, Congress Leader, Rae Bareli. Born on November 19, 1917 in Allahabad, the only child of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi joined politics in 1955. Uma Shanker Mishra, Rae Bareli Disrict president, appreciated Gandhi for her development efforts in the region. "She has done a lot for Rae Bareli. She opened an ITI (Industrial training institute) and post offices here. She worked for the development of Rae Bareli and the whole world knows about her," Mishra said. Her policy of nationalising banks was mentioned as a reason why the Indian banking sector has successfully weathered the current global financial crisis. She also won the 1971 war against Pakistan and ordered the Pokhran I nuclear tests three years later. Indira Gandhi's tough image earned her the acronym of India's "Iron Lady," a title bestowed on her contemporary, Britain's Margaret Thatcher. Incidentally, Indira's memorial came to be known as "Shakti Sthal" or place of power.