PC: After Mahatma, only Indira is known

Ex-minister says no one criticised Indira’s welfare plan

Former Union minister and AICC leader P. Chidambaram said that after Mahatma Gandhi, only the late Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi was recognised by everyone in the country. He said Indira Gandhi belonged to the nation and not to a religion, region or a caste.

He was talking at a seminar. Radicalising democracy: Indira Gandhi’s Battle against Impoverishment in India, conducted by the Indira Gandhi Centenary Celebrations committee under the leadership of TPCC president, N Uttam Kumar Reddy.

Mr Chidambaram said that Indira Gandhi linked the indispensability of justice and equality towards the weakest to build a democratic India. He said no one did as much for the welfare of the poor as she did.

He said Opposition parties criticised Indira Gandhi but never criticised her welfare programmes. He said that Indira Gandhi had the courage to admit that she had made a mistake by declaring Emergency.

“Indira Gandhi was a historical leader and an iron-willed person; people will always remember her,” he said. “With the Green Revolution, Indira Gandhi ensured that the country became self-sufficient. She had saved the country and the people twice in wars and severe drought conditions.”

Former chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Shanta Sinha said that Indira Gandhi had evolved a new and radical vision with the 10 point programme which included social control of banks, nationalisation of general insurance, state ceilings on urban property and income, curb on business monopolies and concentration of economic power, public distribution systems of food grains and the rapid implementation of land reforms. She showed how political will is not just an abstract notion but had to be concretised.