Remembering Indira When India Runs For Unity

The clear and cold Monday morning on the tank bund of Hussain Sagar in Hyderabad greets motorists with scores of people from all walks of life including the personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) carrying national flag in one hand and taking part in the 'Run For Unity' where the respective State and Central Governments have been organizing in 75,000 locations across the county marking the birth anniversary of India's first home minister and Iron Man of India Sardar Vallabhai Patel.

The writer of this piece of article, being one of the motorists who witnessed the scores of people participating in a run on the busy junction of the tank bund on the first working day of the week, become a mute spectator when he has been passing through the statue of India's First Woman Prime Minister, Bharat Ratna awardee Indira Gandhi which is few meters away from the busy tank bund junction where nobody is there to pay tribute to Indira Gandhi marking on her death anniversary on the same day.

Whether it is a coincidence or not one has to judge, when her grandson, Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi 'run' with children as part of his Bharat Joda Yatra (The march meant to unite India) on Sunday for distance of few meters, the very next day on Monday the Indian Government organized 'Run For Unity' across the country.

Though the writer just entered the teenage when Indira Gandhi was assassinated on October 31, 1984, the memory of the incident where the prime minister was shot dead by her guards is still fresh in the mind of the writer. He heard the news of her death through All India Radio (The same was called as All 'Indira' Radio when emergency was imposed in the country) when he was on his way to high school after completing his lunch at home in a small town in the combined Andhra Pradesh. With in no time he returned back to home as the school was closed after the news was spread like a wild fire. He heard many voices of women at home where they are talking about the first woman prime minister's hair style, the design and dress material of the sarees she has been wearing, her body language, her oratory skills and her dare and devil act in the Indian politics though she was once satirically called as 'Goongi Gudia' (The doll not at all speaking a single word) by her opponents in her own party and outside the party.

The next day the teenage boy went to the recreation club of a telephone exchange where he witnessed the live telecast of the last rites of Indira Gandhi, performed by her elder son Rajiv Gandhi when her grandson Rahul Gandhi look at the pyre with tearful of eyes, in a black & white television where scores of people standing and watching the event by paying last respect to the departed soul.

As a phrase says 'Time and Tide wait for none', yesterday's traitors may be treated as patriots today and Today's patriots may be treated as traitors tomorrow, but one has to remember the leaders who once sit in the driving seat of the country and moved the nation forward with utmost courage and confidence.

(October 31- Death Anniversary of Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi)