New Delhi, Saturday, November 19, 2011: The nation on Saturday remembered former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on her 94th birth anniversary with President Pratibha Patil and Vice President Hamid Ansari among prominent personalities who paid rich tributes to the leader.

On this occasion, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, President Pratibha Devi Singh Patil and other political leaders paid tribute to ‘Iron Lady of India at Shakti Sathal in New Delhi.

Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi was born on 19 November 1917. He served as prime minister of India for three consecutive terms (1966–77) and a fourth term (1980–84). She was assassinated by Sikh extremists on October 31st 1984.

Gandhi was the second female to hold the office of prime minister (after Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka) and she remains as the world’s second longest serving female Prime Minister as of 2011.

Gandhi was the only child of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of independent India. She adhered to the quasi-socialist policies of industrial development that had been begun by her father. Gandhi established closer relations with the Soviet Union, depending on that nation for support in India’s long-standing conflict with Pakistan.

She was also the only Indian Prime Minister to have declared a state of emergency in order to ‘rule by decree’ and the only Indian Prime Minister to have been imprisoned after holding that office.

(News agency)