India pays tribute to Iron Lady Indira Gandhi on her 102nd birth anniversary

New Delhi, Nov 19: On the occasion of India's first woman prime minister Indira Gandhi's 102nd birth anniversary on Tuesday several eminent leaders paid tribute at Shakti Sthal, her resting place.

Prime Minister Narendra took on to Twitter to give tribute to the iron lady of India, he writes, "Tributes to our former PM Smt. Indira Gandhi Ji on her birth anniversary."

Among the other eminent leaders who paid her homage at Shakti Sthal are former President Pranab Mukherjee, Congress Interim President Sonia Gandhi, and Former PM Dr Manmohan Singh.

Indira Gandhi was a woman ahead of her time. Born on November 19, 1917, as the only child of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of Independent India.

In 1960, she became Indian National Congress (INC)'s president and in the year 1966 after Lal Bahadur Shastri's sudden death, she succeeded him and became the first woman prime minister of India.

Before Nirmala Sitaraman, Indira Gandhi is the only woman Finance Minister who has presented the Union Budget of India. Indira Gandhi, as a finance minister, tabled the Union Budget on February 28, 1970.

During her term as a prime minister, several major events took place that became history. She nationalised fourteen banks, in 1971 India won the war with Pakistan that led to the formation of Bangladesh, 1974 India's first nuclear test was conducted, she also imposed an emergency across the country in June 1975.

Gandhi, who rose to power using the slogan 'garibi hatao' rolled out anti-poverty programmes that turned India from a Revenue Surplus nation to a Revenue Deficit country.

In 1977 emergency was removed. Indira Gandhi the iron lady of India in 1980 returned for the third time as a PM. And four years later she directed to conduct Operation Bluestar, in the Sikh pilgrimage, Golden Temple in Amritsar. She conducted this operation to remove Sikh militants and this incident agitated the Sikh community resulting in her assassination by a Sikh personal bodyguard.

After her death her elder son Rajiv Gandhi succeeded her and became the prime minister later for assisting the Sri Lankan government in the country's civil war, Rajiv was also assassinated in 1991 by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).