Even as she hailed the sacrifice of Indira Gandhi in preserving a united, diverse and egalitarian India, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Saturday took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying that in the quest for shortcuts to greatness, certain leaders are willing to undermine the very foundations of India’s national character.
“Her (Indira Gandhi’s) sacrifice in preserving a united, diverse, egalitarian India will be remembered. All the more so at a time when, in the quest for shortcuts to greatness, we find leaders willing to undermine the very foundations of our national character,” she said.
In her welcome address at the Indira Gandhi centenary lecture here, Ms. Gandhi also paid a personal tribute to her mother-in-law: “ Indira Gandhi was not a figure of history for me… it is from her that I learned about India, its culture, its values. It is from her that I imbibed my earliest political lessons. She was the Prime Minister of India, but to me she was a mother, a mentor, a friend. It was in my arms that she drew her last breath.”
Recalling Indira Gandhi's vision for India, Ms. Gandhi said it was not a soulless vision that came at the cost of India's pluralist diversity: "She saw an India that would not follow blindly the path laid by the West. She saw it crafting its own future guided by its democratic and cultural ideals. Where others failed, she wanted India to show the world the way. It made her mission doubly challenging, but Indira Gandhi was not a woman daunted by challenge.”
She stressed that when Indira Gandhi spoke, “she spoke for all Indians, men and women of all religions, regions, and backgrounds. No language was a barrier. She celebrated our magnificent diversity, battling those forces that foster division and strife among our people.”
