Recounting Indira Gandhi’s assassination and funeral, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has said that just hours before her death she told him not to cry if something happened to her.
In a video released on YouTube on the former Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi’s 37th death anniversary, Mr. Rahul Gandhi described the day of her grandmother’s funeral as the “second most difficult day of my life”.
Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister, was assassinated in 1984 by two of her security guards linked to Khalistani extremists.
“[In] the morning before she died she told me that don’t cry if something happens to me. I did not understand what she meant and two-three hours later she was dead,” Mr. Rahul Gandhi said, recounting the setback he and his family suffered that day.
“She [Indira Gandhi] sort of sensed that she would be killed and I think everyone in the house also knew it. She once said to us on the dining table that the biggest curse would be to die of a disease,” the former Congress chief said in the video titled ‘With love, in memory of my beloved Grandmother, Indira ji’, which has been released on his YouTube account.
From her perspective, it was probably the best way to die for her country, defending the idea that she loved, Mr. Rahul Gandhi said.
He said he essentially had two mothers — “a super mother who was my grandmother, who basically would defend me when my father got angry, and my mother.”
For me it was like losing my mother, Mr. Rahul Gandhi added.
Images from Indira Gandhi’s funeral and last rites were also part of the video which showed a young Rahul mourning his grandmother’s demise.
Earlier on Sunday, Mr. Rahul Gandhi paid floral tributes to Indira Gandhi at her memorial “Shakti Sthal” here.
“My grandmother served the country fearlessly till the last moment — her life is a source of inspiration for us,” Mr. Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi.
“A great example of women power, humble tributes to Mrs. Indira Gandhi on her martyrdom day,” he said.
