“Will Always Protect The India You Sacrificed Everything For”

On the occasion of the 39th death anniversary of his grandmother and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi — paying tribute to her — on Tuesday said that he will always protect the India for which she sacrificed everything, including her very life.

Rahul Gandhi, in a post on ‘X’, said, “My strength, my grandmother! I will always protect the India for which you sacrificed everything. Your memories are always with me, in my heart.”

Gandhi also attached a video — over a minute long — of his tribute to his grandmother. The Congress Lok Sabha MP from Kerala’s Wayanad can be seen crying at the funeral of his grandmother in the video. He is seen standing alongside his father Rajiv Gandhi and mother Sonia Gandhi in the video.

“I had essentially two mothers. One super mother, which was my grandmother. For me it was like losing my mother,” Rahul Gandhi can be heard saying in the voiceover for the video.

Earlier on October 31, on the occasion of her 39th death anniversary at Shakti Sthal in the nation capital, Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and party chief Mallikarjun Kharge paid floral tribute to Indira Gandhi.

Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated at 9:30 a.m. on 31 October 1984 at her residence in Safdarjung Road, New Delhi. She was killed by her Sikh bodyguards Satwant Singh and Beant Singh in the aftermath of Operation Blue Star, an Indian military action carried out between 1 and 8 June 1984 ordered by Indira Gandhi to remove Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his followers from the Golden Temple of Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar, Punjab. The collateral damage included the death of many pilgrims, as well as damage to the Akal Takht. The military action on the sacred temple was criticized both inside and outside India.