It’s the birth of the only female Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi. There is no doubt she is called the Iron Lady of India with her decisive and forceful personality she made a difference in the politics of the nation.

Indira Gandhi was born on November 19, 1917, in Allahabad, to a Kashmiri Pandit family. She was a key figure in the Indian National Congress and was the second longest-serving Prime Minister of Independent India after her father, Jawaharlal Nehru.

She managed to step out of her father’s long shadow and etch her own mark in the history of India and created a history of her own too.

She was no ‘Goongi goodiya’ as Congress party bosses had orchestrated her election and then tried to constrain her. Gandhi transformed herself from a puppet of the Congress party leaders to a strong leader with the iron resolve to split the party over her policy positions.

Her decisions changed the dynamics of the country.  For example, the nationalisation of banks and abolition of the privy purses of the princely states were two bold and path-breaking decisions.

She also fearlessly led the 1971 Indo-Pak War to Operation Bluestar and oversaw several tumultuous events in her decades-long political career.

Under her leadership, India conducted its first nuclear test. With this successful test, India became the first non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council to claim the status of nuclear power.

'India is Indira and Indira is India,' was a slogan that was chanted widely. And she made sure to leave that mark of her among the people of the country.

In an unfortunate incident, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her own bodyguards at her residence on Delhi's Akbar Road on October 31, 1984.

But her contribution to Indian Politics has been exemplary and Gandhi truly has been an Iron Lady of Indian politics.