During Indira’s time, Youth Congress was a ‘safety valve’ against growing popular dissent. Sanjay then turned it into feeder cadre for Congress. It’s now struggling to rebrand itself.
On 26 January 1966, Indira Gandhi delivered a speech that was broadcast over All India Radio. This was her first address to the nation after becoming India’s first woman prime minister.
Donald Trump seems to have rejected the old assumptions. He does not care that India is the world’s largest democracy. As for the Indian market, he wants access on his own terms.
Haryana notifies law to take over Dhirendra Brahmachari’s Gurugram ashram. Branded Indira Gandhi’s ‘Rasputin’ by opposition, he remains one of most controversial spiritual figures.
Over the years, many recipients have been leaders who can be placed in the Centre-Left category, but not all. For instance, in 1997, it was awarded to former US President Jimmy Carter.
The ex-Chilean president was awarded the 2024 Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for her work on gender equality, human rights, and democracy.
Bachelet, only woman to have served as the President of Chile, is the 37th recipient Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development award, which was instituted in 1986.
Gandhi’s attraction lies in her being seen as a highly polarising figure who attracts strong emotional responses. Even those who loathe her love to tell anecdotes about her life.
During the discussion on 50 years of Emergency, journalist Bharat Bhushan said Indira Gandhi’s assertion that foreign powers were conspiring against her could be seen now too.
The financialisation of Indian household savings is one of the most important economic shifts of the past decade. But financialisation without international diversification creates fragile balance sheets.
The Nirouyeh Vijeh Pasdaran Velayat, or NOPO, was the only force Ali Khamenei trusted.It was founded in 1991 and is more feared than the Revolutionary Guards.
Rating democracies is a tricky business. I am only using the simple metric of who in the Indian subcontinent has had the most peaceful, stable, normal political transitions and continuity.
Thanks Shekhar Ji for such a nice article. I am an Associate Professor in Economics at the University of Leicester , UK.
If I may please, I would differ with you a bit on the 1989 analysis. The President did call RG to form the government first, but at that point RG had no other option but to decline. How would he get the additional numbers required? Congress dod not have any major pre poll alliance. At that scenario, even the leftwould have not supported the government. However, I do think RG should have formed the government after the fall of the VP government. With the CS faction out, with 197 he could have made CS the deputy PM and offered a few more important cabinet posts. Instead RG chose to repeat the Charan Singh type tale. Incidentally in a recent researcg paper we have shown by careful econometric analysis that this act did cost RG electorally in 1991.
Don’t see the connection between the so-called major blunders. The analysis is too hypothetical. It simply says had Rajiv Gandhi not sat out in 1989 politics of subsequent period would have played out differently. How? Rajiv’s government would not have lasted. He might have still felled by LTTE bullets.
Since the prism is political, sending the IPKF to Sri Lanka can be excluded. However, seeking to nullify the Shah Bano verdict and also opening the locks to the Babri Masjid was a mistake. For Mrs. Gandhi, playing footsie in Punjab, leading ultimately to Operation Blue Star.
Thanks Shekhar Ji for such a nice article. I am an Associate Professor in Economics at the University of Leicester , UK.
If I may please, I would differ with you a bit on the 1989 analysis. The President did call RG to form the government first, but at that point RG had no other option but to decline. How would he get the additional numbers required? Congress dod not have any major pre poll alliance. At that scenario, even the leftwould have not supported the government. However, I do think RG should have formed the government after the fall of the VP government. With the CS faction out, with 197 he could have made CS the deputy PM and offered a few more important cabinet posts. Instead RG chose to repeat the Charan Singh type tale. Incidentally in a recent researcg paper we have shown by careful econometric analysis that this act did cost RG electorally in 1991.
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Don’t see the connection between the so-called major blunders. The analysis is too hypothetical. It simply says had Rajiv Gandhi not sat out in 1989 politics of subsequent period would have played out differently. How? Rajiv’s government would not have lasted. He might have still felled by LTTE bullets.
Since the prism is political, sending the IPKF to Sri Lanka can be excluded. However, seeking to nullify the Shah Bano verdict and also opening the locks to the Babri Masjid was a mistake. For Mrs. Gandhi, playing footsie in Punjab, leading ultimately to Operation Blue Star.