‘It was raining ...’: Congress recalls Indira Gandhi’s 1977 Bihar visit; posts pics of her on elephant

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on the 41st anniversary of Indira Gandhi’s assassination remembered the former prime minister’s “uncommon grit, courage, perseverance, and resilience,” recalling her 1977 visit to Belchhi in Bihar.

Ramesh, in a post on X, said, “Today, the nation recalls the indomitable Indira Gandhi and pays tribute on the 41st anniversary of her martyrdom. She was a person of uncommon grit, courage, perseverance, and resilience.” He recounted how on a rainy August 13, 1977, Gandhi travelled through difficult terrain — “first by car, jeep, and tractor and then rode on an elephant to the remote village of Belchhi” — to meet families devastated by caste atrocities.




Calling it an “extraordinary and spontaneous outreach,” Ramesh wrote that the visit “marked her political revival.” Belchhi, in Nalanda district, had witnessed one of Bihar’s worst caste massacres earlier that year, and Gandhi’s visit to console the Dalit victims was widely seen as a turning point that reignited her connection with the masses after her electoral defeat in 1977.

Ramesh added that a day later, Gandhi met her “then-bitterest political critic and adversary Jayaprakash Narayan in Patna,” recalling their “deep personal association over a period of four decades.” He also shared archival images of Gandhi riding the elephant through muddy fields to reach Belchhi.

At Delhi’s Shakti Sthal, Congress leaders including Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, and Mallikarjun Kharge paid floral tributes to the former prime minister. “India’s Indira – Fearless, resolute, and steadfast in the face of every power,” Rahul Gandhi wrote on X, saying her “courage, compassion, and patriotism” continue to inspire him.

Kharge described her as the “Iron Lady of India” and said her “resolute commitment to India’s progress and unity remains in our hearts and minds.”

Indira Gandhi, India’s first woman prime minister, served from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 until her assassination on October 31, 1984. She was born on November 19, 1917.
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