"Will always protect the India you sacrificed everything for": Rahul Gandhi pays tribute to Indira Gandhi

Paying tribute to his grandmother and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on her 39th death anniversary, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said that he will always protect the India for which she sacrificed everything.

In a post on X, Rahul Gandhi 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."

He also attached an over a minute long video of his tribute to his grandmother. 

In the video, 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 voiceover for the video, Rahul Gandhi said, "I had essentially two mothers. One super mother, which was my grandmother. For me it was like losing my mother."

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

Rahul Gandhi's cousin and BJP MP Varun Gandhi also paid tributes to Indira Gandhi and said, "Hundreds of salutations to my grandmother, late Indira Gandhi ji, who was a symbol of unmatched courage and struggle and the pioneer of democratic socialism, on her martyrdom day." 

"Along with the determination to take tough decisions, you also had a very simple and gentle tenderness towards motherhood. You are truly the 'Mother of the Nation'," Varun Gandhi said. 

Meanwhile, a prayer ceremony was also organised at the Indira Gandhi Memorial. 

Sonia Gandhi participated in the prayer meeting and offered her floral tributes to the former Prime Minister. 

The Indian Youth Congress led by Srinivas BV and the Women Wing of Congress led by Netta D'Souza have organised blood donation camp on Indira Gandhi's death anniversary in Delhi. 

Indira Gandhi was assassinated on October 31, 1984 by two of her own bodyguards, just after five months of military action at the Golden Temple as part of Operation Blue Star.

She served as India's Prime Minister from January 1966 to March 1977 and again from January 1980 until her assassination in October 1984.

She was born on November 19, 1917 in Allahabad. She was the only child of the first Prime Minister of independent India Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.