10 Secrets About Indira Gandhi That Will Shock You

Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian stateswoman and central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was the first and, to date, the only female Prime Minister of India. Gandhi belonged to the Nehru–Gandhi family and was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Indian prime minister. Despite her surname Gandhi, she is not related to the family of Mahatma Gandhi. She served as Prime Minister from January 1966 to March 1977 and again from January 1980 until her assassination in October 1984, making her the second longest-serving Indian prime minister after her father.

Gandhi served as her father's personal assistant and hostess during his tenure as Prime Minister between 1947 and 1964. She was elected Congress President in 1959. Upon her father's death in 1964 she was appointed as a member of the Rajya Sabha (upper house) and became a member of Lal Bahadur Shastri's cabinet as Minister of Information and Broadcasting.[1] In the Congress Party's parliamentary leadership election held in early 1966 (upon the death of Shastri) she defeated her rival, Morarji Desai, to become leader, and thus succeeded Shastri as Prime Minister of India.

# Her husband Feroze Gandhi or Feroze Khan was a son of Nawab Khan, a supplier of wine to her ancestral home at Allahabad. She fell into a romantic relationship with Feroze Khan who often used to visit her house. This secret of hers was also revealed by the then Governor of Maharashtra to her father.

# Indira Gandhi changed her name to Maimuna Baigum in order to get married with Feroze Khan. The marriage took place in London

# Nehru got angered on listening such and such marriage of her loving daughter in England. He got worried about their return to India as their marriage would make the general public annoyed and disturbed. And moreover this may result into his own political suicide. He then made a plan and told Feroze Khan to change his name into ‘Feroze Gandhi’ just by signing an affidavit. And thus, he arranged a mock marriage of his daughter with a Muslim boy.

# Indira Gandhi was expelled from the Oxford University for her unmeritorious performance. Her father, Nehru, then got her admitted into Shantiniketan University where she didn’t rise to the expectations of Guru Rabindranath Tagore who often used to admonish her.

# Her younger son Sanjay Gandhi was caught in a car theft in the UK. Krishana Menon, the then Ambassador to the UK, was instructed by Indira Gandhi to save her son at any cost. The Ambassador, applying his power changed his name to Sanjay and acquired a new passport under that new name. He then handed over that passport, bearing a faked name ‘Sanjay Gandhi’ so that Sanjay could be safely returned to India. So, in this way Sanjiv Gandhi, the real name of ‘Sanjay Gandhi’ came into existence.

# The book “Nehru dynasty” by K N Rao, clearly revealed that Sanjay Gandhi (Sanjiv Gandhi) was in reality the son of some Mohammad Yunus and not of Feroze Khan. Even, when the marriage of Sanjay took place with a Sikh girl ‘Maneka’, Mohammad Yunus became unhappy as he wanted to get his son married with a Muslim girl only.

# Sanjay Gandhi was also circumcised, a customary ritual practiced in a Muslim family. This fact too was revealed by Mohammad Yunus in his controversial book ‘Persons, Passion and Politics’. When Yunus came to hear about the death of Sanjay Gandhi in a plane crash, he wept a lot.

# Indira Gandhi had different romantic affairs. First with her German teacher, at Shantiniketan, who used to teach her English. Then came M O Mathai, her father’s secretary. She then caught affinity for his famous Yoga teacher, Dhirendra Brahmchari. Her last love affair was with Dinesh Singh, the then Foreign Minister. And this sizzling fact was exposed by Katherine Frank in her book ‘The life of Indira Nehru Gandhi’.

# A book ‘Profile and Letters’ written by none other than a seasoned politician Natwar Singh had said that Indira’s son Rajiv Gandhi could not cleared his exams of Mechanical Engineering, which he had been pursuing from 1962 to 1965 at Trinity College, London.

# Rajiv Gandhi’s wife Sonia Gandhi real name was ‘Antonia Maino’ who was a Catholic and a daughter of a mason. Her father was an ill-famous naxalite of a fascist regime in Italy. He had also spent 5 years in prison in Russia.