By IANS,
New Delhi: President Pratibha Patil and Vice President Hamid Ansari Saturday led the nation in paying tributes to late prime minister Indira Gandhi on her 94th birth anniversary.
The president and vice president visited Indira Gandhi’s memorial, Shakti Sthal, on the banks of Yamuna here in the morning and offered floral tributes.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son and party general secretary Rahul Gandhi too visited Shakti Sthal and paid tributes.
Union ministers Sushil Kumar Shinde, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kamal Nath and Krishna Tirath, Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit and several Congress party leaders also visited Shakti Sthal.
Reports from various states said Indira Gandhi was remembered at functions organised by state units of the Congress and state governments.
Gandhi, daughter of India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, was born on Nov 19, 1917.
She became the first woman prime minister of the country when she took over after the sudden death of Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1966.
Gandhi was prime minister from 1966 to 1977 and later from 1980 to 1984. She was assassinated by two of her bodyguards on Oct 31, 1984.
Gandhi’s elder son Rajiv Gandhi – husband of Sonia Gandhi – became prime minister following her assassination.