Gandhi, Indra, 1918-84, India, prime minister, assass. Like her father Jawaharlal Nehru, Mrs. Indira Gandhi believed that India's best interests were served by a policy of non-alignment with the super powers. For sixteen years Mrs. Gandhi ruled her nation according to this principle of strict neutrality. But within her own nation, bitter political factionalism among ethnic groups threatened the fragile democracy forged by Mahatma Gandhi and maintained by the Nehru family through thirty-seven years. In 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was gunned down by a Hindu extremist opposed to the partition of India and Pakistan. Gandhi's inability to placate the radical groups within his nation resulted in his death. Mrs. Gandhi (no relation to the father of the Indian independence movement) suffered a similar fate at the hands of the Sikhs, a religious minority comprising roughly two percent of India's population. Beginning in 1982, the Sikh community, concentrated for the most part in Punjab near the Pakistani border, pushed for a free and independent state, which they planned to call Khalistan, or "land of the pure." Fearing an attack by neighboring Pakistan, which had provided covert aid to the militant Sikhs, Gandhi took harsh measures to suppress what had become an armed revolt. In June 1984 she ordered the Indian army into Punjab to put down an uprising which threatened to expand into a greater armed conflict. To flush out the leaders of the rebellion, soldiers entered the Golden Temple of Amritsar, a sacred Sikh shrine that had been converted into a paramilitary fortress. Morethan 600 Sikhs were killed, including 37-year-old leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.
The Sikhs considered Mrs. Gandhi's actions a moral and civil outrage. Vowing revenge, a team of assassins organized inside Punjab, but they were arrested by Indian parliamentary forces. The money, guns, and clearancepapers found in their possession were allegedly provided by the Pakistani intelligence service, though the Pakistanis denied the charge. The Sikhs struck with vengeance a few days later, on Oct. 31, 1984. Gandhi was leaving her private compound at Safdarjang Road in New Delhi to meet British actor Peter Ustinov to film a television documentary when the shots rang out. Two of her uniformed security guards standing at attention along the path had suddenly broken ranks to shoot at Gandhi. From point blank range Beant Singh, twenty-one fired three shots from a.38-caliber revolver. As Gandhi slumped to the ground the other uniformed guard, Satwant Singh, pumped thirty rounds from a Sten automatic weapon into her. The two Sikhs surrendered to police and were led to the guardhouse. Beant Singh, who was a favorite of Gandhi during the five months he had been assigned to the detail, attempted to seize a gun from one of the other guards and was shot dead. Satwant Singh was wounded when he reached for a knife concealed in his turban. Gandhi's death plunged India into deep turmoil. Confrontations between angry Hindus and separatist Sikhs resulted in wide scale arson, looting, and murder. The funeral procession through the streets of New Delhi was a quiet, somber affair.
Many residents chose to remain at home because they feared violence along the parade route. Gandhi's 40-year-old son, Rajiv, assumed control of the government and urged moderation, but his pleas were largely ignored. The government opened an investigation into the murder, and concluded that Gandhi's death was part of a larger conspiracy to undermine the Indian government. On Jan. 5, 1989, Satwant Singh and Kehar Singh, a former government worker who plotted the assassination, were hanged at Tihar Central Jail in New Delhi after their pleas for clemency were denied by the Indian Supreme Court. A third conspirator, Balbir Singh, had been convicted in 1986, but was ordered released by the Supreme Court four months before the executions were scheduled to take place. The deaths of the two Sikhs resulted in a new wave of violence in Punjab. Four Hindus from the village of Bhujiawali were hanged in retaliation on Jan. 11. Thirty-six other people were killed in the outbreak. Meanwhile the Indian government pressed on with its investigation of the assassination.
On Apr. 7, 1989, four more conspirators were identified and charged with the murder of Indira Gandhi. Former police official Simranjit Singh Mann was quoted as saying that the easiest and most efficient way to kill her was to infiltrate the vast security network. Mann is the leader of the Akali Dal party, a militant political faction within the Sikh movement. The two triggermen were selected by a second Sikh extremist, Atinder Pal Singh of the Khalistan Liberation Army operating in Punjab. Indian police arrested two Bombay College teachers, Dilip Singh and Jagmohan Singh Tony, as co -conspirators. Their cases are still pending. In assessing the murder of Gandhi, the commission pointed to the lax and inefficient Indian internal security division, which prevented the removal of the policeman who eventually committed the murder. A larger conspiracy involving highly placed government officials was implied in an official report released on Mar. 27, 1989. "Top officials took things for granted and allowed the matters to drift," explained Justice M.P. Thakkar, head of the investigating commission. "Officials were apathetic, shirked responsibility, and indulged in red-tapism."