New Delhi: “To get to the top of any ladder, you have to climb rung by rung,” Indira Gandhi had written to a schoolgirl in Ludhiana in the January of 1984 after the girl penned a letter to the erstwhile prime minister telling her that she, too, dreamt of becoming the same one day.
Forty-two years after she was assassinated, the candid handwritten exchange between the ‘Iron Lady’ and a Punjab schoolgirl offers a rare glimpse into her lesser-known personal interactions during her period in office.
Indira Gandhi’s death anniversary is observed on October 31.
Two letters exchanged between Indira Gandhi and the Ludhiana schoolgirl in December 1983 and January 1984 have been preserved at the Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya (Prime Ministers’ Museum) here.
In her reply dated January 10, 1984, Gandhi tells the girl that reaching the top requires sincerity, hard work and service, adding that one should think about what one could do for others and the country rather than seek things for oneself.
The correspondence began when Deepkiran wrote to Gandhi on December 28, 1983. A student of Saint Joseph Heart Convent School in Ludhiana, she tells the prime minister that she is deeply impressed by her speeches on television.
The young girl asks Gandhi which school she had attended in Switzerland, saying she, too, aspired to become the prime minister of India. She requests the ‘Iron Lady’ to guide her on how she could realise that ambition.
Responding to the child’s curiosity, Gandhi, instead of offering a political roadmap or elaborate advice, compares success to climbing a ladder, emphasising that every step requires dedication and effort.
“Personally, I would say that it is important not to ask things for yourself but to think what you can do for others and for your country,” Gandhi writes, before ending the letter by asking whether Deepkiran likes her school.
The exchange took place less than a year before Gandhi was assassinated on October 31, 1984, at her residence on Safdarjung Road in New Delhi by two of her bodyguards. She was 66.
Her assassination followed Operation Blue Star, conducted at the Golden Temple in Amritsar in June 1984, and triggered widespread anti-Sikh violence across the country.
The letters, however, preserve a personal moment from the final months of her life.
As the country marks her 42nd death anniversary, Gandhi’s brief response to a schoolgirl’s ambitious question offers a message beyond politics — that leadership is built through hard work, sincerity and a commitment to serving others.
