(4 of 10)
World reaction quickly centered on two themes: shock and horror at the murder of a woman who had led her country for 16 of the past 18 years, and concern over whether her son was properly equipped for the job that so quickly became his. In Washington, President Reagan, who was awakened with news of the shooting soon after midnight, expressed his "shock, revulsion and grief over the brutal assassination." Secretary of State George Shultz was designated to lead the U.S. delegation to the funeral. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who spoke with Mrs. Gandhi regularly by telephone, declared, "India has been robbed of a leader of incomparable courage, vision and humanity. For my part, I shall feel greatly the loss of a wise colleague and a personal friend." Pope John Paul II said that her death provoked "universal horror and dismay." In Moscow, which has had consistently friendly relations with Mrs. Gandhi over the years, General Secretary Konstantin Chernenko praised her as "a fiery fighter for peace" and "a great friend of the Soviet Union." U.S. Ambassador to Moscow Arthur Hartman was sitting in Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko's office when the news of Mrs. Gandhi's death arrived. Hartman remarked that the two superpowers should do what they could to keep the situation in India calm, and Gromyko agreed. Within hours, however, the Soviet news agency TASS would imply that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency was implicated in the assassination, a charge that Ronald Reagan later dismissed as "a cheap shot."
Like the father of modern India, Mahatma Gandhi, who was not related to her, Indira Gandhi died in a tranquil New Delhi garden, a victim of her country's turbulent politics. Mahatma Gandhi was killed in 1948 by a Hindu fanatic enraged by concessions made to the Muslims and by the partition of India and Pakistan. Mrs. Gandhi's murderers were Sikhs, whose religious community of 15 million represents only about 2% of India's population but holds a disproportionately important place in the country's life. For the past two years, a Sikh rebellion has been smoldering in Punjab, their homeland on the Pakistani border. Last June, after failing to quell the Sikh agitation for greater autonomy and put an end to an extremist movement calling for an independent Sikh nation, Mrs. Gandhi had sent the army into Punjab and into the most sacred of all Sikh shrines, the Golden Temple, which Sikh fanatics had turned into a sort of holy fortress. At least 600 people, including radical Leader Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, 37, were killed in the ensuing battle. Mrs. Gandhi's move was a bold step, and she probably paid for it with her life.
Last week, even as India went into mourning, Sikh communities both in Punjab and overseas made the mistake of rejoicing openly at Mrs. Gandhi's demise. The Sikhs were understandably angry over the storming of the Golden Temple and the continuing presence of troops in Punjab, though it is not easy to see how the central government might otherwise have dealt with an insurrection that was getting out of hand. But in the incendiary atmosphere that followed the assassination last week, the Sikh leaders should have known that such talk could have dangerous consequences.