In perhaps her worst miscalculation, she ordered the army to storm Sikhism's holiest site, the Golden Temple, in Amritsar in June 1984, to evict militants demanding a separate state.

On October 31, 1984, she was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards, Beant Singh and Satwant Singh. Typically, she had refused to listen to her security advisers who wanted to withdraw Sikh guards from the prime minister's home.

A secularist to the end, her death was ironically followed by the worst religious carnage since Partition. Over 3,000 innocent Sikh men, women and children lost their lives in north India as mobs went on a murderous rampage.

Rajiv Gandhi lights his mother Indira Gandhi's funeral pyre.

Today's special: Mrs Gandhi comes to power

Also See: Operation Bluestar, 20 years on