A triumphant return (January 16-30, 1980)
The golden rays of the winter sun bathed the schoolchildren rehearsing for the Republic Day parade at Raj Path in New Delhi. The soldiers in smart uniforms marched past India Gate and policemen and women in brown uniforms took their crowd-control positions along Raj Path. Most of them were too engrossed in their drills to bother about the momentous ceremony being held simultaneously a fewhundred yards away in the Rashtrapati Bhavan's plush Ashoka Hall, once the ballroom of the British Viceroys. There Mrs Indira Gandhi, 62-year-old daughter of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, was being sworn in as India's prime minister for the third time by India's sixth President, Sanjiva Reddy. "She could well be crowned the Empress of India," said an admirer who could not get into the hall, "considering her spectacular victory." And she looked like a queen whose lost crown was being restored to her by the nation after being banished for 34 months.
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