Mukherjee, in a veiled message to the party leadership to speed up decision-making in organisational matters, recalled the former prime minister's decisive style of functioning that helped her party score comeback victories in state polls a couple of months after the second Congress split of 1978.
With Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi seated on the dais, flanked by Vice President Hamid Ansari, former prime minister Manmohan Singh and senior Congress leader Anand Sharma, Mukherjee paid rich tributes to Indira Gandhi on the occasion of the release of a commemorative centennial volume on her life and works.
"She was one of the remarkable personalities of the 20th century all over the world. And to the people of India, even today after her passing away, she is the most acceptable ruler or prime minister of a democratic country even today," he said evoking a thunderous applause from the audience that comprised of a galaxy of Congress leaders.
Recalling the second split in Congress in 1978, President Mukherjee said Indira Gandhi was elected party president on January 2, 1978 and in a matter of few days by January 20 she completed the formation of the working committee, set up the parliamentary board, PCCs and AICC structures and prepared the party to face elections to the state assemblies of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Assam, and NEFA in 1978.
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