Today I was re-elected prime minister of India. I am so happy that I am able to return, but because of my past experience as prime minister I am a little nervous. I have been actively involved in the Indian government since I was twelve. My parents and I were part of India’s various freedom movements and even when I when I got married my husband became involved too. In 1947, the year we won independence, my father Jawaharlal Nehru was elected prime minister. I moved in with him to assist him with the job. I helped him with planning state dinners, writing speeches and things along those lines. This gave me a chance to really know what it’s like to have a position like that in government and I believe it will help me as prime minister today. 1955, I was the first woman to sit on the Indian Nation Congress party’s Executive Committee, and by 1959 I was president of the committee. I was slowly moving up positions in the Indian government. After my father’s death, I was appointed minister of information. I was so happy to get this position, mainly because I knew I could really make a difference in the communications throughout India. There are so many people in our great country that do not know half the situations and news events that occur. So I promoted manufacture of more radios and sponsored openings of radio stations. This way more people could know what was happening in India. As minister of information I also encouraged freedom of press, something I thought was very important. In 1971, I was elected prime minister of India for the first time. I remember being so thrilled to have that position because there was so much I wanted to do for India and now I had the power to do it. I went to drastic measures to reduce poverty in India and improve living conditions. It was these measures though that got me voted out of office in 1977. For example, I introduced mandatory sterilization of women to lower the birth rate. My popularity among the people suffered after this. Slowly I started to lose myself as a ruler. I declared a state of emergency on India. Anyone who opposed me was thrown in jail without a trial. Civil rights were lost and there was strict censorship put on the media. I am not proud of how my first term of prime minister of India ended, and I will do better by India this time.
