Thursday, 19 November 2015 marks the 98th birth anniversary of the first woman Indian prime minister, Indira Gandhi.

President Pranab Mukherjee paid floral tributes to the former prime minister on the occasion of her birth anniversary at 1, Akbar Road in New Delhi. Former prime minister Manmohan Singh paid tributes to her at Shakti Sthal in New Delhi on Thursday.

Born to the first Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1917, Indira Gandhi, during her childhood days, saw her father busy in political activities. 

She assisted her father during his tenure as Indian PM and was also the president of the Indian National Congress towards the end of the 1950s; she was appointed Rajya Sabha member after Nehru's death.

She later served as the Indian prime minister in two terms, first from 1966 to 1977 and again, from 1980 until her assassination in 1984. She was the second-longest-serving prime minister after her father.

She was killed by her Sikh bodyguards in October 1984, reportedly in retaliation to "Operation Blue Star" that she ordered in June 1984 to remove militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his followers from the Harmandir Sahib Complex in Golden temple in Amritsar, Punjab.

Check out some inspiring quotes by Indira Gandhi below:

If I die a violent death, as some fear and a few are plotting, I know that the violence will be in the thought and the action of the assassins, not in my dying.

The power to question is the basis of all human progress.

My father was a statesman, I am a political woman. My father was a saint. I am not.

Forgiveness is a virtue of the brave.

There exists no politician in India daring enough to attempt to explain to the masses that cows can be eaten.

A nation' s strength ultimately consists in what it can do on its own, and not in what it can borrow from others.

One must beware of ministers who can do nothing without money, and those who want to do everything with money.

You must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive in repose.

Martyrdom does not end something, it only a beginning.

You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.

Check out photos of her 98th birth anniversary below:

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