Indira was a mother to this nation: Varun Gandhi

NEW DELHI: BJP MP Varun Gandhi today hailed his grandmother and Congress stalwart Indira Gandhi on her hundredth birth anniversary, calling her "a mother to this nation".

"'Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently'. To a lady that was a mother to this nation. Miss you Dadi...I know you always watch over us," Varun Gandhi said in a tweet.

He also tweeted a picture in which the former prime minister is seen holding him, then a small child, in her lap.

Other Gandhi family members, including Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi, also paid rich tributes to Indira Gandhi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also paid his tributes to her earlier in the day.

Indira Gandhi, the first woman prime minister of the country, was born on this day in 1917 in Uttar Pradesh's Allahabad.