We realised shed been sprayed with bullets

When the pager went off that Wednesday morning,Dr I K Dhawan then surgeon in-charge at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences...

When the pager went off that Wednesday morning,Dr I K Dhawan then surgeon in-charge at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences AIIMS immediately started preparing for a disaster,perhaps a riot or a bus accident. We were expecting a rush in the casualty section,but never did we think that the emergency could be the Prime Minister getting shot, he said,speaking to The Indian Express from his office in Sitaram Bhartia Hospital,which he has been associated with since 1996.

In 1984,AIIMS had just installed a paging system,which beeped relatively softly in case of an emergency and more loudly if the situation was even more serious. The pager was introduced as part of the larger disaster management programme,due to the volatile situation caused by insurgency and Operation Bluestar. But the loud beep on the pager on October 31,1984,was not something the doctors had factored in during their preparations.

Dr Dhawan had started his shift at 8 am that day. I was operating on a patient when the pager sounded. I was instructed by the medical superintendent to prepare the operating theatre OT as madam had been shot, he recalls. Mrs Gandhi was covered in blood when I first saw her being wheeled in. It was only in the OT that we realised that someone had sprayed her with bullets, he added.

Mrs Gandhi was immediately put on a heart-lung machine while we gave her a blood transfusion. We opened her chest cavity and stomach but a lot of vital organs had been damaged. She had lost a lot of blood, he added. She died minutes later.

Dr Dhawan recalls another lasting memory of that day. Later in the evening,even as emotional Congress workers and members of the general public openly grieved the loss of their leader,one couple among them stayed calm and dignified,consoling the mourners. They were Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi. Rajiv Gandhi met us,then went into the OT. Neither he nor Sonia Gandhi shed a single tear throughout. After Rajiv came,Sonia went into the OT and with the help of nurses washed the body,changed Mrs Gandhis clothes and prepared to take her home, added Dhawan.

The first news report

If he hadnt picked up the phone that morning as he was locking his door to leave for his office,Satish Jacob,a BBC journalist,might not have broken the news of Indira Gandhis assassination.

Mark Tully,his colleague at the BBCs tiny bureau in New Delhi,was in Mussoorie,and on October 31,Jacob had decided to leave for office. When the phone rang. Jacob wondered if it was the London office calling and he rushed inside. However,on the other end was Anand Sahay,a fellow journalist,who asked him if there was anything wrong. He had just seen an ambulance coming out of the Gandhi residence in Safdarjung.

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Jacob considered calling Rajiv Gandhis secretary V George to ask him if anything was wrong,but decided against it as it may simply have invited a denial.

So instead,he called and asked George if it was serious. And he said,Satish dont say that, Jacob recalled. He told me they had taken her to AIIMS.

Jacob quickly drove to AIIMS. When he reached,he went to the casualty ward and saw a doctor. I said to him,I hope it is nothing serious, said Jacob,who later co-authored a book Amritsar: Mrs Gandhis Last Battle with Mark Tully. He looked at me and said the body was riddled with bullets. Then Jacob saw Mrs Gandhis aide R K Dhawan. He told me he was behind her when these guys started shooting at her. I asked him who,and he said her bodyguards. As she fell down,Mrs Gandhi had screamed at them,asking them what they were doing,Jacob said.

When he had the details,he called London. When he got the line,he said there was an attempt on the PMs life. And then the chaos began. He was flooded with calls. The BBC monitoring unit said they hadnt heard anything on AIR nor had Doordarshan broadcast anything. They broadcast the news at 6 pm after Rajiv was sworn in as the Prime Minister, he said.

Chinki Sinha