October 31 marks former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's death anniversary. She was assassinated on October 31, 1984, by two of her security guards in retaliation to her Operation Blue Star in Amritsar. Operation Blue Star was a military action ordered by Indira Gandhi to flush out Sikh militants holed up in Harmandir Sahib Complex (Golden Temple) in Amritsar.

Indira Gandhi served as the first and only woman prime minister of India from January 1966 to March 1977 and again from January 1980 until her assassination in October 1984.