A visitor from Gujarat at the Indira Gandhi Memorial. Picture by Prem Singh

New Delhi, Oct. 30: If the number of daily visitors is a measure of a leader’s popularity, Indira Gandhi beats her father and even the Mahatma hands down.

Some 8,000 to 10,000 people visit the Indira Gandhi Memorial on any weekday, say the caretakers of the building where the then Prime Minister was gunned down by her bodyguards on October 31, 1984.

“The number is 12,000-13,000 at weekends, and with her death anniversary approaching, it’s gone beyond 15,000,’’ said Hari Das, an official at the 1 Safdarjung Road memorial. That’s more than double what the Mahatma can draw and five times what Nehru can.

Das said most of the visitors were villagers, and they came from all over the country. He was right.

There was Manjula Behn from Anand in Gujarat, Chandrahas Mahato from Dhenkanal in Orissa, Remani from Palakkad in Kerala, Sirajuddeen from Midnapore in Bengal, Meena Raju from Davangere in Karnataka.

“My father always wanted to see the spot where Indiraji laid down her life for the country,’’ said Remanik Bhai from Gujarat as he introduced his father Karamsingh Bhai, 90, who can barely walk.

Why this fascination?

“She was the only one who cared for the poor. There is none like her. Which other Prime Minister died for the country? She is a martyr,” Karamsingh said.

But there’s her son Rajiv Gandhi too?

The nonagenarian did not respond and just kept staring at Indira’s bloodstains, preserved behind glass frames on concrete slabs — pieces from the paved pathway where she was shot.

The guard stationed at the spot said he saw such emotional scenes every day. “Some people, mostly the older ones, cry inconsolably when they see the spot. Some even faint.”

The mood at Teen Murti Bhavan, the memorial to Jawaharlal Nehru, is barely 2km away. But the numbers here are vastly different, and so is the crowd.

“Our visitors are mostly educated people who come to visit with intellectual purposes ---- we have one of the best collections of material on India’s freedom movement,’’ said P. Chandramohan, chief curator.

An average of 3,000 visitors arrives daily, mostly from southern and eastern India. College and school students on annual study tours make up the largest chunk.

Chandramohan said Nehru’s lower “popularity” compared with his daughter’s might have something to do with the dominant political ideology of the day.

“Nehru, who talked about socialism and non-alignment, obviously does not quite gel with the currently fashionable political ideologies. Even the Congress does not need Nehru, so why talk about the common people?’’ he said.

He added softly: “I have seen old people weep in front of Nehru’s portraits.”

The visitor profile at Gandhi Smriti, in the Old Birla House where the Mahatma spent the last 144 days of his life, reflects the universal appeal of the man and his ideals. Here one gets to see tourists from across the world.

“On any single day we get 6,000 visitors. The figure rises in the tourist season. We get more foreign tourists than any other memorial because Gandhism is of universal value,’’ said Ashok Kumar, assistant estate manager at the memorial.

There has been a remarkable increase in the number of visitors from China these days, he said.

At the Indira memorial, Arabs make up the largest chunk of the foreign visitors. “She was very popular in West Asia, especially after she invited Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to Delhi,’’ an official said.

The memorial displays images of Indira from various stages of her life: the powerful Prime Minister, the young mother of Rajiv and Sanjay, the grandmother doting on Rahul, Priyanka and Varun.

The mustard yellow cotton sari she wore the day of her death is carefully pleated over a slab in her dressing room.

“She had only five pairs of chappals and that too mostly Kolhapuri ---- unbelievable!’’ a teenage girl who had come as part of a school trip exclaimed as she looked round the room.

Manjula Behn, a septuagenarian from Gujarat, could not explain why she liked Indira so much. “She was really good…” she kept repeating.

“I have always been fascinated by her,” said Veera, a professional from Mumbai and part of a Parsi grandmother-mother-grandson trio. “I could not come to Delhi when she was alive, but I want my son to understand the greatness of Indira Gandhi.”

Tour conductors say their clients always demand a trip to the Indira memorial. “This spot has become a mandatory part of our itinerary,’’ said Pyarelal of Delhi Tours and Travels.

At Gandhi Smriti, one does miss the spontaneity of the Indira memorial crowd.

“That may be true, because ordinary people are always influenced by the dominant ideology. Gandhism and Nehruism perhaps look a little faded in this era of globalisation and nuclearisation,’’ assistant estate manager Kumar said.

But he added: “That doesn’t mean these two ideologies are dated. They will survive because of their intrinsic values.”

The samadhis of the Mahatma, Nehru and Indira ----- Rajghat, Shanti Van and Shakti Sthal ---- have a common entrance, so a differential break-up is impossible. The combined crowd is much smaller, at best 2,000 a day.