Rahul Gandhi On 1975 Emergency- Says It Was a “Mistake”

Rahul Gandhi speaks out on the 1975 Emergency…learn more

Wednesday, 3rd March 2021

The Emergency imposed in 1975 by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was an absolute “mistake” as per Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

In a video interaction with economist, professor Kaushik Basu on Tuesday, Rahul said, “I think that was a mistake. Absolutely, that was a mistake. And my grandmother said as much. But the Congress party did not want to capture India's institutions. We do not have that capability.”

Rahul also said that the Emergency was “fundamentally different from the current scenario.” During the time, he stated, not only was there a general suspension of constitutional rights and liberties, there were severe restrictions imposed on the media and several opposition leaders were put behind bars.

The current ruling party has many leaders who were put into jail during the Emergency. Time and again they have brought up the subject and hurled it at Congress especially when they themselves have been accused of curtailing freedom of speech, the right to dissent, and bullying the media into submission.

In June 2020, Home Minister Amit Shah posted a number of tweets in which he wrote about the “atrocities” that were “committed on the poor and downtrodden.”

Mentioning the present situation in Pondicherry, Rahul talked about the basic difference between what took place between 1975-77 and what is happening today.

He stated that what the RSS is doing “is something different”. According to him the party there is endeavoring to capture all the constitutional institutions and thus he believes, even they “defeat” the BJP, the RSS is going to be a constant feature in the institutions. Citing the situation with the RSS, Rahul went on to state that this was a reason why the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh could not function.

When questioned on matters of internal democracy within the Congress party, Rahul said, “You are asking this to a person who has been pushing for elections in the party in youth organizations for a decade.” He added that he was “literally crucified” for this and have been “attacked” by the people of his own party.

The News Talkie Bureau

Source:

NDTV