Emergency was imposed on June 25, 1975........
"Newspapers are part of a force which is there to obstruct the social and economic changes that we try to bring about....It (emergency) was just for a very limited period. And during war time, we have lot of political rights are taken away from people and this was for India as serious as a war" - Indira Gandhi justifying emergency and lampooning at so called 'press freedom' !!
More from extracts:
"In a parliamentary democracy is a judge competent to override what Parliament has done?
The decision I took was ratified by the cabinet, and by the Parliament. It was not only expected, it was applauded by the entire nation. Had we held the elections in 1976, we would have won hands down!
We did not hold the elections because the state of the economy was such that time .....Therefore, we jeopardised our political future and decided to give economic stability and soundness to India...."
Question: Why it was necessary to imprison Mr Morarji Desai ? Was he an economic threat....?
Indira Gandhi: Because these were the people DESTROYING DEMOCRACY ! .....I am sorry you people have short memory....They said we must take the battle to the street!
Mr Morarji Desai is on record to say we are going to surround the Prime Minister's House....Parliament and we will see that no business is done"
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| Desai and his chief rival |
"....Somebody else incited the police and the army" - (perhaps in reference to J P Narayan)
In a piece in 2018 - in the context of Emergency and PM Narendra Modi's leadership, I wrote:Critics of politics often complain that it encourages and promotes the art of self-interest. But one irony of this situation is that political decisions often come back to haunt those who make them, meaning one mistake can become a legacy.
This is the dilemma the leaders of India's leading opposition party, the Congress, now face after accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of pursuing sectarian politics for the last four years, often crushing India's democratic principles.Modi, leader of the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has forged an image as a decisive leader and tough taskmaster since he rose to power in May 2014.
Jaitley refers to an episode whereby the Gandhi administration removed certain judges from the Supreme Court and appointed its own replacements to head the top court during this stormy period of undemocratic rule.
"The court was packed with the government’s preferred judges. A dangerous thesis was propagated by Law Minister H.R. Gokhale that the judiciary must follow the social philosophy of the government and judges must be appointed on the basis of their social philosophy," Late Jaitley wrote.
He has also courted controversy by comparing Indira Gandhi with Hitler.
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| PM and her 'powerful son' Sanjay |
oh that was the darkest part of india after independence
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