Emergency imposed by late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi between 1975 to 1977 was a mistake and what all happened during the period was wrong said Congress MP, Rahul Gandhi, in a conversation with economist Kaushik Basu.
Gandhi said that the emergency period during which constitutional and civil liberties were suspended and media was severely restricted was fundamentally different from the current scenario.
While admitting that it was a mistake and Mrs. Indira Gandhi also believed it to be so, Rahul said that at no point of time did the Congress attempted to destroy India’s institutional framework and frankly the party never had such capabilities. The Congress’s design does not allow it to do so, he elaborated.
The ruling BJP continues to target the Congress till this day on this issue. Last year the union home minister Amit Shah in a series of tweets accused the party saying one family’s greed for power turned the nation into a prison overnight.
However, Rahul pointed out that there was a fundamental difference in what Congress did then and what BJP is doing today. He said that RSS which is BJP’s ideological mentor is filling institutions with its own people. So even if Congress defeats BJP in an election it cannot get rid of people in the institutional structure.
He added that democracy is being strangled as institutions are gradually being controlled by one organization – RSS which is a dangerous trend as democracies flourish when there is institutional balance.
