Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said that the Emergency imposed by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975 was a “mistake” but...
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said that the Emergency imposed by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975 was a “mistake” but there was a “fundamental difference” between the situation then and now, reported NDTV.
“I think that was a mistake,” Gandhi said in a conversation with Cornell University Professor of Economics Kaushik Basu. “Absolutely, that was a mistake. And my grandmother [Indira Gandhi] said as much.”
The Bharatiya Janata Party, whose leaders were among those jailed during the Emergency, has frequently criticised the Congress for the period when constitutional rights and civil liberties were suspended in the country.
Last year, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had attacked the Congress for turning the country into what he called a prison and curtailing all forms of freedom during the Emergency.
“On this day [Thursday, June 25], 45 years ago one family’s greed for power led to the imposition of the Emergency,” Shah had tweeted. “Overnight the nation was turned into a prison. The press, courts, free speech all were trampled over. Atrocities were committed on the poor and downtrodden.”
During the online conversation on Tuesday, Gandhi said that there was a “fundamental difference” between what happened during the Emergency and now, alleging that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the BJP’s ideological mentor, was filling institutions...
