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| Recalling Indira Gandhi's legacy | | editorial | |
While Congress has sought to bask in the glory of late Indian Prime
Minister and party leader, Indira Gandhi by repeating her slogan of
"gharibi hatao" and promising to chalk out a comprehensive economic
program aimed at removing poverty from the country and ameliorating
the lot of the poor, late Mrs. Gandhi's precedent is invoked by
entirely an unexpected quarter. The RSS has advised the Congress to
follow the example set by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in
respect of implementing the death penalty, awarded by the court on
Afzal Guru. The RSS mouth piece and semi official organ Organizer, has
in a front page story cited the example of late Prime Mister Indira
Gandhi, who went ahead with the hanging of Maqbool Butt, even at the
cost of losing one of the country's finest diplomats Ravinder Mahatra.
The weekly has recalled that Mahatra was kidnapped in London and the
kidnappers demanded the release of Maqbool Butt, who was awarded death
penalty. But the government led by Indira Gandhi refused to surrender
before the dictates of the kidnappers of the diplomat, who was killed
by them and subsequently Maqbool was hanged in 1984. By citing this
precedent set up by Mrs. Gandhi in not surrendering before the
dictates of the militants, RSS has implicitly censored the NDA
government led by their own political wing, the BJP, which committed
an act of national shame by yielding before the dictates of hijackers
of an Indian Air flight, taking off from Nepal and landing it at
Kandhar in Afghanistan. Surrendering to the dictates of the hijackers
to release four hard core terrorists, including Azhar Masood, the then
Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh escorted the terrorists to Kandhar to
hand them over to the hijackers, in exchange for the release of the
hostages. It is not for the first time that the RSS has eulogized the
role of Indira Gandhi, believed to be the chief adversary of RSS and
its political wing Jan Sangh and BJP. In the wake of India's victory
over Pakistan in the 1971 war, accompanied by the dismemberment of
Pakistan with creation of independent sovereign Bangladesh RSS
showered praises on the bravery, fortitude and courage displayed by
the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and even the then Jan Sangh leader
Atal Bihari Vajpayee called Indira Gandhi as incarnation of goddess
"Durga". Not only this during emergency imposed on the country by Mrs.
Gandhi in 1975, the then RSS Chief Bala Sahib Devras wrote a letter
from the jail to Indira Gandhi supporting some hard actions taken by
her to bring discipline in the country, Which later were cited by the
adversaries of RSS as an attempt at placating Mrs. Gandhi and was also
characterized as tendering of apology. Whether the present Congress
led UPA government accepts the advice given by RSS to not pardon Afzal
Guru convicted to death penalty for his active involvement in attack
on Indian Parliament in 1999 is to be seen, the Congress promise of
repeat performance of late Indira Gandhi's slogan of "gharibi hatao",
after more than three and half decates of the slogan originally coined
by the late Congress leader, which paid her rich electoral dividends,
will once again bring electoral gains to the Congress in the
forthcoming elections to some states will be watched keenly.
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