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| Sonia commends anti-Indira book | | Era Of Blunders -- I | | Rustam
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, June 1: The Congress has come out with a comprehensive book on its own history. It has been brought out to commemorate 125 years of the party. The book is nothing but a blistering attack on the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. This is the fifth volume. The book holds Indira responsible for the decline of the Congress, particularly in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, which return to the Lok Sabha almost 25 per cent members. Senior Congress leader and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has written its preface. AICC president Sonia Gandhi has commended the book. On the contrary, Congress national spokesperson Manish Tiwari has downplayed the issue, saying "The book begins with two disclaimers that the views of the authors are not representatives of the views of Congress. If at all there is some author who has come to a conclusion which cannot be purported to be the conclusion of the party, we do not subscribe to those views." Perhaps, he aired his views without discussing the issue with the AICC president, who, like Indira Gandhi, exercises the veto power. Sonia is the Congress. Others in the Congress are simply sycophants whose only duty it is to obey her orders like the faithful servants do.
Anyway, the book has been, in the words of Mukherjee, produced by what he calls "objective" historians and commentators. The authors/contributors are one as far as their attitude to Indira Gandhi is concerned. At the same time, they are highly critical of Indira. They are critical because Indira imposed emergency in 1975 after the Allahabad High Court, hearing a petition against her, ruled that she had indulged in "illegal practices" during the election. The Court had also ordered her to vacate the seat, immediately. Instead of honoring the court verdict, she declared a state of emergency on June 26, 1975. In 1975, the opposition parties, backed by local groups and NGOs, had staged regular demonstrations in almost all the states of the country protesting against the rising inflation and unchecked corruption in the government. The intensity of protest had been increasing day by day with the government failing to pacify them and containing the movement.
After the imposition of emergency, the political baton came into the hands of Indira, which she used and exploited to the hilt. Political rivals were put behind the bars and they were beaten and assaulted in the jails. Civil, political and constitutional rights of the people were snatched. The press was placed under strict censorship. In fact, she imposed warlike restrictions even on the civil liberties. It was a jungle raj. In October-November 1976, she even made an effort to change the "basic civil libertarian structure" of the Indian Constitution thorough the 42nd amendment to it.
Indira imposed rigorous curbs on the Press because she considered it inconvenient and not amenable. The result was that the bulk of the media turned hostile towards her. It thought of giving maximum possible coverage to events that painted Indira and her government black, anti-democratic, corrupt to the core and anti-people. In fact, it did that and very boldly without caring for the consequences. There were no exaggerations. They only reported what happened and what she and her government would do. Convinced that her real opponent was the fearless and objective press, she turned her full attention towards the media. Indian Express and similar other papers were her main targets, as she believed that they were responsible for creating a hostile political environment for her and her government. So much so that her agents refused power supply to such media houses as Indian Express. They would, if they so like, seize the press. In other words, her government created all sorts of problems for the Press. With the result, the media houses could not publish what they wanted to publish. The restrictions on the media adversely affected circulation and it was a natural corollary. This is what the book says.
The book also says the imposition of emergency was a "monumental mistake." In fact, it Compares India of 1975-1977 with Germany under Hitler, the Soviet Union under Stalin, China under Mao and Pakistan under Zia-ul- Haque. The comparison should clinch the whole issue and establish that Indira threw all the democratic norms to the wind to retain control over the government. The people took revenge in 1977 and brought to power the newly founded Janata Party. In Uttar Pradesh, the Congress couldn't win even a single seat out of a total of 85 seats. The media played a very significant role in the fall of Indira in 1977.
The book, in short, is a catalogue of blunders committed by Indira. However, the authors have failed to do full justice to the project they were assigned by the Congress. For example, they have not highlighted the grave evils that followed after the signing of the Indira-Sheikh Abdullah accord of 1975. (To be concluded) |
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