Emergency imposed by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was a “mistake” said Congress leader, Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday. The Congress MP made the comments during a conversation with Kaushik Basu, India's former chief economic advisor and termed the move as “wrong”. Rahul, however, added that the current political scenario in the country cannot be compared to that during the Emergency as Congress never tried to “capture the country's institutional framework”.
The Emergency was imposed by the former prime minister of India Indira Gandhi for a 21-month period from 1975 to 1977 during which curbs were inflicted on the fundamental rights of citizens.
He said he is all for internal democracy within the party.
On being asked about his views on the Emergency, Rahul said, "I think that was a mistake. Absolutely, that was a mistake. And my grandmother (Indira Gandhi) said as much."
Asked about Indira Gandhi declaring elections at the end of the Emergency and Pranab Mukherjee telling Basu later, that she did because she thought she might lose the elections, the Wayanad MP said that is a significant difference between what happened during the
Emergency, which "was wrong", and what is happening in the country now. "The Congress party at no point attempted to capture India's institutional framework and frankly, the Congress party does not even have that capability. Our design does not allow us that and even if we want, we cannot do it," he said.
Alleging that Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is doing something "fundamentally different" and filling up the institutions of the country with its people, adding that even if Congress gets defeated the BJP in the election, it will not be able to get rid of their people in the institutional structure, he said. Recollecting a conversation with former Congress chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Kamal Nath before his government was overthrown. Reportedly, Nath had told him that senior bureaucrats in his government would not listen to him as they were RSS people and would not do something that they were asked to do.
So, it is fundamentally different from what is going on now in the country, said Rahul Gandhi.
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On internal democracy within the Congress, Gandhi said he is the one who pushed for elections in the party at the Youth Congress and NSUI levels but has been criticised by his own party members.
Asking why nobody raises questions on why there is no internal democracy in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP). He said such questions are asked only to Congress as it is an "ideological party" and has the ideology of the Constitution. "Therefore, it is more important for us to be democratic," he said.