Congress unhappy as Bihar government site terms Indira's rule worse than British

The Congress, which is part of the ruling Grand Alliance in Bihar, has expressed its strong displeasure over the state government's website describing former prime minister Indira Gandhi's rule as worse than British rule in India.

"It is not only wrong but condemnable. We will take this issue to the Bihar government," Congress spokesperson Sarbat Jahan Fatima said on Monday.

Another Congress leader, Prem Chand Mishra, said the party would look into it as it is a serious issue.

State congress president Ashok Choudhary, the Bihar education minister, said it is highly objectionable if anything of what is reported has been mentioned in the official website of the government.

What angered Congress leaders here that it was mentioned in the references made in the history of Bihar section under state profile. "It was he (Jay Prakash Narayan) who steadfastly and staunchly opposed the autocratic rule of Indira Gandhi and her younger son Sanjay Gandhi. Fearing people's reaction to his opposition, Indira Gandhi had him arrested on the eve of declaring National Emergency beginning June 26, 1975. He was put in the Tihar Jail, located near Delhi, where notorious criminals are jailed."

It further said: "Thus, in Free India, this septuagenarian, who had fought for India's freedom alongside Indira Gandhi's father, Jawaharlal Nehru, received a treatment that was worse than what the British had meted out to Gandhiji in Champaran in 1917, for his speaking out against oppression."