Situation now worse than during Emergency: Congress

Noting former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had publicly condemned the excesses during Emergency several times, the Congress on Monday said that the current situation in the country is worse than what it was during that time.

Referring the Facebook posts by Union Minister Arun Jaitley, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said: "The situation in the country is this, only because of these blogs. We hope he recovers soon, so that he stops writing blogs and starts working."

"Even after 43 years, they (the BJP) are singing the same tune. They forget to say this that Indiraji respecting the democracy, had lifted Emergency and had conducted elections.

"We lost that election, people taught us a lesson. Indiraji and Congress accepted the mandate of the people. Janata Party formed the government," he added.

Surjewala also noted that after having seen the performance of the Janata government, people voted them out of power and the Indira Gandhi-led Congress came back to power.

"The then Congress President Indiraji (Gandhi) and Sonia Gandhi as party president, both have publicly said several times that excesses during Emergency was wrong. They condemned it. We have the courage to accept it that if there was any mistake anywhere..."

Surjewala also claimed the situation under any other regime or government was much better than the current situation in the country.

"I want to remind (BJP President) Amit Shah and others that even during that time the situation was not so bad as it is now. That you will be called anti-national, if you disagree. The situation was not so that one would get killed in broad daylight for their choice of food or dress one wears. And they (killers) would get protection from the government," he said.

He said that the situation now was that Dalits and Adivasis are being flogged publicly, laws pertaining to reservation and protection of Dalits are being abandoned, there is firing on farmers to kill them and a Commission report acquits the guilty and the money in the banks is being looted.

"This was not the situation during that time," he said.

Jaitley on Monday compared Indira Gandhi, who imposed Emergency, to Hitler, stating that both used the Constitution "to transform democracy into dictatorship".

--IANS

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