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Forty years on: The Emergency then, and now

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Emergency

by N Jayaram

Many Indians who are in their mid to late 50s or older would remember Indira Gandhi’s Emergency (25 June 1975 to 23 March 1977). A section of Indians look back to it positively, believing the Mussolinian myth that “the trains ran on time”.[1]

Did the trains really run on time during the Emergency? Censorship was at work. Government officials could obviously not report – perhaps not even record – what really transpired. And does it matter whether a lot of the blessed trains ran on time, if in so many other respects India remained the same, with the added impunity that led to what were euphemistically referred to as “Emergency excesses”.

A short history before coming to the Emergency:  Mrs Gandhi became prime minister after the death of her father Jawaharlal Nehru’s successor, Lal Bahadur Shastri, in 1966. She gradually moved the Congress party towards what were perceived to be left-wing policies such as the nationalisation of major banks – and one or two indeed were, such as the abolition of privy purses for the heads of princely states.[2] Meanwhile, Pakistan split into two – partly with Indian help – earning Mrs Gandhi the “Durga” label from Atal Bihari Vajpayee, then of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh and much later of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Indira Gandhi wanted a “committed judiciary” and superseded senior-most judges of the Supreme Court to promote those loyal to her. Corruption raised its ugly head. And in 1974, India tested its first nuclear device. Meanwhile, Jayaprakash Narayan (JP), one of pre- and post-independent India’s most prominent leaders spearheaded an anti-corruption movement that targeted the highest in the land.[3]

On 25th June 1975, the radio delivered the news that Indira Gandhi had declared a state of emergency. A fortnight earlier, Justice J.M.L. Sinha of the Allahabad high court had set aside her election, declaring her guilty of corrupt practices.[4]This had only further fuelled the long festering revolt against her rule. Unable to deal with the opposition, Indira Gandhi promulgated the Emergency, jailed a large number of opposition leaders including JP and imposed press censorship, which initially met with newspapers coming out with blank columns and editorials.

The Emergency became quickly notorious for “excesses” – basically impunity granted to minions of the bureaucracy and to cronies of the prime minister’s son, Sanjay Gandhi. Houses and shops were razed at will in the name of urban development, many people in northern states were subjected to “compulsory family planning” and India stood besmirched in the comity of nations. Ordinances were being passed at will, ignoring the parliament (giving rise to one famous cartoon by Abu Abraham of then president Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed signing an ordinance from his bathtub).

Indira Gandhi lifted the Emergency on 23 March 1977 and called elections which she perhaps believed she would win, but suffered a crushing defeat. Opposition leaders who had developed bonds while in prison banded together to form the Janata Party, which swept to power. They soon fell out and the Congress returned to power just a few years later. The 1980s were to see the Congress pursuing dangerous policies that culminated in the storming of the Golden Temple in Amritsar in 1984, the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards and an anti-Sikh pogrom in retaliation supervised by Congress party leaders who have yet to answer for their crimes.

The impunity enjoyed by the Congress was later to be usurped by the BJP when it carried out the anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat in 2002. Meanwhile, there was the destruction of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya by Hindu supremacists led by the BJP, with the then prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao asleep at the wheel. That event was followed by blood-letting in which thousands of Muslim lives were lost.

Today India has a prime minister who as chief minister of Gujarat, presided over the 2002 pogrom and benefited from it in the elections. He also forged alliances with the country’s biggest moneybags who are being favoured since he took office last year. The regime has not only unveiled a series of antediluvian policies such as with respect to education, but its economic policies have been outright anti-people and pro-business.

Someone who has been a part of the establishment – grandson of M.K. Gandhi and C. Rajagopalachari, graduate of St Stephen’s College, IAS officer and India’s ambassador to several countries – Gopalkrishna Gandhi said what needs to be regarding the state of affairs in India now while delivering he PUCL 35th JP Memorial Lecture on 23 March this year (i.e. the anniversary of the lifting of the Emergency):

“There is no emergency in force in India today. There is no promulgation of the emergency either in the states or in part of the states or in the country. Nor do I believe there can be a proclamation of an emergency, thanks to Jayaprakash Narayan. We should also acknowledge the fact that conventional opposition leaders and opposition parties can suddenly discover a dissenter in themselves and become more than conventional opposition. Several so to say conventional oppositional leaders and oppositional activists when they were picked up during the emergency and jailed became dissenters. They became someone bigger than themselves.

…

“Is there a draconian emergency on today? So there is no fear today? There is! But that present level of fear itself is unacceptable. In a country which has been through the fires of Emergency, we do not have a state of emergency today but we have in the air the whiffs of the emergency sentiment, we have strains of the emergency doctrine and palpable pulsations of emergency fear. I believe this is reversible for the reason that JP still means something to the BJP. But even more for the reason that our country is alert and awake in a manner it has not ever been. Let us not dispute or deny or denigrate the fact that this government has got 30-31% of the votes cast. It has got it. Under the first past the post system it is perfectly entitled to being in power but let us not forget that 69-70% of the people have voted differently. They may have not voted the same differently but they have voted differently. Is it strength or a weakness?

…

“… the fear that is prevailing in our country is the starkest and most palpable among the minority communities of India. This level of fear among those communities has precedence only in times of riots that have defaced the history of our country. But in times when there are no riots or riots in real time there has never been a time when fear has been so pronounced in the hearts and minds of the minority communities in India. JP would not have been able to stand or stomach the sight of a cow being slaughtered but he would not have allowed cow slaughter to become a political tool in the hands of a majority party which is using the majority community’s susceptibility, sentiments and heartstrings to needle the minority community, in this case the Muslim community in particular.

…

“What is happening to churches is defined and defended as something unconnected with religion. It didn’t happen in one place; coincidence is a repetition by one, it can happen in two places – coincidence. But 3, 4, 5… so many?! Only about personal and property matters? We are not children.

…

“I shall say the final word now by referring to another unprecedented combination that has occurred. During the emergency, 75-77, there was a kind of an attempt to combine socialist rhetoric with the realpolitik or opportunism. Today there is a great attempt at combining two pulls two compulsions in the public. One is the inborn set of prejudices that all of us have about other communities, polarization by bringing about things like temples, cow slaughter. But the other great pull, the pull for the good life via the world model of globalization the corporate communal binary is like the great combination of two demi-gods wanting to snuff out dissent by a combination of fear and seduction. The latter is even more difficult to resist than the former and the emergency which JP faced, the problem was fear not seduction except when it came to some small loaves and fishes of office. But today it is much more different and that is why it is much more important to resist. In the northern Hindi speaking parts of India, JP was hailed as “Andhere mein ek prakash, Jayaprakash, Jayaprakash”. There is not an andhera yet but there is a kind of twilight that could slip into andhera, but I don’t think the people of India will allow that to happen.”

Amen!

—

The author is a journalist now based in Bangalore after more than 23 years in East Asia (mainly Hong Kong and Beijing) and 11 years in New Delhi. He was with the Press Trust of India news agency for 15 years and Agence France-Presse for 11 years and is currently engaged in editing and translating for NGOs and academic institutions. He writesWalker Jay’s blog.

[1] http://europeanhistory.about.com/od/historicalmyths/a/Did-Mussolini-Get-The-Trains-Running-On-Time.htm

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privy_Purse_in_India

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jayaprakash_Narayan

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagmohanlal_Sinha

Modi government pressurizing me to go 'soft' on Hindutva terrorists: Rohini Salian

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Rohini Salian

Mumbai: In a shocking revelation, Rohini Salian, Special Public Prosecutor in the case related to the 2008 Malegaon terror attack carried out by Hindutva extremists during Ramadan, has said that over the past one year, since “the new government came to power,” she has been under pressure from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to go “soft” saffron terrorists involved in this case.

Ms Salian, who hails from Mangaluru, told a reputed Indian English daily that immediately after Narendra Modi-led government came to power she received a call from one of the officers of the NIA — the agency investigating all the alleged Hindu extremist cases — asking to come over to speak with her.

“He didn’t want to talk over the phone. He came and said to me that there is a message that I should go soft,” she revealed.

Matters came to a head this month, on June 12, she said, when just before one of the regular hearings in the case in the Sessions Court, she was told by the same NIA officer that “higher-ups” did not want her to appear in the court for the State of Maharashtra and that another advocate would attend the proceedings.

Ms Salian, 68, a leading prosecutor who has handled important cases like the J J shootout, Borivili double murder, the Bharat Shah case and the Mulund blasts amongst others, said: “The meaning (of that message from the officer) is very clear — don’t get us favourable orders.”

She said she wants the NIA to officially denotify her from the case to which she was appointed in 2008, “so that I am free to take up other cases, against the NIA, if need be”. The Malegaon blast, on September 29, 2008, claimed four lives and injured 79 while another blast at the same time in Modasa in Gujarat killed one. Initially, Muslims were seen as suspects in the case but it was under Hemant Karkare of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) that investigations led to Hindu extremists based in Indore.

Investigations revealed the blasts were allegedly the handiwork of extremist Hindu organisations. Twelve people were arrested in the case, including Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit. Of the 12, four are on bail.

That probe — later given over to the NIA that was constituted after the 26/11 terror attack in which Karkare was killed — led to a relook at other cases: Malegaon blasts of 2006 (31 killed, 312 injured); 2007 Ajmer blast (3 killed, 15 injured); 2007 Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad (9 killed, 58 injured); and 2007 Samjhauta Express attack (68 killed, 13 injured). The probe found many common accused in these cases.

Salian said that the Supreme Court has now decreed that the case should be tried in a special court with a specially appointed judge to see to the matter. “So in a way it’s all back to square one,” said Salian.

On April 15, the Supreme Court held that the Malegaon accused cannot be charged under MCOCA since there was no evidence as on date. Opening the doors for their release on bail, it further said that the trial court should decide their bail plea on merit and without applicability of MCOCA, preferably within one month. This, Salian said, now leaves it open for the accused to once again appeal for bail in the court under changed circumstances.

“A day before June 12, when the case came up again for regular hearing (in the trial court), the same officer who had come to my office came up to me and said there are instructions from higher-ups, someone else will appear instead of you. I said I was expecting this and, good, you have told me this, so please settle my bills…I also said that now they should now denotify me so that I can appear against the NIA in other matters — not this one — in the future. He must have conveyed it to the higher-ups and I am waiting for their action. I have not heard from anyone since then,” said Salian.

“The meaning (of the message from the government) is very clear — don’t get us favourable orders. Unfavourable orders are invited — that goes against the society,” said a perturbed Salian. When asked how she saw the case proceeding further, Salian said, “For a layman or a fresh prosecutor it’s very difficult — one cannot do anything. Maybe they want to loosen it and ultimately lose the case because they can’t withdraw it.”

(Agencies)

Court takes cognizance of complaint against Smriti Irani

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Smriti Irani

New Delhi: In fresh trouble for HRD Minister Smriti Irani, a Delhi court today took cognizance of a complaint filed against her for allegedly giving false information about her educational qualification.

Metropolitan Magistrate Akash Jain took cognizance of the complaint and fixed the matter for recording of pre-summoning evidence on August 28.

“It is held that the present complaint case is filed under limitation (of time). Cognizance is taken. The matter be now fixed for pre-summoning evidence on August 28,” the magistrate said.

The complaint was filed by freelance writer Ahmer Khan, who alleged that Irani, in her three affidavits before the Election Commission (EC) while filing nominations for her candidature for Lok Sabha as well as Rajya Sabha polls, had purportedly given different details about her educational qualification.

The court had on June 1 reserved the order on the plea after hearing arguments on the aspect of limitation and whether cognizance of the complaint could be taken or not.

Senior advocate K K Manan, appearing for Khan, had told the court that in her affidavit for April 2004 Lok Sabha polls, Irani had said that she completed her BA in 1996 from Delhi University (School of Correspondence) whereas in another affidavit of July 11, 2011 for contesting Rajya Sabha election from Gujarat, she said her highest educational qualification was B.Com part I from the School of Correspondence, DU.

The complaint alleged that in the affidavit filed for nomination of April 16, 2014 Lok Sabha polls from Amethi constituency in Uttar Pradesh, Irani said she had completed Bachelor of Commerce Part-I from School of Open Learning, DU.

“It is evident from the contents of the affidavits filed by Smriti Z Irani that at best only one of the depositions by her on oath in respect of her educational qualifications is correct,” the complaint alleged.

“The aforesaid affidavits of Smriti Irani, apart from the ostensibly false and discrepant statements in respect of her educational qualifications, also appear to contain false/ discrepant statements in respect of immovable properties owned by her and other details set out by her,” it claimed.

“The aforesaid facts and circumstances reveal commission of offences by accused under section 125A of Representation of People Act, 1951, besides any other offences that may attract other penal provisions as an outcome of an additional investigation,” the plea alleged.

(PTI)

Belittling the Vice President of India: Another fascist agenda

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hamid ansari

by Subhash Gatade

Ram Madhav, the first official spokesperson of RSS (later removed or discharged from this role) and these days ‘loaned’ to BJP as a ‘senior leader’ engaged in what an analyst called double delete asana on International Yoga Day. The first of this kind of ‘asana’ – unheard before – was rather necessitated by the impetuosity with which the net savvy leader twitted about ‘absence of Vice President Hamid Ansari’ from the celebrations and the ‘blackout of the programme by Rajya Sabha TV which is chaired by him’ and later twitted ‘an apology about the confusion’ and within no time deleted both the tweets.

By evening it was clear that not only the Rajya Sabha TV had provided a live coverage of the programme but also provided clarifications about honourable Vice President’s absence. It was revealed that he was not invited for the programme by the concerned minister. In fact his office had to issue a press release to the effect because of the insinuations which were being spread targeting him and perhaps also tell the likes of Ram Madhav that there is something called protocol which the Vice President has to follow.

One does not know whether it would be possible for Mr Ram Madhav to comprehend such nuances of democratic procedures because for him such details are of no consequence. In fact if he was really concerned about absence of Vice President of India in the said programme, he could have easily phoned his office and made further enquiries. But as we know he just wanted to underline his absence from such a programme of ‘national glory’ when India was supposedly ‘leading the world’. It was an indirect way to further the illiberal and exclusivist agenda he has been exposed to since younger days.

We know that this is not for the first time that the honourable Vice President has been targeted in such a lowly manner and a campaign of calumny and insinuation has been launched against him. During President Obama’s visit also a similar controversy was raked up by the same elements when national anthem was being played during Republic Day celebrations at Rajpath. A photo of the programme was widely shared on social media wherein the President of India was seen to be saluting the national flag whereas Vice President Hamid Ansari and many other dignitaries were seen merely standing.

“Why didn’t Hamid Ansari salute the national flag?” This question seemed to be top most on the minds of the self-proclaimed defenders of patriotism then. In fact, home minister Rajnath Singh and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj didn’t salute the flag either, but as expected their patriotism was not questioned. Many hate tweets were hurled at the Vice President then ranging from “Jihadi sympathiser”, “anti-India”, “traitor”, few of them even demanded that he be impeached also.

Looking at the raked up controversy the Vice President’s office had to issue a press release then which underlined what is the protocol in such case. It said that when the national anthem is played, the Principal Dignitary and persons in uniform take the salute. Those in civil dress stand in attention. During the Republic Day Parade, the President of India, as Supreme Commander, takes the salute. As per protocol, the Vice President is required to stand in attention.

Both these cases where a concerted attempt was made to denigrate the office of the Vice President brings into sharp focus the modus operandi of the RSS and its affiliated organisations. They have no qualms in spreading falsehoods, stigmatising communities, breaking procedures, targeting institutions. With each passing day one is witnessing that their voices are becoming shriller and adamant.

The only option before every sane voice in this country at present is to remain constantly vigilant so that their machinations to further their majoritarian agenda receive challenge at every juncture

Perhaps it high time to remember the famous lines of Dr. Rahat Indori (which found mention in an appeal circulated by NRIndians Forum :

Jo aaj saahib-e-masnad hai kal nahi honge
Kiraayedar hain zaati makaan thodi hai
Sabhi ka khoon hai shaamil yahan ki mitti me
Kisi ke baap ka Hindustan thodi hai

(Those who are holding reins of power today would not be there tomorrow
They are on rent and it is not their own house
Everybody’s blood is immersed in this land
India does not belong to a particular individual)

Subhash Gatade is the author of Pahad Se Uncha Aadmi (2010) Godse’s Children: Hindutva Terror in India,(2011) and The Saffron Condition: The Politics of Repression and Exclusion in Neoliberal India(2011). He is also the Convener of New Socialist Initiative (NSI) Email : subhash.gatade@gmail.com

Helping Lalit Modi is legally, morally wrong: BJP MP R K Singh

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BJP MP R K Singh

New Delhi: BJP MP R K Singh today struck a discordant note over party leaders Sushma Swaraj and Vasundhara Raje extending help to former IPL boss Lalit Modi, saying “any help to a fugitive is legally and morally wrong”.

He urged the government to take all measures to bring him back to India to face the law.

Singh’s strong comments are the first public criticism by a ruling party MP against the help extended to Lalit Modi by External Affairs Minister Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Raje, an issue which has snowballed into a major political storm for the Narendra Modi government even though BJP has defended both the leaders.

“If anybody helps a ‘bhagoda’ (fugitive), it is wrong. This is wrong legally as well as morally. If anybody meets a fugitive, it is absolutely wrong. Whosoever has helped him, I think it is completely wrong,” Singh, a former Home Secretary, told reporters here.

He said Lalit Modi had been evading judicial warrants and summons and he was clearly a fugitive and any help given to him or any meeting with him was wrong.

He did not name either Swaraj or Raje.

Asked if Lalit Modi was being “saved”, Singh said the departments concerned should be doing their job.

“I have given my view,” he said when asked about BJP’s defence of both the leaders and added that he would not like to name individuals.

Singh said the government should appeal against the Delhi High Court order which restored the former IPL commissioner’s passport and demanded that his property should be attached, if needed.

“All measures should be taken to bring him back to India so that he faces the law,” he said.

Swaraj and Raje have been facing flak for helping Lalit Modi in procuring travel documents in the UK, a country which he has made his home to avoid legal processes in India.

Modi, 49, travelled to London in 2010 after the Indian Premier League (IPL) became embroiled in allegations of match-fixing and illegal betting.

(PTI)

How dare BJP question Hamid Ansari's patriotism again?

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The saffron party’s contempt for India’s largest minority is once again out in the open.

hamid-ansari

by Md Hussain Rahmani, DailyO

First, he is not invited to the event that has gone into the Guinness Book of World Records. Then, his absence is questioned by a very important RSS spokesperson-turned-BJP leader. The episode reflects how the current dispensation thinks of vice-president Hamid Ansari.

Had the BJP general secretary Ram Madhav not tweeted abut the V-P’s “absence” from the Yoga Day celebrations at New Delhi’s Rajpath, it would not have come to light that Ansari was not even invited for the event.

This is, however, not the first time that the high office of the vice-president of India has been questioned over “patriotism”. On the Republic Day celebrations this year, he was declared a “traitor” and lynched on Twitter for not saluting the national flag. However, Ansari was well within the rules and decorum to do so. There were others on the dais who didn’t salute the tricolour, but people went after Ansari calling him a “jihadi”, “anti-India”, and what not.

I was a student at the Aligarh Musilm University when Ansari was the vice-chancellor and had observed him from close quarters. His tenure as the V-C of one of the most watched campuses in India was one of its best time in terms of academics and law and order. He is a man who goes by the book, never beyond it.

Moreover, the left-of-the-centre scholar by no means is an ordinary politician and has risen to the rank of the vice-presidentship riding high on electoral arithmetic. He has been one of India’s top diplomats, who served at the United Nations as permanent representative for six years. You can’t question the patriotism of a man who has dedicated his life to the service of the country and represented it at various international forums. It is naive to think the BJP and its leaders flaunting their patriotism up their sleeves, don’t know about Hamid Ansari and his service record. The obvious question then is: What is the ruling party’s problem with him? Is it that an Indian Muslim, no matter how worthy and qualified, not being respected enough to assume a high constitutional office?

Politically, the BJP may not be comfortable with Ansari. The party had questioned his conduct in the Rajya Sabha for ending its session abruptly during the Lokpal Bill debate in 2011.

But political disagreement is fine in a vibrant democracy. What is strictly not is raising doubts over a Muslim high office holder’s patriotism. It says a lot about the saffron party’s contempt for India’s largest minority.

I am opposed to 'one-man shows' in political parties: L K Advani

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a. Photo: Sonu Mehta/Hindustan Times

Photo: Sonu Mehta/Hindustan Times

New Delhi: Veteran BJP leader L K Advani, who created a flutter yesterday with his apprehensions of Emergency again in India, today clarified that it was not aimed at any individual but said he was against “one-man shows” in political parties and asked leaders to be modest like Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Clarifying his controversial remarks on Emergency, Advani said, “I did not mean any individual when I made that statement. I am opposed to all kinds of dictatorships.”

“Arrogance breeds authoritarianism.It is very sad. Today’s leaders should be modest like Vajpayee,” Advani told Aaj Tak, according to a statement by the channel.

Asked if he feels that a dictatorial trend in political leadership has emerged, Advani said, “I have always been against this one man shows in political parties.”

He said, “Vajpayee was a tall leader with successful record but I never heard someone at that time saying Vajpayee is India and India is Vajpayee.”

In another interview to India Today, Advani also said, “anyone who comes to power doesn’t want to lose it” and warned that the voter will teach a lesson to anyone who “abuses power”.

He also said that the best safeguard against mischief is the voter.
“Right,” he said when asked whether the Indian voter will teach a lesson to any politician who may have delusions of power or a desire to abuse his power.

The BJP patriarch said Emergency cannot be imposed in India for a second time easily but added a word of caution that “those who have power or those who are likely to be in power, their susceptibility would always be greater”.

“Anyone who comes to power doesn’t want to lose it, just as anyone who gets money does not want to lose it,” he said.

Referring to his remarks to the Indian Express where he said that, “at present, the forces that can crush democracy are stronger” was made against the backdrop of the present context, the BJP patriarch sought to dismiss any speculation.

“I do not know whether I used stronger. I simply said strong….what surprises me and what distresses me is that those who have imposed such a drastic Emergency in the country do not have any sense of guilt for that. It is this that distresses me,” he said.

(PTI)

Advani cancels meeting with Kejriwal

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Advani-Kejriwal

New Delhi: Veteran Bharatiya Janata Party leader Lal Krishna Advani cancelled his meeting with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal scheduled for Friday evening.

According to informed sources, the meeting was cancelled following pressure from the BJP.

“To save party from further embarrassment, it was decided that the BJP leader should not meet the Delhi CM,” a BJP source told IANS.

Already in the line of opposition’s fire over the Lalit Modi issue, the ruling BJP was further driven to a corner over remarks of party senior leader L.K. Advani that he did not rule out another “Emergency-like situation” in the country.

Kejriwal was among the first to respond to Advani’s interview published in the Indian Express.

“Advani ji is correct in saying that emergency can’t be ruled out. Is Delhi their first experiment?” he tweeted in an apparent reference to his ugly power tussle with the Centre.

After Advani’s remark, Kejriwal sought a meeting with him. Advani earlier agreed to meet him on Friday evening.

(IANS)

Emergency can happen again, cautions L K Advani

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a. Photo: Sonu Mehta/Hindustan Times

a. Photo: Sonu Mehta/Hindustan Times

New Delhi: BJP patriarch L K Advani’s statement that “forces that can crush democracy are stronger” now created a buzz in political circles leading to speculation that it was a barb aimed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi but RSS dismissed it while Congress and other BJP rivals shared his concern.

“At the present point of time, the forces that can crush democracy, notwithstanding the constitutional and legal safeguards, are stronger,” Advani told Indian Express in an interview.

In the years since the Emergency in 1975-77, he said, “I don’t think anything has been done that gives the assurance that civil liberties will not be suspended or destroyed again. Not at all.”

“Of course, one can do it easily…But that it cannot happen again–I will not say that. It could be that fundamental liberties are curtailed again,” the former Deputy Prime Minister, who is now a member of the BJP’s Margadarshak Mandal, and was incarcerated during the Emergency along with a number of opposition stalwarts then. Advani also said that he did not see any sign in the polity that assures him any outstanding aspect of leadership with a commitment to democracy and to all other aspects related to democracy is lacking.

“Today, I do not say that the political leadership is not mature. I don’t have faith because of its weaknesses. I don’t have the confidence that it (Emergency) cannot happen again.”

Commenting on Advani’s remarks, RSS ideologue M G Vaidya said Advani is a member of the BJP’s Magadarshak Mandal and he did not think he was sending a message to Modi.

“I don’t feel anything like that. He (Advani) is quite senior in age and experience. So he can talk to Modi. He is in the ‘Margdarshak Mandal’ of BJP. I don’t think he has an intention of sending a message to Modi through this interview.” BJP spokesperson M J Akbar also felt it was not aimed at individuals but at institutions.

“I think Advanji was referring to institutions rather than to individuals. I respect his views, but I personally don’t see emergency, any chance of any emergency being reimposed in the country. I think that age is over, Indian democracy is too strong, much stronger now,” he said.

However, Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan latched on to Advani’s remarks saying the “jury is out” from the ruling party itself and he was indeed hinting at “emergency-like” situation under Modi’s rule.

“Today the jury is out. Advaniji is vocal. What he had to say, he has said,” he told reporters. “It is obvious whom he is talking about, whose government is there, who is the Prime Minister. He knows it. But he is a statesman-like leader of the BJP. He did not want to name the Prime Minister. But whoever reads the interview, he/she would understand he is talking about Modi,” Vadakkan said.

Quoting from Advani’s remarks, he said the veteran leader is “right” when he says the present situation in the country signals towards emergency.

(PTI)

Lalitgate: Cong questions PM's silence, says he too is liable

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modi

New Delhi: Congress today attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his “silence” on the Lalitgate, saying he should come out of his ‘meditation’ and answer the nation as he too is “liable”.

“It is ordinance raj. All mantris have become tantris. One minister, what he or she eats, drinks, where they go. The Prime Minister knows everything. But he is unaware when External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was talking to UK authorities on Lalit Modi’s travel documents.

“That means, there was consent of the Prime Minister (for granting travel documents to Lalit Modi)…he is liable. Prime Minister Modi should come out of political Vipassana, and keep truth before the nation,” Congress spokesman Tom Vadakkan told reporters.

Asked about reports of scam-tainted former IPL chief Lalit Modi hosting Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor and Rajiv Shukla too, Vadakkan said they did not hold any official post unlike Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and hence, there was no quid pro quo.

According to media reports, ex-IPL chief had hosted Tharoor, Shukla and Raje at a Mumbai hotel in 2010. Raje was Opposition Leader in Rajasthan Assembly then.

“Now it has come to fore that the then Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan, who is the Chief Minister now, her bills were paid by IPL. Those who are against us will say Tharoor was there, Shukla was there, (NCP chief Sharad) Pawar was there, but they were not Leader of Opposition. In Raje’s case, it is proved there was quid pro quo,” he claimed.

On reports claiming that Raje’s son Dushyant had business links with the former IPL chief, Vadakkan said the matter needs to be investigated.

“It is very difficult to say which Modi has what relations with whom. If the relations are with Chhota (Lalit) Modi, then in whose protection Chhota Modi is, who is giving him transit passport, these are all matters of investigation. These linkages involving Bada Modi, Chhota Modi can be established only then,” he said.

(PTI)

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