Serenading the Emergency

Had Indira Gandhi been alive today, she would have had a hearty laugh watching the acrobatics that are being indulged in both by the perpetrators and the victims of the Emergency that she imposed 25 years ago. Among the victims, only a queer union between hypocrisy and senility could have given birth to the BJP decision to observe the anniversary of the Emergency in a big way – ostensibly to show its protest against the then Congress regime’s attack on democratic rights.

At a time when its home minister at the centre is busy taking a leaf out of the same Emergency book to devise a more draconian version of the then dreaded MISA, the only fitting way that the BJP should observe June 26 is by serenading the departed soul of Indira Gandhi. There are more reasons for such a celebration, since the BJP ministers are ruling the country with partners, many among whom were the main perpetrators of crimes during the Emergency. Some have even become members of the BJP. Leading among them is the present urban development minister Jagmohan, who in his role as a bureaucrat during the Emergency period earned notoriety by unleashing his bulldozers on the slums around Turkmane Gate in Delhi. Another high-profile minister in the Vajpayee cabinet is Maneka Gandhi, who during the Emergency actively participated in all the obnoxious demonstrations and outrageous acts perpetrated by her husband Sanjay Gandhi at that time. Neither Jagmohan nor Maneka Gandhi has till now apologised for their behaviour that led to the loss of hundreds of lives during 1975-76.