The finance minister, Arun Jaitely on Monday compared former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to Hitler, in a three-part series on Emergency that has been tweeted from his handle as well as posted on Facebook titled “The Emergency revisited”.
Mrs. Gandhi’s imposition of Emergency under Article 352, suspension of fundamental rights under Article 359 and her claim that “disorder was planned by the opposition in the country”, echoed Hitler’s “Reichstag” episode as exposed by the Nuremberg trials after 13 years
— Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) June 25, 2018
“The Representation of People Act was retrospectively amended to insert those provisions so that the invalid election of Mrs. Gandhi could be validated by changes in law. Unlike Hitler, Mrs. Gandhi went ahead to transform India into a ‘dynastic Democracy’, ” he further said in a multi-part tweet.
The press was completely terrorized. Most editors & journalists surrendered & reconciled with the Idea of living in dictatorship. The Congress Party newspaper “National Herald” editorially commented that time had come for India to evolve into a single party democracy.
— Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) June 25, 2018
The three part series mainly recalls how more than four decades ago the government led by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed a “phoney” Emergency and turned democracy into a constitutional dictatorship.
Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency in June 1975 and suspended key fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution.
“It was a phoney emergency on account of proclaimed policy that Indira Gandhi was indispensable to India and all contrarian voices had to be crushed. The constitutional provisions were used to turn democracy into a constitutional dictatorship,” Jaitley wrote
Jaitley said he became the first satyagrahi against the Indira Gandhi government’s draconian move and was lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail for organising a protest on June 26, 1975.
The then AICC President, Devakanta Barua proclaimed “Indira is India and India is Indira”. In a letter to Mrs. Gandhi from his detention JP wrote “Do not equate yourself with the nation. India is immortal, you are not”.
— Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) June 25, 2018
On the midnight of June 25-26, 1975 several leaders of opposition parties were arrested
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday wrote about the circumstances that led to the imposition of Emergency in 1975, saying Indira Gandhi thought she was indispensable to the country and sought to crush all contrarian voices.
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