New Delhi: Recalling the days of Emergency of 1975, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in conversation with Kaushik Basu, a professor at the Cornell University in the US and India's former chief economic advisor stated that the Emergency that was imposed by former prime minister Indira Gandhi was a "mistake".
Gandhi was quoted as saying "I think that was a mistake. Absolutely, that was a mistake. And my grandmother (Indira Gandhi) said as much. (But) the Congress at no point attempted to capture India's institutional framework... frankly, it does not even have that capability,"
Drawing a comparison with the present day situation, Rahul claimed that there was a fundamental difference between what happened during the emergency, which 'was wrong' and what is happening now.
Targeting the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) Gandhi alleged that the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh the BJP's ideological mentor) is doing something "fundamentally different" and filling up the institutions of the country with its people. Hence, according to him even if the BJP is defeated in the elections they will remain in the institutional structure.
The Emergency was imposed by Indira Gandhi for a 21-month period from 1975 to 1977, during that period constitutional rights and civil liberties were suspended, the media was severely restricted and many opposition leaders were jailed.
The BJP has frequently attacked Congress on this subject.
When asked about the internal democracy within the Congress party, Gandhi said that he is the one who batted for the elections in the party at the Youth Congress and NSUI levels but was criticised and attacked by his own party leaders. However, he wonders why other political party's like the BJP, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP)are not being questioned in this matter.
Recently, the Congress has been walking a tightrope after a group of 23 leaders within the party, also known as 'G-23' expressed their concern on the functioning of the party and wrote a letter seeking organizational changes.