News Analysis India

Tag: Emergency

  • Nearly fifty years later, Rahul follows in grandma Indira’s footsteps with disqualification

    Express News Service

    The disqualification of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi from the Lok Sabha is not the first involving a member of his family. Nearly five decades ago, his grandmother and then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi also lost her MP status, following a ruling of the Allahabad High Court, which found her guilty of electoral malpractices in the 1971 general elections.

    The momentous High Court verdict came on June 12, 1975, following a petition filed by Raj Narain, whom she had defeated in Rae Bareli, accusing her of using corrupt practices to win the election. In a first for a sitting Indian PM, Indira Gandhi was herself cross-examined in the High Court.

    ALSO READ | Disqualified because PM Modi is scared over my next speech on Adani: Rahul Gandhi

    Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha ruled that the PM was guilty of misusing government machinery for her election campaign. The HC not only set aside her election to the Lok Sabha but also disqualified her from contesting elections for the next six years.

    When Indira Gandhi challenged the decision in the Supreme Court, Justice VR Krishna Iyer upheld the judgement on June 24. What happened next is well known. The Opposition led by Jayaprakash Narayan called for protests and held a massive rally in Delhi. This unnerved the PM who coaxed President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed to declare a state of emergency on June 25.

    ALSO READ | Who are the people within Congress wanting to get rid of Rahul, wonders Anurag Thakur

    Indira Gandhi finally called for general elections in 1977 after extending the state of emergency twice. She stood from Rae Bareli again but this time lost by over 50,000 votes to the same Raj Narain who subsequently became Minister for Health and Family Welfare in the Morarji Desai government.

    Coming back to the present, two days after his conviction in a defamation case, Rahul Gandhi is yet to file an appeal in a higher court. It remains to be seen whether, unlike his grandmother, he will get his disqualification quashed when the appeal is made.

    ALSO WATCH |

    The disqualification of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi from the Lok Sabha is not the first involving a member of his family. Nearly five decades ago, his grandmother and then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi also lost her MP status, following a ruling of the Allahabad High Court, which found her guilty of electoral malpractices in the 1971 general elections.

    The momentous High Court verdict came on June 12, 1975, following a petition filed by Raj Narain, whom she had defeated in Rae Bareli, accusing her of using corrupt practices to win the election. In a first for a sitting Indian PM, Indira Gandhi was herself cross-examined in the High Court.

    ALSO READ | Disqualified because PM Modi is scared over my next speech on Adani: Rahul Gandhigoogletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha ruled that the PM was guilty of misusing government machinery for her election campaign. The HC not only set aside her election to the Lok Sabha but also disqualified her from contesting elections for the next six years.

    When Indira Gandhi challenged the decision in the Supreme Court, Justice VR Krishna Iyer upheld the judgement on June 24. What happened next is well known. The Opposition led by Jayaprakash Narayan called for protests and held a massive rally in Delhi. This unnerved the PM who coaxed President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed to declare a state of emergency on June 25.

    ALSO READ | Who are the people within Congress wanting to get rid of Rahul, wonders Anurag Thakur

    Indira Gandhi finally called for general elections in 1977 after extending the state of emergency twice. She stood from Rae Bareli again but this time lost by over 50,000 votes to the same Raj Narain who subsequently became Minister for Health and Family Welfare in the Morarji Desai government.

    Coming back to the present, two days after his conviction in a defamation case, Rahul Gandhi is yet to file an appeal in a higher court. It remains to be seen whether, unlike his grandmother, he will get his disqualification quashed when the appeal is made.

    ALSO WATCH |

  • ‘Biggest cowardly attack on democracy’: Parties slam Congress on Emergency’s 47th anniversary

    The Emergency, declared on this day in 1975 by former prime minister Indira Gandhi, suspended fundamental rights of citizens and brought press censorship.

  • Citing ‘overlapping’, NCERT removes portions on 2002 Gujarat riots, Emergency, Mughal courts from class 12 books

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The NCERT has removed portions about the 2002 Gujarat riots, Emergency, Cold War, Naxalite movement and Mughal courts from its class 12 textbooks as part of its “syllabus rationalisation” exercise.

    The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has cited “overlapping” and “irrelevant” as reasons for dropping those portions from the syllabus.

    Many of these changes were announced earlier this year when the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) rationalised its syllabi in April.

    Besides schools under CBSE, some state boards also use NCERT textbooks.

    Listing the changes, the NCERT, in a note, said, “The content of the textbooks has been rationalised for various reasons, including overlapping with similar content in other subject areas in the same class, similar content included in the lower or higher classes on the same subject.

    It also stated that difficulty level, content which is easily accessible to students without much intervention from teachers and can be learned by self-learning or peer-learning and content which is irrelevant in the present context have been removed.

    In class 12 political science textbook, pages on the topic ‘Gujarat Riots’ will be excluded from the chapter titled ‘Recent Developments in Indian Politics’.

    The mention of the National Human Rights Commission report on the 2002 violence and the “raj dharma” remark by then Prime Minister Atal Bihar Vajpayee has been dropped from the textbook.

    Also, chapters on Mughal courts in a history textbook, a poem on the Dalit movement and a chapter on the Cold War, are among the exclusions from the political science textbook.

    In Class 10, the excluded chapters included verses of poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz in the ‘Religion, Communalism and Politics — Communalism, Secular State’ section of the textbook ‘Democratic Politics II’.

    Also, chapters titled ‘Democracy and Diversity’, ‘Popular Struggle and movements’ and ‘Challenges to Democracy’ have been dropped.

    In the social science textbook of classes seven and eight, references to Dalit writer Omprakash Valmiki were removed.

    In the class seven textbook titled ‘Our Pasts-2’, the topic ‘Emperors: major campaigns and events’, has been removed.

  • India under ‘Modi-gency’ for seven years: Congress’ jibe at PM, BJP

    Congress general secretary and chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala #39;s comments came after Modi in a tweet said quot;the dark days of Emergency can never be forgotten quot;.

  • Congress didn’t learn from mistakes it made during Emergency: Poonia

    Poonia said the Congress did not learn from the mistakes it made during the period of Emergency and was gradually disappearing from national and state politics.

  • CMs of BJP-ruled states in Northeast condemn Congress on 46th anniversary of Emergency

    By Express News Service
    GUWAHATI: The Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states in the Northeast condemned the Congress on the 46th anniversary of the Emergency, describing it as the darkest day of democracy.

    Taking to Twitter, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma wrote: “National Emergency was not done to thwart any attempt of political violence or sedition. It was a sheer manifestation of Gandhi’s anger & her attempt to enjoy political supremacy.”

    Manipur CM N Biren Singh said on this day in 1975, the declaration of Emergency by the Congress to fulfil its own political interests was the biggest assault on India’s democracy.

    ALSO READ: Dark days of Emergency can never be forgotten, says PM Modi

    “We will never forget those dark days of dictatorship. Salute to the satyagrahis who resisted the emergency despite fierce torture,” Singh wrote on the micro-blogging site.

    He shared a poster along with his tweet, captioning it “Emergency 1975, the unforgivable sin of the Congress; a horrible saga to capture power by crushing the Constitution and democracy.”

    Tripura CM Biplab Kumar Dey also remembered “the darkest day of democracy.”

    He tweeted that the Emergency was imposed violating the freedom of expression and the rights of people. “I salute everyone who fiercely and fearlessly resisted the Emergency,” Deb said.

    He saluted every voice that was raised against the “darkest chapter of Indian history and democracy on the occasion of Anti-Emergency Day.”

  • Dark days of Emergency can never be forgotten, says PM Modi

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: On the 46th anniversary of the imposition of Emergency, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said those “dark days” can never be forgotten and called for taking a pledge to strengthen India’s democratic spirit and live up to the values enshrined in the Constitution.

    “This is how Congress trampled over our democratic ethos. We remember all those greats who resisted the Emergency and protected Indian democracy,” he tweeted, while sharing a link about several draconian measures taken by the then Congress government.

    “The dark days of Emergency can never be forgotten. The period from 1975 to 1977 witnessed a systematic destruction of institutions. Let us pledge to do everything possible to strengthen India’s democratic spirit, and live up to the values enshrined in our Constitution.” he said.

    Other senior BJP leaders also hit out at the Congress with Home Minister Amit Shah saying the Congress “murdered” democracy on this day in 1975 for its lust and arrogance of power.

    Emergency was imposed to trample on voices that were raised against a family, he said, calling it a dark chapter in India’s democracy.

    BJP president J P Nadda paid tributes to those who fought against Emergency while suffering numerous atrocities.

    The Emergency was imposed by then prime minister Indira Gandhi for a 21-month period from 1975 to 1977, when curbs were imposed on the fundamental rights of people.

    Gandhi lifted Emergency in 1977 and called for Lok Sabha elections in which the Congress was handed a crushing defeat, its first ever since the country’s Independence in 1947, by the combined opposition of Janata Party.

  • BJP’s turn to apologise for Gujarat riots after Congress admits ‘Emergency error’: Nawab Malik

    By ANI
    MUMBAI: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and Maharashtra Cabinet minister Nawab Malik on Wednesday asked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to apologise for the 2002 Gujarat riots following Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s admission that the Emergency imposed in the country during the tenure of his grandmother, the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was wrong.

    “Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has accepted that the declaration of the Emergency was wrong. After 45 years of its implementation, Congress has accepted their mistake,” Malik said.

    “Congress has also apologised for the Delhi riots. Now it’s the turn of the BJP to apologise for the Gujarat riots. It takes a large heart to accept the wrongs of the past, to accept that the declaration of ’emergency’ was a mistake. Rahul Gandhi has done it,” he added.

    Congress leader and the party’s former president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said that the Emergency imposed in the country during the tenure of his grandmother the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was wrong.

    On 25 June 1975, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had announced a national emergency in view of ‘threats to national security.During the emergency, opposition leaders were arrested, censorship was imposed, and a ban was announced on grassroots organisations which lasted for a period of 21 months

    Over a thousand people were killed during the three-day riots that ensued at several places in Gujarat after around 58 people lost their lives when the S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express was torched at the Godhra Railway Station on February 27, 2002.  

  • Not enough for Rahul Gandhi to accept 1975 Emergency was a mistake: Anil Vij

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI: A day after Rahul Gandhi said that the Emergency imposed in the country during late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s tenure was wrong, Haryana Home Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Anil Vij on Wednesday said that if the Congress leader has to atone for the imposition of emergency then he should leave the “dictatorial” party.

    “It is not enough for Rahul Gandhi to accept that the Emergency imposed by his grandmother in 1975 was a mistake, because anti-democratic and dictatorship thinking is still alive in Congress. Indira Gandhi may not be here but the rest of the leaders who supported the Emergency are still active in the Congress,” Vij said in a tweet.

    “Today he is also leading the same party. If Rahul Gandhi has to atone for the imposition of emergency, then he should leave the dictatorial Congress party,” he added.

    Rahul, while participating in a webinar organised by US university Cornell on Tuesday, said that the Emergency imposed in the country in 1975 was wrong.

    “There is a fundamental difference between what happened in the Emergency, which was wrong, and what is happening now. Congress party, at no point, attempted to capture India’s constitutional framework. Our design doesn’t allow us that. Even if we want to do it, we can’t,” said the Wayanad MP in interaction with Professor Kaushik Basu.

    On June 25, 1975, Indira Gandhi had announced a national emergency in view of ‘threats to national security’.

    During the emergency, opposition leaders were arrested, censorship was imposed, and a ban was announced on grassroots organisations which lasted for a period of 21 months.  

  • 634 women helped in reaching safe places after dial in dial 112

    With the facility of Dial 112, people stranded in an emergency are greatly relieved. Due to the activeness of the team, 634 women have been discharged from unsafe condition in time to safe places. The team has actively contributed to help 94690 women and children in the state. Special DG RK Vij gave the information of the anecdote at a press conference held at 112 Building Police Control Room Civil Line Raipur. In a press conference, DG Vij said that in all cases, a team of 112 has given relief to people in 11 districts by mutual coordination. In the coming time, service will be started in 17 more districts 112. Work is going on at the last level for this. Vij pointed out that three types of services are available through 112. Since the inception, the police team has not delayed even a minute to give assistance to the person giving the message by listening seriously to the 65 lakh telephone call centers so far. He informed that 10 lakh more are connected through 65 lakh telephone call centers which is related to the functioning of the police. He said that in nine and a half lakh cases, the train has reached the spot immediately. Efforts are being made on the Chief Minister’s action plan to connect the paddy procurement centers with dial 112. In the coming time, farmers will be able to immediately bring the problems related to selling paddy to the concerned department through call centers. 112 has created a good image among the people in its short time. Today, instead of reaching the police station, people are getting immediate relief through 112. This service is proving to be a boon for the common people. They are determined to help more people through 112 through the team. Senior officials of Dial 112 were present at the press conference.