A few days after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s acknowledgement that the imposition of Emergency was a mistake and that even her grand-mother had realised it later, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said that it is an outdated issue and needs to be permanently ‘buried’.
In a weekly column of Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana, ‘Rokhthok’ he wrote that now one can say that the Emergency period was better than the prevailing condition in the country.
Raut said that there is no need for Rahul Gandhi to express regret about the imposition of Emergency imposed by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975.
The Executive Editor wrote: “People of India punished Indira Gandhi for her decision. They taught her a lesson, but later forgave her by bringing her back to power. Emergency is an outdated issue. Why rake it up again and again?”
Commenting on the Income Tax raids on film-stars Anurag Kashyap and Taapsee Pannu he wrote that the raids came only when they spoke against the Union government’s policy.
According to Raut: “She was firm that the step had to be taken against the prevailing backdrop where provocation was done in an attempt to create anarchy. She was of the view that Emergency was imposed because democracy was derailed.”
It needs to be mentioned that Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar had last week said that the BJP should learn from Rahul and apologise for the Gujarat riots of 2002. The party’s spokesman Nawab Malik had said that the Congress had also apologised for the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
