Jaitley slams detractors for ‘undeclared emergency’ allegation

TIL Desk/National/New Delhi/ Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has hit out at detractors for casually using ‘undeclared emergency’ to describe the present BJP government saying they should introspect where they were during the Emergency under Indira Gandhi.

In a facebook post on the anniversary of the Emergency, Jaitley asked the critics what was their publicly declared stand during those 19-months, while stating that it has become customary for the critics of any government in India to casually use an expression ‘undeclared emergency’.

“Those making these exaggerated comments need to introspect their own roles during the Emergency. Most of them were either supporting the Emergency or were absent in any protest against the Emergency,” he wrote. Detailing circumstances under the Emergency, the minister in the post titled “Forty Two Years Ago – The Emergency” said an era of sycophancy always suffers from a dichotomy.

“A dictatorial regime is often misled by its own propaganda. It becomes consumer of its own propaganda with nobody else believing it. It misled itself to believe that the people were in support of the dictatorship,” he said. And this led to Indira Gandhi committing the ultimate error of ordering an election which witnessed a rebellion against her emergency regime, he wrote.