Emergency: Cong clears Indira,slams Sanjay,calls JP ‘undemocratic’

“The period of Emergency saw the suspension of normal political procedures and fundamental rights,… enforcement of press censorship…powers of judiciary were reduced drastically. Unlimited state and party power was concentrated in the hands of the Prime Minister,” says the book ‘Congress and the The Making of the Indian Nation’ which has Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee as the Chief Editor.

Noting that Indira Gandhi’s younger son Sanjay Gandhi had by then emerged as a leader of great significance,it said it was due to his support to family planning initiative that the government decided to pursue it more vigorously.

“He also promoted slum clearance,anti-dowry measures and promotion of literacy but in an arbitrary and authoritarian manner much to the annoyance of the popular opinion,” the book says.

It said while vast sections of the population welcomed it initially since general administration improved,”unfortunately,in certain spheres,over-enthusiasm led to compulsion in the enforcement of certain programmes like compulsory sterilisation and clearing of slums”.

On Jayaprakash Narayan,it says that he “could not be faulted” on his integrity and selflessness,but added that his ideology was “vague”. It describes JP’s movement as “extra-constitutional and undemocratic.”

Regarding Rajiv Gandhi,the book says that in his anxiety to make quick changes,he shuffled and reshuffled his team both in the party and the government frequently.

“The promises of reform in the party which he made in his famous Bombay speech as a corollary to attack on power brokers in the party,could not be fulfilled. Party elections,long overdue,were put off again and again”,the book says.

The book had a word of praise for P V Narasimha Rao. “It was creditable that his government completed full term,making him the first person outside the Nehru-Gandhi family to serve as PM for five continuous years,” it says.

The major achievement of this government was the carrying forward of the process of economic reforms which the Congress party had outlined in its election manifesto (when Rajiv Gandhi was the leader),according to the book.