Musharraf's Indira moment

If you guessed General (retired) Pervez Musharraf, you guessed wrong. It was Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975. She also told the Saturday Review of New York, “What has been done... is not an abrogation of democracy but an effort to safeguard it.”

Although she came from a democratic dynasty, Mrs Gandhi fell into the authoritarian temptation when on June 26, 1975 she imposed Emergency in India. Most observers thought she was acting to avoid the consequences of the judgement by the Allahabad High Court annulling her election to parliament from Rae Bareilly in 1971.

Mrs Gandhi, who considered herself indispensable for her country, explained the imposition of emergency as an opportunity to clean up accumulated mess and lay the foundations of a bold new order. India was not a strategic ally of the US and Britain and, therefore, international public opinion was not a consideration.

Still she had to explain her action to India and the world. Her statements from that period strongly resemble the recent pronouncements of General Musharraf and his henchmen.

Mrs Gandhi said, “The president has declared emergency. There is nothing to panic about.” She claimed, “This was a necessary response to the deep and widespread conspiracy which has been brewing ever since I began to introduce certain progressive measures of benefit to the common man and woman of India.”

Mrs Gandhi’s explanation of the Emergency reads uncannily similar to Musharraf’s recent statements though, given his general aversion to extensive reading, it is unlikely that he had read Mrs Gandhi’s statements before making his own.

After administering what she described as ‘bitter medicine’ necessary for the good of a sick ‘child’, Mrs Gandhi decided to secure a mandate from what she expected to be a grateful Indian populace.

Elections were held in the third week of March 1977 and when results were announced on March 20, the ruling Congress party had been routed by an unusual alliance of all anti-Indira forces joined under the banner of the Janata Party. Indira Gandhi lost her own seat in parliament from Rae Bareilly.

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