On the 41st anniversary of imposition of Emergency, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today targeted Congress and blamed it for delaying economic reforms by two decades, transforming India into a ‘dynastic democracy’ and bringing in corruption. In a Facebook post, Mr Jaitley said, Operation Blue Star was another blot in its record.
He said, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed an internal emergency in the country, giving the reason of breakdown of public order. Mr Jaitley alleged that the actual reason was that her continuation as the Prime Minister was threatened since the Allahabad High Court had unseated her as Member of Parliament for adopting corrupt practices during her election.
The Minister said, the impact of the Emergency was to inflict a dictatorship on the country as all political opponents were detained and authority of the Courts to hear a challenge against the detentions was suspended. He said, the Press was subjected to pre-censorship and it became a spokesperson of the dictator.
Mr Jaitley said, politicians were the only institution that fought the emergency since they were the only accountable section of society. He added that the standards of accountability of the political class are high and the dictator had to face an electorate when faced with international and national opinion pressures.