Emergency-like scenario exists today too

Apropos "Remembering the Emergency" (THI 25 June), the media including your paper who follow balanced policy taking on the Establishment and where deserved praising the government have all the right to speak and recall Emergency for the present generation. This is vital for them to know what happened then and how the late PM Indira Gandhi lost the elections. That she came forward to announce the election knowing fully well was itself enough that she understood that it was a blunder when people surrounding her started misusing it using her name.

However, the BJP now led by PM Modi and Shah have lost the moral ground to talk or recall about Emergency so also the media house who have turned fifth pillar for the ruling party in power who instead of speaking for the people are speaking for the party in power. In fact, very few leaders are there in present BJP have no role in Emergency or have any idea about emergency. In this context I was a bit surprised to see a lengthy article in one of the dailies on Emergency.

The Home Minister himself was just 10 or 11 when it was declared in 1975 and was entering in teens when it was lifted in 1977. Whatever he may have been taught about Emergency was from RSS school. As for Emergency, the credit for dethroning Indira should go to the people and students, and not the leaders except JP and few others whose participation to fight Ms Indira had some purpose and vision.

JP misjudged the leaders from various opposition parties including so called non-political entity RSS and Jan Sangh who joined his independent movement which he called "Sampoorna Kranti" (Total Revolution). Yours truly like lakhs of others in Delhi with just one call from JP went on foot from our respective homes to attend his meeting at Ram Lila Maidan on 25 June. People attended that with a lot of dreams and hope that it would be a real revolution. But all this was dashed when the government by people collapsed when merged parties started using the mandate only to consolidate its own power from within.

With Jan Sangh having more say supported by RSS from outside everything was going wrong and finally Jan Sangh leaders came out under direction of RSS to form new party BJP which is now in power. Though there is no declared emergency, people have already stopped speaking or writing against the government. In fact, some print media have even stopped giving space for critical comments from ordinary people and in fact quite few print media has discontinued even "letters to editor column" or squeezed the space for readers comment.

On the face of it there is no Emergency, but does the government have tolerance to digest dissenting voices? If during Ms Indira Gandhi's rule there were few sycophants around her, now only sycophant praising supreme leader are around him. If it was then hail Indira, now it's hail Modi has become the order of the day. Just imagine soon after the free pan India vaccination program was launched, the state government quickly went on to thank Modi.

Soon it spread like wildfire even Vice Chancellors were asked to thank Modi for giving free vaccines as if he is providing from his personal money. Even KV Class 12 students were not spared who were asked to thank PM Modi for announcing cancellation of CBSE class 12 examination. The less said the better about institutions under BJP. So the only difference then and now is, in 1975 we were aware there was an Emergency, now it is not imposed but it's indeed an Emergency- like environment has been created all around.

N Nagarajan, Hyderabad