Jaitley: Dictatorship not possible now

San Francisco: It is not possible for anybody to convert a democratic India into a "dictatorship" today, according to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who spent 19 months in prison during the 1975 Emergency imposed by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Looking back at the dark days of Emergency, the senior BJP leader said that 40 years back the media was vulnerable, police and bureaucracy were compliant, and for the Supreme Court also the Emergency was its "darkest hour". "Is it possible to replicate such a situation now? I have my doubts," he said. "Today, the media and the polity are strong and so are the global institutions. The world would not accept the world's largest democracy becoming dictatorial today," Jaitley said in an interview here.

Jaitley said Emergency was a phase which showed that a democracy can be converted into a dictatorship by using some provisions of the Constitution and all the major institutions like bureaucracy, police, media and judiciary can collapse. "I think, today the global awareness is in favour of the democracy and the kind of sanctions which can be imposed on a dictatorship itself can be a deterrent.

A major controversy broke out recently after BJP patriarch L K Advani expressed concerns that "forces that can crush democracy are stronger" now and that Emergency-like situation could emerge again. The comments were seen by the Congress as being aimed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while Aam Aadmi Party felt it was the "first indictment" of Modi's politics.

Other Opposition parties also said that Advani's comments should be taken seriously. Without referring to Advani's comments, Jaitley said the media censorship is not possible today "because of the technology itself". "You have news travelling through the internet and the internet can't be censored," Jaitley said.