Propagandist during Emergency

Vidya Charan Shukla finally succumbed to the injuries sustained during the dastardly Naxal attack on the convoy of the Congress leaders in the Bastar region in Chhattisgarh on May 25, while undergoing treatment at Medanta Hospital in Gurgaon. Unlike his elder-brother Shyama Charan Shukla, V C Shukla leaves behind mixed bag of memories. V C Shukla is remembered more as an aide of Sanjay Gandhi and for his own role as Information & Broadcasting Minister during the infamous Emergency period from 1975-77. That was the period, when Ambika Soni was the Youth Congress president. That was the phase when several controversies were sparked off. Kishore Kumar's songs were banned on popular programmes like Vivid Bharati on All India Radio (AIR), for his refusal to sing at Indian Youth Congress rally. Lata Mangeshkar, who was under similar pressure, dared Shukla that she would rather prefer to sit and croon in the prison than sing in a Youth Congress rally. Eventually, Lata Mangeshkar moved closer to the BJP, when she was nominated to Rajya Sabha and conferred Bharat Ratna. Shukla appeared to have no regrets, as at that point in time, all that he was interested was to please his political bosses.