Like Hitler, Indira Gandhi turned democracy into dictatorship: Arun Jaitley
New Delhi, Jun 25 (IBNS): Bracketing Indira Gandhi with Adolf Hitler, Union Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday accused the late Prime Minister of rendering democracy into a constitutional dictatorship.
"Both Hitler & Mrs Gandhi never abrogated the Constitution. They used a republican Constitution to transform democracy into dictatorship. Hitler arrested most of the opposition Members of Parliament & converted his minority Government in Parliament into a 2/3rd majority govt," Jaitley wrote in the Facebook.
"The Representation of People Act was retrospectively amended to insert those provisions so that the invalid election of Mrs Gandhi could be validated by changes in law. Unlike Hitler, Mrs Gandhi went ahead to transform India into a ‘dynastic Democracy,’" he said.
Jaitley pointed out how Indira Gandhi's claim that disorder was planned by opposition mirrored Hitler's "Reichstag" episode.
"Mrs Gandhi's imposition of Emergency under Article 352, suspension of fundamental rights under Article 359 and her claim that “disorder was planned by the opposition in the country”, echoed Hitler's “Reichstag” episode as exposed by the Nuremberg trials after 13 years,"
Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency on June 25, 1975, on account of international disturbances, suspending key fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution to every citizen.
Jaitley said the common man who did not understand dictatorship understood it because of forced sterilisation during Emergency.
Jaitley highlighted how the press was subdued and Congress pushed the idea of single-party democracy through its paper, National Herald.
"The press was completely terrorized. Most editors & journalists surrendered & reconciled with the Idea of living in dictatorship. The Congress Party newspaper “National Herald” editorially commented that time had come for India to evolve into a single party democracy."
"During Emergency an atmosphere of fear & terror prevailed in the country. Political activity had come to a grinding halt. The dissenters were mainly political workers of the opposition party & the RSS. They kept repeatedly organizing Satyagrahas & courted arrest," said Jaitley.
"The Lesson from the Emergency is that if you curb free speech and allow only propaganda, you become the first victim of propaganda because you start believing that your own propaganda is the truth and the full truth," said Jaitley.
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