‘Indira Gandhi Put Us in Jail, But Never Abused Us’: Lalu Prasad on Emergency

‘Indira Gandhi Put Us in Jail, But Never Abused Us’: Lalu Prasad on Emergency

Lalu Prasad, the chief minister of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and a former chief minister of Bihar, reminisced on Saturday about the 1975–1977 Emergency and asserted that although Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had imprisoned many leaders, she had never mistreated them. The RJD chief posted his piece “The Sangh Silence in 1975,” which he and journalist Nalin Verma wrote, in a post on X.

“I convened the steering group that Jayaprakash Narayan had established to continue the fight against the abuses of Emergency enforced by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi at the time. “I spent more than 15 months incarcerated under the Maintenance of Security Act (MISA),” Lalu Prasad stated in the article.

“My colleagues and I were unaware of many of the BJP ministers discussing the Emergency today,” he continued. Modi, J P Nadda, and a few of the PM’s other cabinet colleagues, who now give us lectures on the importance of freedom, were unknown to us. The former chief minister of Bihar added that although Indira Gandhi had imprisoned several opposition leaders at the time, she had never mistreated them.

While many of us were imprisoned by Indira Gandhi, she never mistreated us. “Anti-national” or “unpatriotic” language was not used by her or her ministers to describe us. Our Constitution’s creator, Babasaheb Ambedkar, was never allowed to be remembered by vandals thanks to her. We should never forget who disregarded the opposition in 2024, he said, but 1975 remains a stain on our democracy.

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A 21-month state of emergency was declared on June 25, 1975, by former prime minister Indira Gandhi. 21st March, 1977 saw its lifting. Afterwards, the Janata Party gained control and Indira Gandhi lost the subsequent general elections. Both Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay Gandhi lost elections in Amethi and Raebareli. The Congress, however, regained power in 1979 after the coalition of dissimilar parties fell apart and secured 353 seats in the national elections that followed. Following her assassination in 1984, Indira Gandhi became the prime minister once more.