"Hitler And Mrs Gandhi...": Arun Jaitley's Attack On Emergency Of 1975

New Delhi: As the BJP today launched an all-out attack on the Congress on the Emergency of 1974, union minister Arun Jaitley drew parallels between then prime minister Indira Gandhi and Adolf Hitler in a Facebook post, stating that both had turned democracy into dictatorship.

In the blog that was shared on social media by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr Jaitley said unlike Hitler, Indira Gandhi went a step ahead to transform India into a "dynastic democracy".

Indira Gandhi, the mother of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and the grandmother of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, ruled India between 1966 and 1984. The Emergency she ordered in the early hours of June 26, 1975, is described as the "darkest period in democracy" by the BJP, which marks the day with protests.

"Both Hitler and 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 and converted his minority Government in Parliament into a 2/3rd majority government," Mr Jaitley wrote.

He also commented that constitutional provisions were used to turn 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.

- Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) June 25, 2018

 

The common man who did not understand the political consequence of dictatorship, understood it because of forced sterilization. As someone aptly put: दाद देता हूँ मैं मर्द-ए-हिंदुस्तान की, सर कटा सकते हैं लेकिन नस कटा सकते नहीं l

- Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) June 25, 2018

 
A Nazi leader proclaimed that Germany had only one authority and that was the authority of "Fuehrer" (Hitler), wrote Mr Jaitley. "Similarly, (Congress) president Devakanta Barua proclaimed 'Indira is India and India is Indira'."
 This is the second in a series of Facebook posts by the senior minister, who has earlier too likened Indira Gandhi to the reviled German dictator over the Emergency, when the Congress government suspended important fundamental rights, imposed severe restrictions on the media and jailed several opposition leaders and activists.

Mr Jaitley said Hitler, who became the German Chancellor on January 30, 1933, had his President invoke Emergency powers in the constitution in the name of protecting people. "The decree giving emergency powers put restrictions on personal liberty, free speech... The pretext for imposition of Emergency was that on February 27, 1933, German Parliament House, known as 'Reichstag', had been set on fire. Hitler claimed that it was a communist conspiracy to burn Government buildings and museums. Thirteen years later, in the Nuremberg trials, it was established that Reichstag fire was the handiwork of Nazis and Goebbels had conceived it."

Mr Jaitley was jailed for organising a protest hours after the Emergency order.

The minister said the emergency measures diluted the power of High Courts to issue writ petitions, "a power which Dr. (BR) Ambedkar had said was the very heart and soul of India's constitution". "They also amended Article 368 so that a Constitution amendment was beyond judicial review. There were a few things that Hitler did not do which Gandhi did.

Indira Gandhi amended both the constitution and the Representation of People Act so that her election could be validated, he wrote.