Lalu Prasad On Emergency: Indira Gandhi Put Many In Jail, But….

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief and former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad on Saturday, reminisced about the 1975-77 Emergency. He noted that although then-prime minister Indira Gandhi had imprisoned many leaders, she never abused them.

In a post on X, the RJD chief shared his article, “The Sangh Silence in 1975,” co-written with journalist Nalin Verma.

“I was the convener of the steering committee that Jayaprakash Narayan—had constituted to carry forward the movement against the excesses of Emergency imposed by the then PM Indira Gandhi. I was in jail under the Maintenance of Security Act (MISA) for over 15 months,” Lalu Prasad wrote in the post.

He added: “My colleagues and I did not know many of the BJP ministers speaking about the Emergency today. We hadn’t heard of Modi, J P Nadda and some of the PM’s other ministerial colleagues who today lecture us on the value of freedom.”

The former Bihar CM also remarked that while Indira Gandhi imprisoned many Opposition leaders of that era, she never mistreated them.

“Indira Gandhi put many of us behind bars, but she never abused us. Neither she nor her ministers called us “anti-national” or “unpatriotic”. She never enabled vandals to defile the memory of Babasaheb Ambedkar—the architect of our Constitution. 1975 is a stain on our democracy, but let’s not forget who doesn’t respect the Opposition in 2024,” he added.