The Bharatiya Janata Party has accused the Congress of trying to distort history, saying Sanjay Gandhi alone could not be held responsible for the excesses committed during the Emergency.
It charged the Congress with putting the blame for its “wrong-doings” on those who are either dead or not in the mainstream.
“After 35 years, the Congress party has accepted that Emergency was a mistake. But they are trying to put the blame for their mistakes on others. The Congress always tries to hide its wrong-doings,'' BJP spokesman, Shahnawaz Hussain told reporters in reference to the publication titled Congress and the Making of the Indian Nation on the completion of the Congress' 125 years.
The book, edited by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, states that Sanjay Gandhi acted in an “authoritarian and arbitrary manner” on issues of family planning and slum clearance during the Emergency.
The book noted that Sanjay Gandhi had by then emerged as a leader of great significance. It was due to his support to family planning that the government decided to pursue it more vigorously, it said.
Sanjay Gandhi's wife Maneka Gandhi and son Varun Gandhi are now BJP MPs and the latter is also a national secretary and election in-charge of the party for Assam.
“Indira Gandhi was powerful enough to take her own decisions,'' Mr. Hussain said.
Asked about Sanjay Gandhi's involvement in the excesses during the Emergency, Mr. Hussain said: “Every Congress leader was responsible for it. But it is not our culture to blame those who are dead. The Congress always tries to distance itself from controversial issues. On Ayodhya, they tried to put the blame on the former Prime Minister, Narasimha Rao.”
The Lok Sabha member maintained that the Congress always gave credit to the present leadership for all the good and blamed the marginalised for all the wrong-doings. “This is an old habit of the party.”
