JOIN USTouching on a topic that could spark off a political debate, former minister and Congress MP H Vishwanth has come out with a book with a premise that without emergency it would not have been possible to implement land reforms in Karnataka.
In his book “Appathsthithiya Aalapagalu”, Vishwanath says he has tried to view the emergency years (June 1975 to March 1977) through the eyes of thousands of beneficiaries of land reforms which abolished tenancy.
“The emergency years took the land reforms movement, which started in 1965, to its logical end. The then chief minister Devaraj Urs could find the environment right to usher in land reforms in which the tiller of the land became the owner”, Vishwanath said addressing a press conference in Bangalore on Thursday. He reasoned that provisions like special land tribunals for redistribution of land could not have been set up if not for the emergency.
However, he said he was not attempting to glorify emergency period but was only trying to view the years it in a different context.
The book will be launched on Saturday by former external affairs minister S M Krishna.