Minister of State for External Affairs M J Akbar on Tuesday termed the 1975 Emergency as the ‘Jallianwala Bagh’ of free India in which democracy was massacred.

“All that Indians wanted in June 1975 was freedom and all they got was massacre of democracy. For 19 months, India lived in something I don’t think the young can even conceive of - complete fear and silence of censorship,” Akbar told a press conference here.

The reason for the Emergency “atrocity” was the desire of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to evade the consequences of the Allahabad High Court decree on electoral malpractice, Akbar pointed out. “It was a time when authoritarianism and dictatorship was imposed upon the country, when people began to be encouraged to snitch on one another,” he said.  

Akbar also hit out at the Congress for comparing Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. “There’s a serious history deficiency in the IQ of Congress leaders. Why don’t we collect funds and send them some goods books,” he quipped referring to AICC spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, who remarked that Modi was crueler than Aurangzeb.

The former journalist also took exception to former Union Minister Saifuddin Soz for reportedly claiming that Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was willing to trade Kashmir for Hyderabad during the partition. “It’s utterly irresponsibly. Soz is inventing history and if this is the way the Congress conducts itself in this dangerous way, then it is evidence that the Congress is simply not responsible enough to be anywhere near a government,” Akbar said.

He further claimed that a Congress leader had said that the Indian Army had killed more civilians than terrorists. “Such attacks on our patriotic and brave forces has become a pattern. Do terrorists come in uniform? Terrorists wear civilian clothes. When you seek and destroy this barbaric danger to our nation, how can the Congress come to the defence of terrorists,” he asked.