‘Black Day? Then celebrate Victory Day too’
SENA LEADER SANJAY RAUT QUESTIONED WHY INDIA’S VICTORY OVER PAKISTAN ON DECEMBER 16, 1971 UNDER THEN PM INDIRA GANDHI’S LEADERSHIP IS NOT CELEBRATED AS ‘VICTORY DAY’
MUMBAI: The Shiv Sena has slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for observing the anniversary of the Emergency as ‘black day’ and has questioned why India’s historic victory over Pakistan on December 16, 1971 under then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s leadership is not celebrated as ‘victory day.’
In his weekly column in the Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana, party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut said that the events of the past four years under BJP rule should also be marked as ‘black day’.
Raut, who is also the executive editor of Saamana, said demonetisation, pressure on judiciary and media, and the sidelining of senior BJP leaders such as Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi are all signs of authoritarian rule and indicate an ‘undeclared Emergency.’ He further added that the country has become a “prison” and that citizens were living under “pressure” and in “fear”.
“Anybody is being declared ‘anti-national’ and put behind bars. Such an abuse of power was witnessed during Indiraji’s Emergency. The judiciary had the freedom to disqualify elections under Indiraji’s rule if corrupt practices were employed. Today, only corrupt practices are used to win elections,” Raut wrote. Asking why the Emergency was being spoken of even after 43 years, Raut said it “shows that the BJP has no concrete issues to talk about.”
PM Modi had last week, during an event held on the 43rd anniversary of the Emergency in Mumbai, slammed the Congress and the Gandhi family. “Emergency is a black spot on the golden history of the nation. Observing black day today is not just to criticise the Congress for its sin of imposing Emergency but also to create an awareness for the protection of the Constitution and democracy,” Modi had said.
Raut, one of the leaders who proposed the idea of snapping ties with the BJP, said, “The announcement of note ban was a black day as it created economic anarchy. The poor lost their livelihood. Small businesses were almost wiped out. The black money of the upper class was converted to white again. It is said that the freedom of the press was impinged upon during the Emergency; how it is different from what is happening today? The judiciary is in open rebellion.”
The ties between the BJP and Sena have been strained even as the two continue to be allies in the state and at the Centre.