Writer and activist Vinay Hardikar attacked the BJP for its criticism of the Emergency.
Hardikar, who himself had spent a couple of months behind bars for opposing the clampdown in 1975, sought to know whether democracy existed in the BJP.
“Where was (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi during the Emergency? What was his contribution to the restoration of democracy? Was he detained? Did he court arrest by offering Satyagraha or any other way?” he questioned.
Citing former finance minister Yashwant Sinha’s exit from the BJP, the writer asked, “If the PM’s party is so democratic why was Yashwant Sinha forced to leave in sheer frustration?”
“If the BJP worships the Constitution and judiciary, why the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is proclaiming day in and out that there will be a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya?” he asked.
Hardikar said the prime minister spoke a lot about democracy, Constitution and other issues in the last four years, which appears more of “politicking”.
He said Modi’s recent speech on the 43rd anniversary of Emergency, in which he had attacked the Congress, was made with an eye on 2019 polls.
He accused the BJP of “appropriating” the anti-emergency agitation.
“Why was it a BJP event when there were so many other parties and organisations who fought against the Emergency?” he asked.
Hardikar also attacked the RSS, the ideological mentor of the BJP, in the context of Emergency.
