Describing the 1975 Emergency as an outdated issue that should be permanently “buried”, Shiv Sena leader and MP Sanjay Raut questioned Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s move of expressing regret over the Emergency imposed by his grandmother and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. “People of India punished Indira Gandhi for her decision to impose Emergency. They taught her a lesson, but later forgave her by bringing her back to power. Emergency is an outdated issue. Why rake it up again and again?. The issued should be permanently buried,” Raut wrote in his weekly column titled "Rokhthok" in party mouthpiece Saamana. He described Rahul as a straightforward and simple person who casually spoke about the past incident. Raut targeted the Centre, saying “The prevailing situation in the country is such that one can say that the 1975 Emergency was better.” He said that the recent Income Tax raids on filmmaker Anurag Kashyap and actress Tapsee Pannu came when they spoke against the government’s policies. He added that The Washington Post has raised questions over the “undeclared Emergency” under the Narendra Modi government as it talked about the arrest of climate activist Disha Ravi on sedition charges. “Political control over media houses, political strategies to win elections and break the opposition, defying constitutional norms - all these things are just the same even now as what happened in 1975. Indira Gandhi’s place has been taken by Narendra Modi,” he wrote. The Sena MP added that Indira Gandhi had expressed regret over the excesses during that period and promised that there would be no Emergency in future. “She was firm that the step had to be taken against the prevailing backdrop where provocation was done in an attempt to create anarchy. She was of the view that Emergency was imposed because democracy was derailed,” Raut said.
