Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s remarks in a recent NDTV 24x7 interview with The Indian Express editor-in-chief Shekhar Gupta that Indira Gandhi had a rethink on the Emergency has spawned echoes from senior party leaders, justifying the move as a bitter pill that Indira Gandhi had to administerPRANAB MUKHERJEE: The provisions for imposing Emergency are provided in the Constitution. And in 1975, this constitutional provision was followed and Emergency was declared. It was also ratified by Parliament as is required. Then Indira Gandhi recognised the fact that there is need for lifting the Emergency and that is why she did that and declared elections. Elections were held in 1977 even though Parliament had passed an act and extended the term of the Lok Sabha till 1978.KAMAL NATH: Emergency was wrong only in the implementation part of it and Indira Gandhi said this herself. Things in Emergency did not go in the desirable manner. I believe the objectives for which Emergency was imposed were not a mistake but their implementation was wrong.SANJAY SINGH: Had imposition of Emergency not been wrong, Indira Gandhi would never have called for elections soon after. It was a result of the realisation that Emergency was a mistake. Holding elections was an immediate rectification of the mistake.AMBIKA SONI: I recall an interview of Indira Gandhi where she had said that Emergency was more like a bitter medicine which was needed for redressing the situation in the country. I also remember her stating that she hoped it would never need to be imposed in the next 1,000 years. Indira Gandhi was not comfortable curtailing democratic rights under the Emergency. But she was the Prime Minister and had to take decisive steps to check the lawlessness spreading in the country, with the railway strikes, calls for not paying taxes etc.SHYAMA CHARAN SHUKLA: I was the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh from 1975 to 1977 and I was lenient towards many of the BJP leaders who were arrested during Emergency. I had even released many on parole. But Indira Gandhi never objected to that. That did give me an impression that as a true democrat, she realised what was happening was wrong.
