Modi regime replay of Indira's Emergency, says new book


New Delhi, Nov 19 (IANS): There is a striking similarity between the unfolding of events during the 1975-77 Emergency under then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and the contemporary times under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a new book suggests.

In "Emergency Chronicles" (Penguin/Rs 699/439 pages), Gyan Prakash, the Dayton-Stockton Professor of History at Princeton University, delves into the accounts of the preceding years to reveal how the fine balance between "state power and civil rights was upset by the unfulfilled promise of democratic transformation".

Stating that "Hindutva is fundamentally anti-democratic", the author finds enough reasons to compare the two regimes, separated by over four decades, and contends that since 2014, India has witnessed the Hindutva ideologues targeting dissent as "antinational".

"In a different but also eerie replay of 1975, JNU students face the charge of subversion. Critics are dismissed as 'rootless cosmopolitan' elites out of step with the supposed mass culture of Hindutva. This is to delegitimise criticism and win over those in the population not yet in their corner. It is the classic strategy of totalitarian propaganda to win over the insufficiently indoctrinated," Prakash says in the book, a copy of which is with IANS.

He says that under Modi government, Muslims have been lynched by "cow protection goon squads".

"Supported by ground troops, which Indira's Emergency rule never enjoyed, and a largely compliant and corporatised electronic media, which did not exist in 1975-77, the regime enjoys unprecedented power," he adds.

The author acknowledges that there is no formal declaration of Emergency in India today. "But the surge of Hindutva nationalism," Prakash contends, "has catapulted Narendra Modi into the kind of position that indira occupied only with the Emergency".

Prakash further states that today the courts, the press, and political parties do not face repression but "they appear unable or unwilling" to function as the "gatekeepers of democracy in the face of state power spiked with Hindutva populist ressentiment.

"Like Indira, Modi is his party's undisputed leader. The Bharatiya Janata Party, which traditionally boasted a galaxy of seasoned politicians, now bows to its supreme leader. He looms as large in Indian politics as Indira once did. His photographs, slogans, and programs appear everywhere as hers once did," the book mentions.

The author takes a potshot at the ruling regime, reminding it that BJP leaders assail Indira Gandhi's accumulation of executive powers under the Emergency while they strive for a one-party state and display intolerance for minorities and disdain for dissent as anti-national.

  

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Comment on this article

  • mahesh, mangalore

    Tue, Nov 20 2018

    Just the fact that this book is bieng allowed to be published means that the author is lying through his teeth.
    Indira would have put him behind bars by now ,if it was a emergency.

    DisAgree Agree [1] Reply Report Abuse

  • Pai, Mangalore

    Mon, Nov 19 2018

    There will be many attempts to defame Modi Govt until next year's elections.

    DisAgree [19] Agree [8] Reply Report Abuse

  • Swamy, Mangalore

    Mon, Nov 19 2018

    By his own blind Bhakths. He is least significant for opposition nowadays.

    DisAgree [2] Agree [11] Reply Report Abuse

  • shanakr, Banglore

    Mon, Nov 19 2018

    Then why opposition is uniting, if he is so weak and least ?!!

    DisAgree [10] Agree [3] Reply Report Abuse

  • Jenifer, Mangalore

    Mon, Nov 19 2018

    Uniting, because they don't have 15L to give if they win.

    Their assurance to a voter is good governance, not 15L from the black money brought in within 100 days of coming to power.

    DisAgree [2] Agree [9] Report Abuse

  • Swamy, Mangalore

    Mon, Nov 19 2018

    It is immaterial whether opposition unites or divides as long as Modi is scared of only one person, giving him nightmares and sleepless nights and chants RAHUL GANDHI GANDHI ......GANDHI...... GANDHI RAHUL........RAHUL GANDHI ??????....Is he hallucinating as well.?????.... Fear and nervousness can reveal person's insecurity in many ways.

    DisAgree [3] Agree [5] Report Abuse

  • Jenifer, Mangalore

    Mon, Nov 19 2018

    If a book by this author is defamation of Modi, what do you have to say about the author whom Modi paid millions to write a book self-praising ? An author, who never met Modi in life, wrote what was asked to ? Do you even know about such an adventure of Modi ?

    Well, dictatorship of Modi started prior to his 2014-win through the first book. Emergency came up during the third/fourth years of his rule according to this author.

    DisAgree [2] Agree [9] Reply Report Abuse

  • Hussain, Abudhabi

    Mon, Nov 19 2018

    Gyan Prakash is Anti Hindu
    Gyan Prakash is Anti National/ international
    Gyan Prakash is Urban/ Rural Naxal

    Embrace for Such comments !

    DisAgree [4] Agree [9] Reply Report Abuse

  • Krishna Godse, india

    Mon, Nov 19 2018

    Modi and yogi should live in tent, cos they are hardcore ram bhakt, they put lord ram in tent and these fake ram bhakts live in big bunglows on tax payers money,
    these i think they worship ravana,cos ravana used in live in bunglow

    pappu and indira gandhi were shiv bhakts they can live in bunglow no problems.

    DisAgree [3] Agree [13] Reply Report Abuse

  • Sahil, Mangaluru

    Mon, Nov 19 2018

    Instead of country development modified destroyed nation economy.

    DisAgree [3] Agree [11] Reply Report Abuse

  • Sahil, Mangaluru

    Mon, Nov 19 2018

    After 2014 looks government forget development agenda.

    DisAgree [3] Agree [11] Reply Report Abuse

  • Jossey Saldanha, Mumbai

    Mon, Nov 19 2018

    Indira Gandhi was Honest ...

    DisAgree [5] Agree [23] Reply Report Abuse

  • Swamy, Mangalore

    Mon, Nov 19 2018

    The main fundamental difference between Indira's emergency and Modi rule now is ACCOUNTABILITY. There was strict accountability during Indira's emergency hence the country was doing lot of progress.

    DisAgree [2] Agree [17] Reply Report Abuse

  • El En Tea, Mumbai

    Mon, Nov 19 2018

    Now label Gyan Prakash not rural remote or Urban but International Naxalite..

    DisAgree [1] Agree [13] Reply Report Abuse

  • Sahil, Mangaluru

    Mon, Nov 19 2018

    Take my word democracy will not allow modiji to survive longer, if he failures to adopt right vision to every one in similar manner.

    DisAgree [1] Agree [11] Reply Report Abuse


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