Sanjay Raut: It is treason to ignore contribution of Nehru, Gandhi

Attacking their allies and the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre, the Shiv Sena said while BJP was attacking late prime minister Indira Gandhi for declaring an Emergency in 1975, whereas the country has seen similar ‘black days’ during the four years under the present dispensation as well.

“If the day on which Indira Gandhi imposed the Emergency is to be considered a black day, then the country has seen many such black days in the last four years. The day on which demonetisation was announced was also a black day. This decision caused anarchy in the country. It deprived the poor of employment. The small traders were wiped out. And the black money of the rich was converted to white money,” said Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut in the party mouthpiece Saamana on Sunday.

Raut, who is the newspaper’s executive editor, said the stated objectives of demonetisation, namely, the extermination of corruption and uprooting the terrorism in Kashmir had also failed.

In his weekly editorial column, he praised the work of the In his weekly column in party mouthpiece “Saamana”, Raut said it would be “treason” to reject the contribution of national leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Rajendra Prasad, B R Ambedkar, Netaji Bose and Veer Savarkar.

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“Nobody else performed so greatly in this country like (late) Indira Gandhi did. Her one decision of Emergency cannot wash away her contribution. It is a treason to reject the contribution of Pandit Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Rajendra Prasad, Dr Ambedkar, Netaji Bose and Veer Savarkar.

Noting that PM Modi was present at an event in Mumbai to commemorate the Emergency where the focus was on criticising Gandhi, even some BJP leaders projected the late Premier as a tyrant, he said, “Worse acts than the Emergency were committed in the country in the last 25 years… We had promised to wipe out Pakistani terrorists from Kashmir, but we ordered the Army to announce a ceasefire during the month of Ramzan and this claimed the lives of our own soldiers,” said Raut.

“Today, Hindustan has been converted into a jail and everyone is living under mental pressure and fear,” he said, adding that there was trepidation that people could be branded as ‘anti-nationals’ and ‘thrown into jails’. “Such misuse of power had not happened even during Indiraji’s Emergency,” the Shiv Sena leader wrote.

The Sena leader further hinted that despite having low numbers in Parliament and losing power in many states, the Congress is still the only party which enjoys national acceptance and no opposition unity is possible without it, the Shiv Sena said on Monday. Commenting on the ongoing unity efforts among major opposition parties in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Sena leader said all the opposition parties were essentially regional forces, unlike the Congress which remains a “national force” by all reckoning.

“The real problem before the opposition parties is whether to accept Rahul Gandhi’s leadership or not as there are many aspirants for the post of Prime Minister among opposition leaders,” the Sena conveyed through its mouthpieces “Saamana” and “Dopahar Ka Saamana”.

Raut added that the Emergency had also seen alleged underworld dons like Haji Mastan, Karim Lala, Yusuf Patel and Varadarajan Mudaliar being jailed and expressed his displeasure that today, Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Vijay Mallya “fled the country before the eyes of the government after looting it.”