The Enforcement Directorate i.e. ED questioned Rahul Gandhi for five days and after that Sonia Gandhi was also questioned for three days. During this, Congress leaders and workers demonstrated in the capital Delhi and demonstrations were also held in different states of the country. But these demonstrations were sponsored. Only Congress party leaders and selected workers participated in it. It did not happen that the Aam Aadmi Movement hit the road and clashed with the government in support of the Congress. The leaders of the BJP highlighted the fact that the Congress is not getting the sympathy of the people, but only the leaders of the Congress are protesting.
There is no doubt that there was no direct sympathy of the public. But tell that when leaders like Jayaprakash Narayan, Chandrashekhar, Morarji Desai, Atal Bihari Vajpayee etc. were arrested in the Emergency, then the public came out on the road? Was there direct sympathy of the public with these leaders then? History is witness that barring a few demonstrations, nowhere did the public take to the streets to protest against the Emergency or to imprison opposition leaders. This repression of the Congress government of that time did not last for a day or two, but all the big opposition leaders of the country were kept in jail for 19 months. And in these 19 months, there is no example of public agitation or demonstration by taking to the streets. Like today, even at that time the media was cheering the government. There is hardly any instance of being an anti-government newspaper.
In contrast to the agitation and protest, Vinoba Bhave, a great moral authority of that time, had justified the Emergency by calling it a discipline festival, just as the business people of Baba here and there are telling today. Then the public was happy that everything was fine in the country. Trains are running on time and employees are reaching offices on time. The leaders were in jail and the public was happy. But the spark was smoldering inside the surface. People were waiting for the occasion. It was in his heart and mind that the leaders among them are in jail. His personal life may be fine but what is happening is not good for the country and society, for democracy.
Only when Indira Gandhi lifted the Emergency, released the leaders from jail and announced elections, there was an illusion in her mind that the leaders would have been broken by being in jail and the public had forgotten them. but that did not happen. In the 1977 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress got wiped out. Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi both lost the elections. The people of the country handed over power to the common opposition. So now there is no need to blame the public. People are engaged in their day-to-day work but it is not that they cannot see what is happening in the country. How is the opposition being harassed? People are also seeing that the action of central agencies is not being taken against any ruling leader. Even those who were facing trial earlier joined the BJP, the raids and inquiries stopped. It is not that people are not noticing this. In India, the principle of ‘Ati Sarvatra Varjayet’ is believed. All kinds of extremes are taboo here. Action against the opposition has reached the extreme end. After that the reverse effect starts.
