Gandhis just want to cling to power: Smriti Irani

Bhubaneswar: Union textile minister and BJP leader Smriti Irani on Tuesday dug up history to attack former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and other members of the Gandhi family, including Rahul Gandhi.

Ms Irani, while addressing a gathering of intellectuals and later a press conference here, said the Gandhi family always wanted to cling onto the power at the cost of common people.

“We had a leader (a reference to first Prime Minister Jawharlal Nehru) who on the eve of Independence said, “At the stroke of midnight hour, when the world sleeps India will awake to its life and freedom. And, years after in dark of the night on June 25, 1975, the daughter of the same leader took away freedom of the Indians and crippled all agencies of democracy declaring national emergency,” Ms Irani said. Stating that the people of India led by leaders like Jayprakash Narayan strongly protested emergency, Ms Irani said no amount of terror unleashed by Indira Gandhi could suppress the people’s voice against her autocracy.

“During the Emergency, Jayaprakash Narayan had mobilised a huge gathering of over one lakh people at Ramlila Ground in Delhi and gave the evocative slogan “Singhasan Khaali Karo Ke Janata Aaati Hai” (vacate the throne, people are marching to Delhi). That slogan overthrew the Indira Gandhi government in the next elections. Same thing happened in 2014 Lok Sabha polls when people overthrew the UPA government and allowed a Narendra Modi, who hails from a very humble background, to become Prime Minister of India,” said the minister.

Dubbing the Congress anti-poor, Ms Irani said the grand old party which gave Garib Hatao (remove poverty) slogan in 1960s and 1970s, in fact pushed the poor people to more trouble and worries.