Senior Congress leader and former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has stirred a controversy by saying that if late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi were alive today, she would have banned the Bharatiya Janta Party.
Speaking at a program in Jaipur, Gehlot repeated Congress’s tired rhetoric that BJP indulges in communal politics, and is dangerous for the country.
He said, “If a leader like Indira Gandhi were alive today, she would have banned a party like the BJP. I am saying with full responsibility that the atmosphere today is extremely dangerous. If the country still does not wake up, then the people of this country themselves will suffer the consequences later.”
Congress has been trying to scare Indians for a long long time by repeatedly saying that if BJP ever wins an election, India would be ruined, people will suffer severe consequences and what not. BJP keeps winning one election after another, India keeps growing, and those severe consequences never appear.
Now, moving on to the next bit of Gehlot’s statement, that Indira Gandhi would have banned BJP. Well, you won’t find too many who would disagree with that statement. An authoritarian who didn’t tolerate any dissent or opposition could easily have banned BJP while in PM office if she ever felt it is becoming a threat to her rule.
After all, who can forget the darkest chapter of Indian democracy, the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi between 1975 to 1977.
During those 21 months, civil liberties were suspended, opposition leaders were jailed, press freedom was curtailed, and political dissent was suppressed. The government exercised extraordinary powers, and democratic institutions faced unprecedented pressure. India was effectively under a dictatorship at the time.
It was during this period that several opposition leaders who would later become key figures in the Janata movement and eventually contribute to the formation of the BJP found themselves behind bars. Organizations associated with the broader Sangh Parivar, including the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), were banned by the government. Thousands of activists were arrested under preventive detention laws.
Looking at this record of India Gandhi, one tends to agree with Asshok Gehlot that yes, maybe India Gandhi would have banned BJP as well like she banned RSS in 1975.
Gehlot’s statement betrays something fundamental about the Congress party, the tendency to look to suppress your political opponents, the inclination towards authoritarianism. Instead of taking on their political opponents in the court of people, as it should happen in a democracy, they keep thinking about banning the other parties.
Thankfully for us Indians, no Indira Gandhi can run roughshod over Indian democracy in 2026 like it happened in 1975, and those days of Emergency are in a distant past. Ashok Gehlot though seems to be missing the time when opposition leaders could be thrown in jail for no reason, and organisations could be banned over political differences.
