Sonia Gandhi's memoir, "Belonging: A Journey of Love," portrays Sanjay Gandhi as a reckless figure who operated without constitutional standing during the Emergency. His initiatives, enthusiastically carried out by Youth Congress members, caused widespread public resentment through aggressive slum demolitions in Delhi and callous forced sterilisation targets. Meanwhile, warnings and complaints delivered by her husband, Rajiv Gandhi, were repeatedly dismissed by both Indira and Sanjay.
Key points
Sanjay Gandhi exerted immense unconstitutional control over decision-making during the 19…: Sanjay Gandhi exerted immense unconstitutional control over decision-making during the 1975 to 1977 Emergency period.
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi felt politically cornered by her son's strident methods desp…: Prime Minister Indira Gandhi felt politically cornered by her son's strident methods despite her personal discomfort.
Internal family warnings regarding public backlash against aggressive youth-led initiativ…: Internal family warnings regarding public backlash against aggressive youth-led initiatives were persistently ignored.
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New Delhi, Describing Sanjay Gandhi as a "man in a hurry", Congress leader Sonia Gandhi says he had a "significant role" in decision-making during the Emergency despite lacking a constitutional locus standi for some of his political interventions.
Deep down, then prime minister Indira Gandhi had never been entirely at ease with the Emergency but felt compelled by the "prevailing havoc of the time", Sonia Gandhi, who had an inside view of the goings-on during the June 1975 to March 1977 period, writes in her memoir "Belonging: A Journey of Love".
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On the morning of June 26, 1975, India woke up to the Emergency. Over the course of the night, arrests had been made, and by morning most political opposition personalities and dissenters were imprisoned, the top leaders in government guest houses and others in different jails, Gandhi recalls.
Habeas corpus had been suspended and protests and gatherings banned, she says.
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