Sonia Gandhi refused to pin the blame entirely on Sanjay Gandhi for the so-called excesses during the Emergency, telling The Hindu’s N Ram that there was a “lot of pressure” from some of the senior colleagues of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
“It was only after the Emergency that I came to know the true gravity of what had been happening.
In the end, Sonia said Indira, her mother-in-law, began to understand the situation “through her own wisdom and took actions to remedy it”. Yes, democratic rights had been curtailed and there was a suspension of habeas corpus, but it was done constitutionally,” she said.
“When I take myself back to that period and try and see it from Mrs. Parliament passed a series of constitutional amendments during the Emergency that weakened judicial review and institutional checks. One of the most controversial aspects of the Emergency was the forced sterilisation campaign.
Gandhi’s point of view, I see her struggling to cope with the rapidly deteriorating prevailing circumstances: violent protests, government offices and public transport set on fire, widespread organised unrest and even a call for the bureaucracy and armed forces to disobey orders,” she said.
