000 02535nam a2200181Ia 4500
999 _c10847
_d10847
005 20220301202155.0
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082 _a320 Mur.
100 _aMurthi, V.K.
245 0 _aIn the Larger Personal interest : An Investigation in to India Politics Since 1947.
260 _aDaryaganj
260 _ballora.
260 _c1947
300 _a206 p.
520 _aMrs Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency in India on 26th June 1975, and edged out the country away from the orbit of democracy. The nation slid into the clutches of authoritarian rule. Human rights were trampled upon. The judiciary was browbeaten, tamed and brought to its knees. The Press lay spread-eagled, forced to toe the line defined by the rulers, muffled and silenced, allowed only to sing songs of praise of the regime. The Constitution was trimmed and shorn of many of its democratic regulations, rewritten by hurriedly sponsored amendments to suit the demands of authori- tarianism that went under the name of democracy. Covertly and overtly, democracy was undermined, bound and fettered and chained, forced to be the mask for dictatorship. The blame, therefore, for the 19 months of Emergency and its excesses has been placed on Mrs Indira Gandhi and her close a Ssociates. But, this is too simplisitic a view. The Emergency which pushed the nation into the mire of terror was not something that came out of nowhere. It was the natural culmination of the gradual erosion of human values and democratic virtues. The nation's path, from the day we began our tryst with destiny, had followed devious routes. It was paved with excessive zeal for power. It was strengthened by excep- tional zest for amassing fortunes by fair means and foul. It was bound by extreme indifference to the needs of the masses. marked by a complete negation of the concept of nationalism. The Emergency was the outward expression of the rot that had set in in the national body politic. It was a tragedy whose scenario was prepared and developed over many years since 1947. We lulled ourselves with the belief that all was well with the nation. We had rolled up in cocoons, spun out of a false sense of security. We tagged blinkers on to our ourselves with the chains forged out of our mistakes. We hope- eyes. We bound lessly entangled ourselves with the threads of sycophancy, nepotism, economic imbalances, political chicanery and broken promises. It was
650 _aPolitical Science .
942 _cB
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