Union Minister Arun Jaitley, in a three-part blog on the Emergency on its 43rd anniversary today, compared former PM Indira Gandhi with Nazi Germany's Adolf Hitler.


He also writes about his own tryst with the Emergency.


Excerpts from Arun Jaitley's blog.

"Having imposed Emergency on 26th June, 1975, Mrs. Indira Gandhi got issued a proclamation under Article 359 suspending fundamental rights.  As a result of this, the right to free speech and personal liberty was gone.  Only censored news was available.  On June 29th, in order to deflect attention from the suspension of democracy in India, she announced a Twenty Point Programme for the revival of Indian economy.


"Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany on 30th January, 1933.  He did not have an absolute majority in Parliament.


"Hitler continued to maintain that his actions were within the four corners of the Constitution.  Mrs. Gandhi imposed the Emergency under Article 352, suspended fundamental rights under Article 359 and claimed that "disorder was planned by the opposition in the country".  The security forces were being asked to disobey illegal orders and, therefore, in the larger interest of the nation, India had to become a "disciplined democracy".


"Both Hitler and Mrs. Gandhi never abrogated the Constitution.  They used a republican Constitution to transform democracy into dictatorship.


"Hitler arrested most of the opposition Members of Parliament and, therefore, converted his minority Government in Parliament into a Government which had two-third majority of members present and voting.  He, therefore, brought detailed Constitution amendments vesting all power to one person.  Mrs. Indira Gandhi arrested most opposition Members of Parliament and, therefore, procured, through their absence, a two-third majority of members present and voting and enabling the passage of several obnoxious provisions through Constitution amendments.  The Forty-second Amendment diluted the power of High Courts to issue writ petitions, a power which Dr. Ambedkar had said was the very heart and soul of India's Constitution.  They also amended Article 368 so that a Constitution amendment was beyond judicial review.


"There were a few things that Hitler did not do which Mrs. Gandhi did."


Read the blog here.