New Delhi, December 30: The ruling Congress on Wednesday denied that it tried to disown its late leader Sanjay Gandhi for the excesses committed during the Emergency days — as said in the recently published historical account of the party, and recalled that then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had herself expressed regret over some of the 1975-77 actions.
The suo motu clarification came after senior party leader and Union Minister Pranab Mukherjee was summoned to Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s residence. Mukherjee is the chief editor of the two-volume concise history of the party titled Congress and the Making of the Indian Nation, which was released to mark the 125th anniversary of the party.
Party spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed insisted “it’s natural for a senior leader of Mukerjee’s stature to be called by the party president any time”, but the eagerness with which the Congress countered the news-reports that highlighted its historical narration of the Emergency days and the role played by Sanjay Gandhi said it all.
In fact, the Congress even went to the extent of saying that “history is history, the book should be seen in that perspective’’. Also the worry that the BJP would pick up the issue to revive the memory of the dark days prompted the Congress leadership to go into immediate damage control mode.
Said a defensive Ahmed: “A number of news items that appeared today have sought to give the impression that the Congress was trying to demean and disown Sanjay. It is not true. In the same book it is also mentioned that he was a leader of eminence and prominence.” It seems that this is the explanation that Mukherjee has given to the Congress high command. Ahmed pointed out that Mukherjee is only the chief editor and the book has been written by historians.
“Such a work cannot have only goody-goody things,” he claimed.
–Ageencies